🧨 Editorial:

By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize – Digital 2025

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Tuesday, 22nd April 2025

There comes a time in every nation’s history when the illusion of stability becomes more dangerous than instability itself. For Belize, that time is now—and the illusion is the 2:1 peg to the U.S. dollar.

For decades, successive governments, both red and blue, have held up the fixed exchange rate as proof of sound economic management. But in reality, the 2:1 peg is not a symbol of stability—it is a shackle, forged by colonial-era dependency and maintained by an extractive political class that neither produces nor transforms, but only manages decline.

As the U.S. economy staggers under the weight of inflation, political dysfunction, and financial volatility, Belize finds itself tied to a sinking anchor. Every shockwave from Washington’s recessionary spiral reverberates through our fragile economy. And while the Central Bank may still smile for the cameras and flash its balance sheets, we all know the truth on the ground: food prices are skyrocketing, fuel remains unstable, wages are stagnant, and foreign aid is drying up.

Yet, no leader has dared to question the peg. No finance minister has summoned the courage to engage the nation in a serious discussion about diversification. No economic blueprint has emerged from Belmopan that speaks to sovereignty, self-reliance, or resilience.

Why? Because questioning the peg would also mean questioning the entire system—a political order designed not to empower the people, but to keep them dependent, distracted, and disenfranchised.

Let us speak plainly.

The peg is only sustainable if the U.S. economy is healthy.

The U.S. economy is no longer healthy.

Therefore, the peg is a ticking time bomb.

And what happens when Belize’s foreign reserves dip below the safe threshold? What happens when MCC disbursements stall or USAID shifts its focus to another global conflict? We will find ourselves with no tools, no options, and no room to breathe—begging for IMF scraps while our national assets are quietly sold off to foreign bidders.

Belize must act. Not next year. Not in the next manifesto. Now.

We must:

• End our sole reliance on the U.S. dollar and explore regional currency cooperation.
• Create real national buffers in the form of gold, fuel stockpiles, and food sovereignty.
• Replace the extractive class with transformational leadership committed to Belize’s first economic transformation.

If we don’t, then the 2:1 peg—once seen as our anchor—will become our executioner’s rope.

And history will not blame Washington. It will not blame Wall Street. It will blame Belizeans who knew better and did nothing.

The time for illusions is over. The time for nation-building has begun.