By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize I Digital 2025

www.nationalperspectivebz.com 

Belize City: Sunday 5th October 2025 - The Belize City Council has announced its new City Administrator, and as predicted weeks ago, the name is Dr. Candice Pitts. Returning home after a five-year stint as Belize’s Ambassador to Taiwan, Pitts is stepping into a role that critics argue is less about merit and more about political maneuvering.

From Councillor to Candidate to Ambassador

Pitts first entered municipal politics as a PUP Belize City Councillor in the 2018 elections, part of the slate that unseated the UDP after more than a decade in City Hall. But instead of completing her term and delivering on promises to Belize City residents, she was diverted into national politics.

By late 2019, Pitts was put forward as the caretaker candidate in Mesopotamia, one of the UDP’s last bastions in Belize City. Campaign promises flowed freely: a soup kitchen, a sewing school, and pledges to uplift one of the city’s most poverty-stricken constituencies. The initiatives started with fanfare but ended abruptly once the 2020 general elections concluded. Mesopotamia remained UDP. The “programs for the people” were shut down, and Pitts was dispatched abroad as an Ambassador to Taiwan.

In her five years overseas, Belize saw no significant foreign investment in industry or manufacturing directly attributed to her diplomatic mission. Other ambassadors remained in their posts, but Pitts was quietly recalled earlier this year.

Chess Moves in City Hall

Her return was quickly followed by the sudden resignation of Albert Vaughan, a former councillor who had risen to the role of City Administrator. Vaughan’s exit, unexplained and abrupt, cleared the way for Pitts’ re-entry into Belizean politics.

Observers note the pattern: political insiders maneuvering like chess pieces on the board, with appointments favoring loyalty to the party rather than transparency or open competition. The administrator’s post was never advertised, eliminating the opportunity for other qualified Belizeans to apply.

Birds of a Feather: Mayor Welcomes Old Colleague

Adding to the controversy is the family–political web inside City Hall. Mayor Bernard Wagner, the brother-in-law of Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde—Minister of Natural Resources and Lands—warmly welcomed Pitts’ appointment, emphasizing their past work together:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City

“Well me and Candice go way back. We were in 2018, we were councillors. I was the mayoral candidate and she was a councillor and I believe she brings tremendous capacity to the council. Her term of office will obviously have to dovetail within, with an eye of municipal elections of 2027 and so we want to ensure that the new mayor and the new council of 2027 have the opportunity to really shape leadership so her term of office will dovetail with the 2027 municipal elections.”

Wagner’s candid admission makes clear that Pitts’ appointment is not simply about her “capacity,” but also about party positioning and electoral continuity.

On October 31st, Pitts will become the second City Administrator in a row who is a former councillor—proof that City Hall has become a revolving door for political allies.

A Replay of 2020?

The bigger question is: What’s the intent behind Pitts’ placement?

Is this merely a comfortable landing spot for a recalled ambassador? Or is it groundwork for another electoral play, perhaps even a second attempt in Mesopotamia?

If so, the Briceno Administration may be underestimating Belize City voters’ memory. The empty promises of 2020 remain fresh for many who saw programs rise and vanish like smoke.

PUP at 75: A Party in Circles

Ironically, this appointment comes just as the PUP celebrated its 75th anniversary, commemorated with pomp in Orange Walk but met with skepticism in Belize City. The mood has shifted drastically from the celebratory 2018 municipal landslide to today’s climate of discontent.

From the controversial 13th Amendment to the Budna case, to the government’s willingness to trade away Belizeans’ biometric data under the U.S.-pushed ID system, trust in the PUP has eroded across the city’s ten constituencies.

The parallels to Mexico’s PRI, which dominated for 75 years before crumbling under the weight of its own excesses, are difficult to ignore. Belizeans are tired of colonial-era political theatrics—and appointments like Pitts’ reinforce the perception that Belize is trapped in a cycle of dependency, recycled faces, and broken promises.

The 2027 Playbook

Wagner himself confirmed it: Pitts’ term “will dovetail with the municipal elections of 2027.” In other words, her appointment is already tethered to the next political campaign.

This is where the “birds of a feather” proverb rings truest. The same inner circle of party loyalists, family ties, and political strategists continue to shuffle positions—whether in the council chambers, the diplomatic corps, or high-level public service—while Belizeans are left with recycled faces and unfulfilled promises.

The Path Forward

To the average Belize City resident struggling with poverty, unemployment, and crime, the naming of another political insider is not a moment of triumph but a reminder that the system serves the few.

Belize needs more than recycled politicians in recycled positions. It needs a new vision for economic independence, one that moves beyond foreign aid, IMF prescriptions, and partisan patronage.

The appointment of Dr. Candice Pitts may be another move on the political chessboard, but the real game is happening in the hearts and minds of Belizeans. And right now, the mood is unmistakably anti-Briceno.

Until the stranglehold of recycled politics is broken, Belize will remain caught in circles—birds of a feather flocking together, while the people are left behind.

Would you like me to now rebuild the Sidebar Box so it matches this integrated version—including a new bullet noting Wagner’s admission that Pitts’ term is tied directly to the 2027 municipal elections?