On November 11, 2026, Belize’s Prime Minister John Briceño formally voiced his full endorsement of a newly launched Upper House Senate investigation that will review a decade of operational and strategic decisions made by Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), as the legislative body moves to unpack the root causes of the country’s crippling current energy supply instability and soaring electricity costs. The Senate’s inquiry commission, granted standard powers afforded to all formal Upper House investigative panels, holds the authority to subpoena public sector officials, BEL leadership, and relevant stakeholders to provide sworn testimony and submit official records related to the utility’s long-term planning over the 10-year review window.
During public remarks confirming his administration’s support for the probe, PM Briceño framed the energy crisis as a legacy of systemic neglect under the prior United Democratic Party (UDP) administration, which held office for 13 consecutive years before his team took power. He emphasized that reliable national electricity infrastructure requires years of proactive, forward-looking planning rather than last-minute, ad-hoc fixes, and accused the former UDP government of completely failing to develop any new energy generation capacity during its entire tenure, despite clear warning signs of looming supply shortfalls. Briceño noted that upon taking office, his administration inherited a cascade of unresolved structural challenges across multiple public sectors, and initially attempted to facilitate a collaborative resolution between BEL and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to address gaps in energy planning. Those coordinated efforts, he confirmed, did not yield timely progress across 2022, 2023 and 2024, prompting direct government intervention to break the impasse. The prime minister added that in recent weeks, the three parties – BEL, the PUC, and the sitting administration – have finally reached a unified consensus on a path forward to expand energy generation capacity and stabilize costs for households and businesses.
All participating senators formally signaled their support for launching the cross-party inquiry during the most recent scheduled Senate sitting. This published report is a verbatim, carefully transcribed version of the outlet’s evening television newscast, with any segments delivered in local Kriol rendered using a standardized official spelling system to preserve full accuracy of speaker remarks.