Civil unrest broke out in Belmopan, capital city of Belize, provoked by
the release of a new national budget with significant tax increases as
well as anger at the ruling People’s United Party for the worsening
fiscal condition of the Belizean government. The government’s 2005-2006
budget, released on Jan. 13, includes major tax increases on a variety
of businesses and commodities and further delays long overdue raises to
teachers and public service workers. No longer could popular
frustration be restrained after years of alleged financial
mismanagement and corruption by the People’s United Party that included
non-stop spending and borrowing, sale of the country’s assets,
privatizing the water, the electricity, the airport and the port, and
even the potential leasing of the barrier reef and Mayan archaeological
sites. Belize is bordered by Mexico, Guatemala
and a 270-mile Caribbean coastline.
Among the demonstrators on Jan. 21 in front of the Belize National
Assembly were teachers, union members, civil society and business
people who represent a cross section of the Belizean population.
The Belize population is almost 32.9 percent Creole (mixed Black with
white), 40.7 percent Mestizo (Indigenous and white), 6.1 percent
Garifuna (Blacks originating from Africans and Caribs), 10.6 percent
Maya and 9.7 percent “other,” which includes East Indians, Middle
Easterners, Europeans and Chinese. The new budget sparked protests at
the National Assembly building on Jan. 15. The Chamber of Commerce, the
unions, the Better Business Bureau and civil society called for the
implementation of
reforms against continued corruption, before any new taxes are even
considered. The government decided they did not have to pay attention.
Prime Minister Said Musa said of the budget measure, which raises some
taxes by as much as 22 percent, that increases are necessary to help
pay spiraling international debt. His administration has been plagued
by financial scandals and higher living costs. The people finally said
“enough!” and a general strike was called for Jan. 20-21 by a rare
coalition of unions, businesses and civil society. The call was
answered. About 90 percent of the businesses and all the schools, from
primary to university level, closed nationwide. George Frazer, general
secretary of the umbrella National Trade Union Congress of Belize,
called for the general strike, saying the unions want to send a clear
message to the government: “We are prepared to work along with any
government and to try in the best interest of Belize to see where we
can close the gaps, but first we have to also close those loopholes and
those areas where abuses have come.”

The Belize National Teachers Union ordered its members out of the
classroom on Thursday and Friday. Their president, Anthony Fuentes,
told reporters there is no need for the government to tax the Belizean
people: “There are a lot of monies out there that the government needs
to collect, and we are saying that they need to collect these monies.”

The Public Service Union also instructed its members to stay home,
along with the Christian Workers Union and other unions representing
telecommunications, electricity and water services workers. They issued
directives to their members not to report for work until further notice.

The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Belize
Business Bureau also issued strike orders to their members, but the BBB
went one step further and extended the strike to Saturday.

On Thursday, Jan. 20, one day ahead of the 2005-2006 budget
debate, the unions led the way, staging marches and rallies across the
country. In Belize City, a crowd of 800-1,000 supporters took their
protests to the streets, marching from Memorial Park through some of
the principal streets of Belize City to Battlefield Park, all the while
hoisting strongly worded signs and singing union songs.

On Friday, in the capital city of Belmopan, a huge and angry crowd
demonstrated in front of the National Assembly while the House of
Representatives met inside to discuss the implementation of new
taxes. Throughout, the demonstrators loudly expressed their rage but
overall remained remarkably controlled and well behaved.

Protestors threw rocks at the police, who responded with rubber
bullets, plastic pellets and riot gas. Several protestors were
arrested. The permission for the demonstration ended at 3 p.m., but the
protestors were given a one-hour extension. At the end of the
extension, repeated demands for dispersal were largely ignored. Some
union workers lay down and refused to leave, wanting to wait for the
members of the National Assembly to come out; they were physically
dragged from the area.

Though the opposition United Democratic Party participated on the
side of those calling for the demonstration, and the ruling PUP called
for a counter–demonstration, the message from the people was clear –
this had nothing to do with party politics and divisions; this had to
do with the need to make the government accountable, implement reforms,
stop corruption and address the needs of the people.

In August 2004, the people of Belize found out that their
country’s state pension fund had shelled out $3 million to cover debt
guarantees to a company owned by a former government minister. Seven
ministers – more than half the cabinet – resigned to demand the firing
of the finance minister. The prime minister did not fire the finance
minister but took over the finance portfolio himself, and brought the
“rebels” back into the cabinet.

Since Mr. Musa took office in 1998, public debt has increased from
41 percent of GDP to 93 percent, much of it borrowed at commercial
rates. Belize is among the 30 most heavily indebted emerging economy
governments. Seven of the Caribbean countries, including Belize, are in
the top 10. Except in the case of the bluest-chip borrowers, economists
worry when public debt goes much above 50 percent of GDP, according to
the Caribbean Net News of Aug. 27, 2004.

Two of the seven cabinet members have recently been shuffled out
of the cabinet but have not attacked the government any further.
Therefore, it was a most telling indictment of Mr. Musa’s government on
Friday when the two PUP dissidents, Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde, voted
against the budget and with the opposition. It was an historic first in
Belizean political history.

“We voted against the budget,” said Cordel Hyde, “because the
budget does not support poor people, and my constituents are poor
people.” He added later to a television interviewer, “If I was still in
the
cabinet and this budget was presented, I would have voted against this
budget and it would have signaled my resignation from the cabinet.”

Mark Espat, the other dissident, said, “I am working for my
constituents and I will continue to do so. I am a member of the PUP
today, but I believe today is a vote of conscience. Earlier this week,
African
Americans and all of us celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King
Jr., and at critical times in his career, in his march for civil
rights, he said that there is such a thing as the trumpet of
conscience, and
that trumpet sounded today. It sounded loudly, and it was a vote of
conscience.”

The government has been running a large budget deficit and is
spending much more than it takes in. It has a huge trade deficit.
Cronies and insiders have been rewarded with big contracts and
sweetheart deals. Small entrepreneurs and conservation interests have
been dissed. The big stakeholders – Carnival Cruise Lines and political
insiders – have been rewarded with new, financially lucrative deals.
The currency has been under stress.

This past week has shown that the people of this country are
prepared to stand up and are prepared to insist that things be done
differently. This government, whichever party is in power, must heed
the cry of the people. Belize has turned a corner and will never be the
same.

George Gonzalez is from the Mission District of San Francisco,
having worked with Los Siete de La Raza and the United Prisoners’ Union
in the 1970s. Candy Gonzalez was with the Student Non–Violent
Coordinating Committee in the 1960s and with the Drug Research Project
in San Francisco in the early 1970s. They are now nationalized Belize.