What Belize has just witnessed is not governance — it is raw power protecting itself.

By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize I Digital 2025

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Wednesday 31st December 2025

EDITORIAL

The quiet, evasive non-renewal of Ombudsman Gilbert Swaso following his insistence on enforcing the Freedom of Information Act is a defining moment in the degeneration of constitutional rule under Prime Minister John Briceño.

Let us strip away the excuses.

This government did not remove the Ombudsman for incompetence.

It did not accuse him of misconduct.

It did not challenge his integrity.

It simply allowed his tenure to expire in silence — the preferred tactic of an administration that understands power but resents accountability.

The Extractive Mindset Exposed

Since 2020, the Briceño Administration has governed as a closed cartel:

• Cabinet tightly controlled.
• Senate reduced to obedience.
• Oversight tolerated only when harmless.

This is the hallmark of an extractive political class — one that uses the state not as a public trust, but as a shield for its own interests, its financiers, its legal allies, and its inner circle.

When the Ombudsman ruled that the public had a right to know how much taxpayers paid politically connected law firms, he crossed the one line extractive governments never forgive:

He sided with the people over power.

1. That is why the Office of the Ombudsman was taken to court.
2. That is why the Prime Minister publicly questioned the Ombudsman’s authority.
3. That is why the Ombudsman now finds his office vacant.

Oath-Breaking by Design

Every minister in this administration swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of Belize.

Yet when the law demanded transparency, this government:

• Fought disclosure;
• Attacked the messenger;
• Undermined the institution;
• Created a deliberate oversight vacuum.

This is not ignorance of the law.

This is contempt for the law.

A government that truly respected the Constitution would have:

• Ensured secure tenure for the Ombudsman;
• Allowed Parliament — not the Cabinet Secretary — to decide;
• Protected the independence of oversight.

Instead, the Briceño Administration chose control over compliance.

The Message Is Clear — and Dangerous

The signal sent to the next Ombudsman is unmistakable:

Toe the line, or your independence will be temporary.

That message does not stop at the Ombudsman’s door.

It echoes across every oversight body, every public officer, every civil servant who dares to apply the law without fear or favour.

This is how democracies rot — not through coups, but through contractual fear and institutional intimidation.

Final Word

• An Ombudsman without security of tenure is not independent.
• An Ombudsman who fears renewal is not free.
• An Ombudsman subject to executive whim is not a safeguard — he is decoration.

By discarding an independent Ombudsman for doing his job, the Briceño Administration has revealed its true priority:

protecting the few, not the Constitution.

Belize should take note.

This government already has.