Cabinet shuffle: Prime Minister hints more portfolio changes may be coming after shuffle of Ministers and CEOs

By Aaron Humes: Just over three years into Prime Minister John Briceño’s administration and facing municipal elections in March and general elections right around the corner, there has been a major change in Cabinet portfolios that everyone is still getting used to.

With Senator Eamon Courtenay’s departure at the end of December as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Immigration after three years, the P.M. said it was a “compromise” with former People’s United Party leader and experienced Minister Francis Fonseca to split the massive portfolio while Fonseca still holds on to Education, Culture, Science and Technology. But he hinted that the change may only be temporary in an interview on Friday at the National Assembly: “What happened is that one, the timing of it was right there in December when we were going to make the change and I did ask Minister Fonseca to take on this challenge but we know that his heart is also in education so as a compromise what we did is that he takes on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and I hold on to Immigration for the time being until we can settle and decide how best to distribute some of these other ministries.”

The P.M. conceded that an option moving forward may be to elevate Dr Louis Zabaneh, the Minister of State under Fonseca, to take over at Education and switch Fonseca fully to Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and possibly Immigration as well: “That’s the opinion of some people and I respect that…All options are always on the table, we consider everything but at the end of the day we have to look at the entire picture and not just at one individual ministry and so it’s something that’s always here to consider.”

But for now, in addition to his established portfolios of Finance, Economic Development, and Investment, he is managing both Immigration and the Blue Economy and Civil Aviation as he continues to weigh the position of incumbent Andre Perez.

That gives him four CEOs – Tanya Santos, Dr Osmond Martinez, Narda Garcia, and Kennedy Carillo. Meanwhile, Adele Catzim Sanchez joined her predecessor, Marconi Leal Jr, over at the Human Development Ministry, making her the second CEO who has been transferred from the Transport Ministry.

The P.M. explained that as they all serve at his pleasure, it is about finding a better fit for the posts they have been relocated to: “Ms Catzim, probably you are too young to remember, Ms Catzim between the 1998 and 2008 government, she worked closely with Minister Dolores in that administration. We wanted to [make] some changes and it just worked well for her to come to work with Minister Dolores and to move Tanya over to immigration and then Mr. Middleton to move over to the Ministry of Sports and Transport. So it worked well for the change we want to do, but we need to make the point that CEOs, just like ministers, are changeable. While they may be working in a ministry if we feel they will make a better fit to another ministry we will make those changes.”

That thinking was also behind the move of CEO Leal away from Transport and makes him and Catzim-Sanchez more effective where they are needed. Joining the CEO caucus as well is Sharole Saldivar, who took over at Home Affairs and New Growth Industries from Kevin Arthurs in November.

Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Belize ~ We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages. Your content is delivered instantly to thousands of users in Belize and abroad! Contact us at mаrkеtіng@brеаkіngbеlіzеnеwѕ.соm or call us at 501-601-0315.

© 2024, BreakingBelizeNews.com. Content is copyrighted and requires written permission for reprinting in online or print media. Theft of content without permission/payment is punishable by law.