On October 27, 2026, public accountability questions emerged across Belize’s political landscape following the surprise resignation of Alexis Rosado from the country’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) delegation the previous Monday. Notably, not a single elected male representative in Prime Minister John Briceño’s overwhelmingly male Cabinet had issued a public demand for Rosado’s removal, even as serious unstated allegations mounted against the senior ICJ team member in the weeks leading up to his departure. In the days before Rosado stepped down, Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde offered only vague, non-committal remarks when pressed by local reporters, stopping well short of any explicit call for Rosado to vacate his post. Both Prime Minister Briceño and Foreign Affairs Minister Francis Fonseca had also continued to publicly voice their full support for Rosado’s position on the ICJ team, despite the growing cloud of controversy surrounding him. It was only after Speaker of the House Valerie Woods broke ranks to publicly condemn Rosado’s continued tenure, followed by two high-profile female leaders from the Belize Network of NGOs issuing their own public statements the day before the newscast, that public pressure for action began to build. During a recent interview with News Five journalist Paul Lopez, Cabinet Minister Louis Zabaneh was directly questioned about his decision to avoid taking a public individual stance on the Rosado matter, in contrast to the outspoken position taken by Valerie Woods. When asked to explain the collective silence from all male elected representatives in the Cabinet in the face of the severe levied charges against Rosado, Zabaneh framed the lack of public comment as a standard feature of the governing body’s internal operating rules. “The way we function in Cabinet is that all decisions are deliberated behind closed doors, and once a consensus is reached, the Prime Minister, as the head of the body, is the one who makes the corresponding public announcement,” Zabaneh stated. “Once that official statement is released, there is no requirement for individual ministers to make separate public remarks on the matter. This protocol does not imply that every single member of the Cabinet is in full agreement with every position, but once a collective decision is finalized, we all move forward aligned with that consensus.” When Lopez followed up to ask if Zabaneh personally supported Rosado stepping aside from his ICJ role, the minister declined to state a clear personal position, noting only that Rosado had made his own independent choice to resign amid the surrounding circumstances, and that the Cabinet would fully respect that final decision. The report is a direct transcript of News Five’s evening television newscast, with any Kriol-language statements from speakers transcribed using a standardized official spelling system for accessibility.