By: Omar Silva I Editor / Publisher

National Perspective Belize – Digital 2025

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: May 7, 2025

EDITORIAL:

When it comes to aviation security, Belize cannot afford improvisation or internal confusion. And yet, the rapid—and reckless—outsourcing of airport screening to politically connected private firms without proper oversight tells a darker story about the state of governance under Prime Minister John Briceño.

Let’s not beat around the bush: the Minister of Civil Aviation is the Prime Minister himself. The Chief Executive Officer of that ministry is Narda Garcia, arguably the most powerful unelected figure in government, tasked with running not just Civil Aviation but virtually every ministry where oversight is needed most.

So how could a politically tinged contract be issued by the Belize Airports Authority, under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, without the CEO or the Prime Minister knowing?

Either Prime Minister Briceño is biting off more than he can chew, spreading himself too thin across ministries while real control slips from his fingers... or his CEO, Narda Garcia, is dangerously out of the loop on a matter of national security.

Worse, this is not a one-off lapse. The pattern of over-centralization, secrecy, and political cronyism is becoming the hallmark of this administration’s second term. A hijacking incident should have triggered a transparent and national security-led review of aviation safety. Instead, it became an opportunity to reward insiders—proving that not even passenger safety escapes the grasp of party favoritism.

It’s time Belizeans asked themselves a difficult but necessary question:

Who is really running this country—and for whom?

The people didn’t vote for private deals inked behind closed doors or for a government that constantly claims to be surprised by its own decisions. A Prime Minister cannot claim to be both omnipresent and uninformed.

The hijacking of public institutions, decision-making, and now even airport security by the party elite must end before it takes Belize down with it.