Photo: Hon. John Briceño and Oliver Laughland at the Office of the Prime Minister
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. May 4, 2023
Thousands of honored guests, parliamentarians and heads of state, including the Prime Ministers of 15 current Commonwealth nations, have been invited to the United Kingdom for the official coronation of King Charles III. While the monarchy is preparing to crown a new leader on May 6th however, Prime Minister John Briceño is gaining some attention for implying that Belize may be the next Commonwealth territory to renounce the crown.
Following an interview with Oliver Laughland, US Southern Bureau Chief of Guardian News & Media, The Guardian published an article entitled ‘Colonialism lingers: Belize shrugs off coronation amid calls for reparations.’ The interview took place at the Prime Minister’s office where Hon. Briceño was asked about the relevance of the King’s coronation, to which he responded that Belizeans weren’t excited and that “you don’t see people taking out their Union Jack flags or anything.”
The article further shared that the Prime Minister would not be able to attend the coronation and that instead, H.E. Dame Froyla Tzalam would be representing the country in the UK on crowning day. It was also mentioned that the public and bank holiday which has been set in Great Britain for May 8th would not be acknowledged in Belize.
The interview also touched on Hon. Briceño’s stance on whether financial reparations are owed to the Commonwealth following British colonialism. The PM stated that not only should the monarchy apologize for the enslavement of former British colonies but that reparations were necessary. Belize’s Head of State isn’t the only person who has been championing reparations, as various activist groups across the Commonwealth and within the U.K. have been calling for reparations to be made by the monarchy. In fact, on Wednesday a joint statement was released by a collective of socialists which called upon His Majesty to “acknowledge the horrific impacts on and legacy of genocide and colonisation of the indigenous and enslaved peoples of Antigua and Barbuda, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,” according to various international news outlets.
In that regard, the closest thing to an apology made by the incoming king was an expression of his personal sorrow over the “painful history” of slavery which he acknowledged at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at the Kigali Convention Centre, Rwanda last June. As for the UK’s recently elected Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, he has been adamant that the Crown should not offer any apologies, but rather “what our focus should now be on doing is, of course, understanding our history and all its parts, not running away from it, but right now making sure that we have a society which is inclusive and tolerant of people from all backgrounds”.
Hon. Briceño shared his discontent with that stance in his interview with Laughland, stating that “he [Sunak] should have a better appreciation of it because of his ancestry … when you read and hear about the plundering that took place in the land of his ancestors, I do believe that he should have offered an apology.”
Amid all these sentiments, the PM, when asked if he thinks Belize could become the next state to leave the Commonwealth, reportedly responded, “I think the chance is quite high. It’s quite likely.” A representative from the Amandala Press reached out to the Prime Minister’s office on Thursday for further commentary on the article but was unable to be connected to someone who could speak on the matter.