The people might have finally had ENOUGH of the crooks and CRUISE SHIPS!
General strike in Belize
by George and Candy Gonzalez
Demonstrators tore paving stones off the steps of the National Assembly to hurl at the police, who were dressed in their brand new “robo-cop” uniforms.
Photos: The Star Newspaper, Cayo, Belize
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 are 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. Email them at geocan@starband.net. |
