What are the political issues which can provoke violence among village neighbours? We do not believe there are any such issues which are strictly village issues. The issues which provoke violence in small villages are those which involve warlord/oligarchs at the highest levels of Belize’s two major political parties – the PUP and the UDP. In the case of Nuevo San Juan in the Orange Walk District, those warlord/oligarchs are PUP Leader John Briceño and UDP Deputy Leader Gaspar Vega. So, the villagers of Nuevo San Juan are proxies, or surrogates.
Two decades ago, nobody tried to figure out which political party won more village council seats. Party politics became heated in British Honduras sixty years ago when the PUP was formed to fight British colonialism, and a National Party (one of the precursors of the UDP) was organized to resist PUP nationalism. For forty years, however, the parties kept the villages out of the viciousness of national politics. Exactly when this began to change is a matter for research. We can, however, say this today in a categorical manner: the village council elections have become too politicized. We can say something else categorically: Briceño and Vega need to be spoken to about what looks like an ugly personal vendetta.
If the village people respond by asking how does a Belize City-based newspaper get off editorializing about a village fracas when Belize City is consistently the most violently deadly community in the nation, here’s what we would say. Sunday was bad in Nuevo San Juan, but the machetes and guns did not come out. The danger is, if nothing is done, that the next time they will. In Belize City, the community is trying its best, however unsuccessfully, to confine the murderous violence as best it can. The villages must not allow the Briceño-Vega feud to impact how village neighbours live with each other.
We have said to you in these pages before, that Belize’s “wealth untold” is leading us down a road to greater and greater violence. Historically, petroleum sparked internecine violence in Iraq, Mexico and Nigeria. What is happening in Belize does not surprise us. The political stakes are very high. Ordinary men become multimillionaires when they achieve political power in Belize.
We, the Belizean people, need to educate ourselves about the real issues. Personality politics is pointless: it will make things worse. Personality politics encourages emotionalism. It seeks to promote fanaticism. This is foolishness. Get real. Only the people can save the people.
Power to the people. Power in the struggle.