Tonight, the John Briceno Cabinet has been re-aligned after small changes in portfolios were announced. Nothing major, as the powerhouse portfolios of Natural Resources, Health, Education, Tourism, Home Affairs and Infrastructure remain as they were.
But, the re-alignment is to reflect what PM Briceno feels is a new political reality, almost like a fresh mandate after his party's showing in the March 6th municipal elections.
And the politician to benefit the most from this is Belize Rural South's Andre Perez, who returns to the Cabinet after months in a sort of political Siberia. Jules Vasquez has the breakdown:
The biggest winner in this Cabinet shuffle is Andre Perez. After being placed on a leave of absence in August of 2023, he returns eight months later, restored as Minister of the Blue Economy. But he loses the beefy Civil Aviation portfolio to the Prime Minister, while taking up NEMO and National Fire Services - which are far lesser departments. He gets those from out of the portfolio of Landy Habet, formerly the Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change & Disaster Risk Management - and we assume Disaster Risk Management now disappears along with NEMO. So it's a downgrade for Habet. And, less so, for Perez - but a downgrade nonetheless.
And as for upgrades - it goes all to the back bench or what used to be the backbench. Those are the PUP representatives who are not ministers or ministers of state. Well all of them are now. In an unprecedented move, all the backbenchers have been promoted to Ministers of State. That's Alex Balona who has been made Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise; Marconi Leal who has been appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing. And Jorge Espat has been appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Investment, joining Mike Espat and Chris Coye - who are also Ministers of State in the PM's Ministry.
They join the all star cast of the eight existing ministers of state, for an unprecedented 11 ministers of state.
And why? Well, the official release says, basically, it's politics - quote, "These adjustments and assignments come on the heels of an overwhelming mandate at the polls," end quote.
And that gave the Briceno administration the green light for these upgrades - which will also result in about a two thousand dollar monthly upgrade in salaries for these once lowly backbenchers - who go from the 36 thousand dollars annually made by a backbencher, to the 60 thousand dollars a year made by a minister of state.
To clarify, Ministers of State are not Cabinet members. The Cabinet Secretary says one minister of state is invited to every cabinet meeting on a rotation basis.
We note that all of those former backbenchers are also Chairs of House Committees - for which they collect a thousand dollars a month for every committee they Chair. Marconi Leal, for example, chairs four committees, so that's an extra $48,000 thousand dollars in annual income.
