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He was sworn in on Friday and after a weekend of deliberations and consultation, Prime Minister Dean Barrow has named his new Cabinet. It’s a full house: of the 25 UDP elected, 16 have been made Ministers, and 4 more are Junior Ministers. Barrow, who will be Minister of Finance, listed the names and portfolio assignments at a press conference this afternoon.

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister

• "Gaspar Vega, The Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment.
• Mr. Erwin Contreras who is of course the second deputy leader of our party will be the Minister of Economic Development, Commerce, Industry and Consumer Protection.
• Mr. Patrick Faber is the new Minister of Education.
• Mr. Carlos Perdomo will no doubt begin to suffer headaches even greater than the ones I expect to experience since he will be the Minister of National Security and he is the one who is tasked together with the police to try and do something immediately about the gang situation.
• Mr. Michael Finnegan ladies and gentlemen is the Minister of Housing and Urban Development.
• Mr. Wilfred Elrington Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
• Mr. Anthony 'Boots' Martinez is the Minister of Works.
• Mr. Manuel Heredia Jr. is the Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation.
• Mr. Pablo Marin is the Minister of Health.
• Mr. Gabriel Martinez is the Minister of Labor, Local Government, and Rural Development.
• Mr. John Saldivar is the Minister of Public Service, Governance Improvement, and Elections and Boundaries.
• Mr. Rene Montero is the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.
• Mr. Melvin Hulse is the Minister of Public Utilities, National Emergency Management, Transport, and Communications.
• Mr. Eden Martinez is the Minister of Human Development and Social Transformation;
• and Mr. Marcel Cardona is the Minister of Youth, Sports, and Culture.

Ladies and gentlemen there are Ministers of State and I had originally conceived of four Ministers of State and that number did not include Mr. Michael Hutchinson but after he did what he did, I promptly revised my position and perhaps I can start with him. Mr. Michael Hutchinson will be the Minister of State in the Ministry of Labor, Local Government, and Rural Development. Mr. Elvin Penner, the first Mennonite Belizean elected to the House of Representatives will be the Minister of State in the Ministry of the Deputy Prime Minister. Mr. Edmund 'Clear the land' Castro will be the Minister of State in the Ministry of Works. Mr. Arthur 'Arturo' Roches will be the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health. I seem to have lost the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Mr. Juan Coy. Mr. Juan Coy, he will be the Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Development and Social Transformation.

"I tried to employ three criteria: one seniority, two geographic, three ethnic representation. What I tried to do thereafter was to make sure that no district got less than half, 50% of its constituency representatives in the Cabinet."

Other notable non-Cabinet appointments include the following: first, Wave Radio talk show host Juliet Thimbriel will be a Senator representing the Belize District, Pulcheria Teul will represent Toledo, Dr. Debbie Macmillan will represent Cayo, while Doug Singh will be the Leader of Government Business in the Senate. Attorney Emil Arguelles will be Speaker of the House. Long time Barrow confidante Audrey Wallace will be CEO in the office of the Prime Minister, while James Murphy will be the new Cabinet Secretary. Joe Waight will stay on as Financial Secretary.

As Minister of Finance Barrow will have two advisors; they are former Financial Secretary Dr. Carla Barnett, and former two term Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel, who will be named advisor with ministerial rank. Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega will have former senior public officer David Gibson come out of retirement to act as CEO. Charles Gibson will be the CEO for John Saldivar’s Ministry. In Education, David Leacock will be made CEO, while former CEO in that ministry Marion McNab will be put in charge of labour and local government. Peter Allen will be the new CEO of the Health Ministry.