From 2020 to 2025, Belize’s State of Emergencies Are Now States of Lawlessness

By: Omar Silva | Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize | Digital 2025

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City Wednesday 19th May 2025

🗞️ NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE BELIZE

While the Briceno Government scrambles to defend the legality of the 2020 State of Emergency following a blistering court ruling that awarded over $300,000 in compensation to 16 unlawfully detained men, a new and perhaps more dangerous crisis is unfolding right now in real time.

Under the current SOE enforced across Belize City and parts of the Belize and Cayo Districts, dozens of young men have been detained, many from high-crime neighborhoods like Lake Independence. But now it appears their constitutional right to legal counsel is being denied—a fundamental breach of due process that signals Belize is on the edge of a police state masquerading as public safety.

🚫 Denied Attorneys, Denied Justice

Attorney Leeroy Banner, already leading the charge in the 2020 SOE litigation, revealed that legal colleagues are being blocked from seeing their clients at the Belize Central Prison. One shocking email from prison authorities, obtained and shared by Banner, outright states:

“You can’t see your client because he is detained under the SOE.”

Incredibly, the prison insists that a court order is required for a detainee to consult with an attorney.

“That is ridiculous,” said Banner. “How can you be so bold and misguided to say to an attorney that your client cannot see legal counsel?”

This isn't just poor administration—it’s a flagrant violation of constitutional protections. Under normal rule of law, every citizen has the inalienable right to meet with legal representation, regardless of the charge, and especially if they haven’t been charged at all—which is often the case under SOEs.

📜 A Constitutional Crisis Within a Declared Emergency

This development comes just days after Justice Nadine Nabie’s ruling condemned the 2020 SOE as unconstitutional, citing lack of evidence, judicial oversight, and arbitrary detention. Yet, the exact same violations are not only continuing—they are escalating.

This new wave of SOE detainees may be headed for the same legal redress. But more importantly, it reveals how deeply eroded the culture of constitutional compliance has become within Belize’s law enforcement, prison administration, and even political leadership.

If the police and prison system believe they can override Section 5 of the Belize Constitution, which guarantees the right to counsel, then Belize is no longer operating under law—it is operating under executive fiat.

🧨 Implications: Political Fallout and Legal Exposure

The current administration is now sitting on a powder keg. If detainees under this 2025 SOE are also found to have been detained without charge, without evidence, and now without access to lawyers, the government could face millions more in lawsuits—on top of the social unrest and public distrust already boiling beneath the surface.

Legal experts are already warning that this precedent may destroy public confidence in the justice system. And if the Briceño administration continues to sidestep accountability, the international human rights community may soon turn its eye to Belize.

⚠️ Editorial Reflection:

The abuse of State of Emergency powers—by both the PUP and UDP—has now crossed a critical threshold. What was once a “crime fighting measure” has become a blunt instrument of political convenience and authoritarian control.

No government has the right to suspend the Constitution.

No commissioner has the right to deny a man his lawyer.

And no prison authority has the right to issue orders above the law.

If this continues, Belize may soon find itself not just in legal chaos, but in a full-blown constitutional collapse.