标签： Belize

For nearly a century, organized labor has been the backbone of grassroots opposition and public advocacy in Belize, turning widespread public anger over government mismanagement into tangible, visible action that has reshaped the nation’s political trajectory. From the 1934 strikes led by Antonio Soberanis and the Labor and Unemployed Association against colonial exploitation, to large-scale mobilizations in the 21st century that forced ruling parties to confront public demands, Belize’s unions have long been the go-to voice for citizen discontent. Today, however, as two high-profile government procurement controversies – the Mira Millions affair and a corruption scandal at the Ministry of Defense – stir growing public anxiety over misuse of public funds, that historic activist muscle has gone surprisingly dormant. This sharp departure from longstanding labor tradition has not gone unnoticed by political observers and ordinary Belizeans alike, prompting questions about what has shifted within the country’s labor movement.

To understand the magnitude of this silence, it is necessary to revisit Belize’s recent history of high-impact union action. In 2005, for example, a proposed national budget that introduced $90 million in new taxes and widespread price hikes brought thousands of unionized workers and citizens into the streets of Belize City. What began as peaceful protest boiled over into mass civil unrest, with tire burnings, clashes with police, and widespread disruption of downtown commerce – a clear demonstration of organized labor’s ability to turn public anger into systemic pressure on the government.

A little over a decade later, in 2016, the Belize National Teachers’ Union (BNTU) cemented that reputation when it launched an 11-day strike after negotiations over promised salary adjustments collapsed. The walkout shut down classrooms across the country and delivered an unambiguous message to policymakers: organized labor remained a political force that could not be ignored. Speaking at the height of the strike, then-BNTU President Luke Palacio emphasized that the action was about more than worker pay, saying, “We need to stand up for our country. We are seeing so many issues affecting our country. We need to deal with those matters.” Former BNTU General Secretary George Frazer echoed that sentiment, adding, “I am glad we are seeing the thousands of teachers and other groups. We want to save our country before it goes ruin.”

Most recently, in 2021, Belize’s labor movement pulled off its longest-ever coordinated action: a 13-day joint strike led by a coalition of unions in response to the government’s emergency austerity measures. Facing ballooning public debt, the ruling administration implemented a mandatory 10% pay cut for public sector workers and teachers, alongside a three-year freeze on salary increments, prompting widespread walkouts and traffic blockades that brought parts of the country to a standstill. “We the people need to demand a change in the government, not to change the government. You change monkey and you get black dog. We want the government to change. We don’t want to change the government,” Darrell Spencer, president of the Nurses Association of Belize, said at the time.

Now, with two separate procurement scandals raising allegations of systemic abuse of government contracting processes, the same labor movement that led those mass actions has yet to organize a single national march or coordinated protest. In interviews with local outlet News Five, multiple union leaders offered explanations for the unexpected silence, pointing to everything from structural gaps to internal organizational delays.

Dean Flowers, president of the Public Service Union (PSU), framed the lack of mass action as a broader reflection of shifting societal attitudes toward government corruption. “My only response is that it’s a reflection of who we are as a society. It seems that we are indifferent to these things that are affecting us. You are right. Every single other union should be in the media, should be speaking out. But more so every citizen should be calling on the radio wave and flooding Facebook with the demand for more accountability where the Mira scandal is concerned. We are doing our part. We have demanded the removal of Oscar Mira from Cabinet, the permanent removal of Oscar Mira from Cabinet.”

Flowers did attend the opposition’s recent “Stand Up for Belize” rally at Battlefield Park, but he was the only PSU member present. Only one other union figure, Senator Glenfield Dennison, also joined the event, bringing total union representation at the well-publicized rally to just two people. When reached for comment, the president of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize declined to speak on the record, saying the body’s General Council had not held its July meeting to discuss a collective position.

BNTU President Nadia Caliz noted that most teachers are currently on summer holiday and traveling, making it impossible to reach a quick internal consensus on how to respond to the scandals. Caliz added that the union is closely monitoring developments and will hold a strategy meeting in August to decide on next steps. Leonora Flowers, president of the Christian Workers Union, similarly said the union must first consult its full membership before taking any public position.

As public concern over the procurement scandals continues to build, the question hanging over Belize’s political landscape remains: will the nation’s powerful labor movement overcome internal logistical hurdles and find common ground to launch a coordinated national push for accountability? Or will the once-vocal activist wing of Belizean civil society continue its historic silence on one of the most pressing corruption controversies in recent memory?

Nearly three years after nine Haitian minors were brought into Belize, a former top government oversight official is escalating demands for public clarity around the stalled probe into the children’s circumstances, launching a formal legal push to unearth details about the case’s current status.

Retired Major Gilbert Swaso, who stepped down as Belize’s Ombudsman in December 2025, has submitted an official Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to uncover how much progress has been made on the investigation following his departure from the independent oversight post, which remains vacant. Swaso’s new push for answers comes as the country’s Ministry of Immigration has formally joined the probe, which centers on multiple serious allegations: irregularities in the children’s immigration status, unregulated guardianship arrangements, gaps in refugee and social welfare protections, and suspected ties to human trafficking linked to the local nonprofit Beauty Out of Ashes.

In comments included in the original broadcast transcript, Swaso explained that the case reached his office only after a full two years of inaction from other branches of the Belizean government following the initial complaint. International stakeholders, frustrated by the lack of movement, turned the case over to the Ombudsman’s Office in June 2025 for independent review. When his team launched the probe, however, Swaso said key government agencies offered almost no meaningful cooperation. Staff at these agencies refused to share critical information, citing fears of professional retaliation and job loss for speaking up about the case.

Despite the roadblocks, Swaso noted that his independent team made limited progress during his tenure, working within the authority granted to the Ombudsman’s Office under the Ombudsman Act. The investigation had identified critical procedural gaps in how the case was being handled, and the next planned step before Swaso left office was to issue legally binding summonses to compel testimony from uncooperative stakeholders, with contempt charges on the table for those who refused to comply.

Swaso emphasized that with the Ombudsman’s seat empty for more than six months, the public has a right to know whether the probe has advanced at all since he left office, and what measures the government has put in place to guarantee the safety and well-being of the nine vulnerable Haitian children. The FOIA request was first submitted via email Tuesday, with a formal hard copy hand-delivered to government offices Wednesday to ensure it received official processing.

This report is adapted from a transcribed evening television news broadcast, with all quoted statements preserved for accuracy per original transcription standards that include standardized spelling for Kriol language speakers when they appear in the original segment.

Seven months have passed since the position of national Ombudsman was left unoccupied, and the last person to hold the role is breaking his silence to push for urgent action from the government. Retired Major Gilbert Swaso, who stepped down from the post months ago, has made clear he has no interest in reclaiming the position — his concern lies solely with the unnecessary delays that have kept the critical office vacant far longer than necessary.

In a recent public statement, Swaso pushed back against the government’s current approach to filling the role, which prioritizes candidates with pre-existing specialized human rights expertise. He argued that this unneeded requirement is unnecessarily complicating the appointment process, pointing to the ongoing institutional transition that is already reshaping the Ombudsman’s Office.

Under current plans, a new National Human Rights Institution will be merged into the Ombudsman’s Office over the coming two and a half to three years. However, Swaso noted that the legislative amendments required to complete this integration have not yet been passed, meaning the existing legal framework for appointing an Ombudsman remains unchanged. He emphasized that the core mandate of the Ombudsman will remain intact during the transition period, and that any required human rights training for the appointed candidate can be delivered after the person takes office.

“To say then that you need someone who has a certificate or knowledge of human rights is making it difficult to appoint an ombudsman under the circumstances, because in my view, they are two separate things,” Swaso explained in his remarks. “The office of the ombudsman should remain as is because this is a consultation process to establish and integrate for the next two and a half to three years. We will be building the institution of the Human Rights Institute within the Office of the Ombudsman. So I believe that however the ombudsman was appointed, as per the law in the past, the act, the act has not changed.”

Swaso warned that clinging to the new human rights qualification requirement risks dragging out the vacancy even further, leaving the country without a key accountability official for months more. The statement comes as stakeholders continue to wait for the government to outline a clear timeline for naming a new Ombudsman, amid growing concerns about the impact of the extended vacancy on governance and public accountability.

As of July 24, 2026, a controversial draft Broadcasting Bill in Belize that seeks to extend the country’s existing broadcasting regulatory framework to select online media services is facing mounting pushback from digital creators, business owners, and legal stakeholders, who warn that vague language in the legislation could erode freedom of expression and create crippling barriers for small online enterprises.

The Belize Broadcasting Authority (BBA) has framed the bill as a much-needed update to outdated, decades-old broadcasting regulations, emphasizing that the new rules will only apply to entities that operate as formal broadcasters, not average users posting content on major social platforms including Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. But critics argue the draft’s overly broad wording opens the door to arbitrary enforcement and abuse of power, even targeting regular internet users who never intended to operate as full broadcasters.

Prominent Belizean attorney Orson “OJ” Elrington, who is currently representing social media user Sharon Mae Peters in a high-profile defamation case stemming from comments Peters made during a livestream, is one of the most vocal opponents of the current draft. Elrington pointed out that while BBA officials claim ordinary users will not be subject to the law, the text of the legislation is far-reaching enough to include almost any online content creator. The bill grants the BBA broad discretionary power to determine which accounts and services fall under its scope, a structure that Elrington says creates obvious opportunities for targeted enforcement against voices the government or regulators dislike. “Once you have a piece of legislation that has this type of wide discretion over who falls under it and who does not, it opens itself up to abuse and wrongdoing,” Elrington explained. “If they don’t like what you’re saying, nothing stops them from turning around and saying the law applies to you after all.”

Under the current draft, Elrington notes, even small businesses that use standard livestreaming tools to connect with customers would be subject to the law’s licensing requirements. Cristian Silva, founder of Belizean tech firm Silvatech, has joined the growing chorus of critics, stressing that opponents do not oppose all online regulation – they just object to the bill’s poorly structured approach. “Silvatech is not against regulation. Belize should protect copyright, children, public safety, and professional journalism off the bat,” Silva said. “The concern with the draft is that it applies a traditional broadcast permissioning model to ordinary online activity before it defines clear thresholds for who needs a license.”

Silva explained that the bill’s current timeline for licensing approval could derail time-sensitive digital marketing and community content for small businesses across key sectors of Belize’s economy, particularly tourism. For example, if a coastal hotel in San Pedro wants to host a last-minute sponsored livestream to promote an upcoming weekend festival, the draft requires the organizer to wait up to four weeks to receive regulatory approval. That delay would mean losing the marketing opportunity, cutting off potential visitor bookings, wasting pre-produced content, and losing out on tax revenue and local advertising spending that would have supported the local economy. “Essentially, what’s lost there is that content, potential visitors, the production work, GST, and the local ad spend that would’ve been infused into that local economy,” Silva noted.

Elrington added that existing Belizean legislation already addresses harm caused by harmful online content, including the Defamation Act and the Cyber Bullying Act. The new bill’s provisions, which include fines as high as $50,000 BZD, seizure of digital and broadcast equipment, and even authority to block internet access, are unnecessary and disproportionately restrictive, he argued, calling the overly broad regulatory regime inconsistent with democratic principles.

Not all stakeholders oppose the bill, however. Attorney Tiffany Cadle, who is currently suing Peters and two other social media users for defamation over livestream comments, has voiced support for the legislation, arguing it would help hold users with large online platforms accountable for the content they publish. Still, critics are unified in calling for far broader public and stakeholder consultations before the bill moves forward to finalization.

The BBA is currently accepting public feedback on the draft Broadcasting Bill and associated regulations, with written comments open through August 24, 2026. The BBA has not yet issued a formal response to the specific concerns raised by Elrington, Silva and other opponents. This report was compiled from original on-the-ground reporting by Britney Gordon for News Five.