In America, they speak sometimes about something called the “deep state.” It appears to me that the deep state is where personnel from the military, intelligence services, the FBI, the CIA, and the like mingle and can concoct actions which are beyond the ability of the duly elected government to monitor, control, or punish.

I’m not sure when I first heard about the “deep state,” but it may be in connection with the January 6, 2020 attack by pro-Trump forces on the Washington Capitol, in a failed attempt to nullify the election of Joe Biden, a Democrat, as president of the United States.

Now when U.S. president John F. Kennedy, another Democrat, was assassinated by rifle fire on November 22, 1963, it is now widely considered, I believe, to have been the equivalent of a military coup. The officials in power did their best to make the American people believe that it was a single, somewhat unstable gunman who shot and killed Kennedy while he was riding in a motorcade in an open car in Dallas, Texas. The officials in power had to cover up the reality of what had happened because they did not want the American society to become mentally destabilized; they did not want the American people to become nervous and frightened.

So then, people like me believe there was a deep state operating which killed Kennedy and essentially took control in the aftermath of his assassination. It is noteworthy that, almost sixty years later, all the documents involved with that assassination have still not been declassified and released. The truth is probably too dangerous.

There are things which have occurred in Belize in the last ten years which suggest that there are people here who are above the law, that they are people who are operating in a twilight zone, and there are things which take place over which you and I have absolutely no control. Such things did not happen in colonial days, because the British ruled us with an iron hand.

There are at least two factions in play in the 2023 Belize which have emerged in this new reality. One is the determined desire of billionaire corporations to control various resources in Belize, and another is the interest of drug cartels which are doing different kinds of business in Belize, primarily transportation of narcotics from south to north.

Personally, I never considered myself a brave man, or a warrior, but during my years as the leader of UBAD between 1969 and 1974, I had some people around me (and I say “people” instead of “men,” because Lillette Barkley-Waite must be included) who gave me courage because their solidarity was so consistent and so powerful.

In this new Belize, where there is something like a deep state operating somewhere, I can’t say what I want to say, because I am a nobody, without armor or protection.

Vivian Belisle Ramnarace was my favorite uncle’s granddaughter. His son, “Lee Buck,” who played on the Charger football team and rode Cross Country, is my first cousin, and Vivian’s father. Vivian lived in Belmopan all her life. I never knew her. But, she was a university-trained marine biologist. In other words, she was an environmentalist. I was deeply, deeply troubled by her shooting on New Year’s Eve, and devastated by her unexpected death last Sunday, when she appeared to be on the road to recovery.

The streets (the term we use to describe what you bourgeiosie consider the less “respectable” members of society) knew something was seriously wrong here many years ago. In late 1984, when there was a conspiracy to “murder or maim” me, the principals were novices compared to what we are seeing in the last few years. The training today’s hit men have been given by Washington was supposed to be used to fight the multinational cartels. But there are things going on which now have to be described as “deep state.” Things happen which are above and beyond us. It is frightening.

When the Ramnarace killings took place, I had nothing to say. I say what I am saying today because there are many of you out there who like to “play simple,” as we say in the streets. I’m not sure what the intellectuals mean when they talk about “failed states,” but to me Belize is looking close to something like a failed state at this point. This, however, was years in the making. Some critical people have been “playing simple” for some years. The rest of us are just plain scared. The deep state is in effect.