By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize I Digital 2025

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Thursday 24th July 2025

EDITORIAL:

There are decisions that sting — and then there are decisions so disgraceful, so humiliating, they burn their way into the soul of a nation. The biometric data-sharing agreement signed by Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca with the United States is the latter.

Let us call it for what it is: a treacherous betrayal of Belizean sovereignty, personal privacy, and constitutional dignity, executed without consultation, without legislation, and without a shred of patriotic backbone.

At a time when Belize is only now preparing to roll out a long-awaited National Identification system, this administration has chosen not to protect the privacy of its people, but to place that system into the hands of a foreign government — signing away the biometric data of every Belizean in exchange for vague promises of “border security tools.”

This is not cooperation. This is capitulation.

The Price of Obedience

When Francis Fonseca stood beside U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and signed that “Memorandum of Cooperation”, what he signed away was not just data — he signed away trust, autonomy, and the very essence of what it means to be a sovereign nation.

This PUP government has exposed us — naked, biometric, and vulnerable — before a foreign power without so much as a blink.

Let us be crystal clear: Belizeans never consented to this.

There was no debate in the House.

• No public consultations.
• No white paper.
• No judicial review.
• And not a single ounce of democratic process.

So, we ask again: Who authorized this? And in whose name was it done?

This Is a Violation of International Human Rights

This agreement doesn’t just offend our sensibilities — it potentially violates international law.

Belize is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) — binding treaties which guarantee every citizen the right to privacy and legal protection.

Under:

• UDHR, Article 12 and
• ICCPR, Article 17,

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy… Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference.”

This biometric partnership — conducted without legislation, without transparency, and without safeguards — constitutes exactly that: arbitrary and unlawful interference.

How can this government defend sending Belizean biometric data to a foreign intelligence apparatus with no clear oversight, no binding data protections, and no legal remedies?

The answer is: It cannot.

This deal makes every Belizean a subject of surveillance by a foreign state. And under international law, that is a gross violation of privacy, and this government should be held accountable.

Puppets in Power

This PUP government — supposedly “for the people” — has shown itself to be unfit for digital leadership.

It is not building sovereignty.

It is selling it off, byte by byte.

Francis Fonseca’s handshake in Washington was not diplomacy — it was a digital handover.

And Prime Minister John Briceño’s silence is complicity.

This administration is not acting like a sovereign government.

It is acting like a client regime under remote control — one that parrots press releases from the U.S. Embassy in Belmopan while ignoring its own Constitution and the rights of its people.

We Are Not Digital Subjects

Biometric data is not just information. It is your face.

• Your fingerprint.
• Your eye.
• Your identity.

To hand this over to a foreign government without your consent, your knowledge, or your legal protection is not just immoral — it is unconstitutional and unlawful.

• Where is the data protection legislation?
• Where is the Data Commissioner?
• Where is the Sovereign Belize that we were promised?

A Line Must Be Drawn

This editorial is not a request. It is a warning.

We demand:

• Immediate publication of the full Memorandum of Cooperation.
• A moratorium on any biometric data sharing.
• Introduction of comprehensive data protection laws before the rollout of the National ID.
• A parliamentary investigation into this agreement and the officials behind it.

And we say this clearly:

• Belize is not a surveillance colony.
• We are not your test subjects.
• We are not your digital property.

If this government dares to proceed with this biometric betrayal, it must be prepared to face the full force of public outrage — in the courts, in the media, and at the ballot box.

Because there can be no freedom where privacy is violated, and no sovereignty where foreign powers manage our identity.