But Briceno insisted it wasn't a demotion or some sort of punishment. Here's what he told us.

Courtney Menzies:
"Mr Ferguson, he went through 3 CEOs in his time and he ended off his first term without a CEO. Is this one of the reasons you've put him under your ministry?"

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"No it's not, he had a CEO. He had Valentino Shal."

Courtney Menzies:
"Temporary."

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well because already in my mind, I was seeing that we would soon come to the end of the term so it did not make sense to bring in a new CEO to be able to work with him. But I put him to work with me simply because I believe that Mr Ferguson has a lot of goodwill. A lot of people know him and he gets along with everyone and so I think that by him working with me, I can put him to special assignments, hey there's an issue happening wherever it is, please go and look into it for me, let's try to settle it and he can work directly with me, I think that he can be more effective in that way."

Reporter:
"Mr Ferguson and Mr Martinez are ministers of state but Ms Balderamos is a senior minister of state. Could you explain the phrasing?"

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It is because Minister Balderamos has been around for a very long time and she was first elected in 1998. She made it very clear that this is her last term and so I wanted to give her that special recognition and respect for the work that she has done. I have also assigned her, the National Aids Commission is under the Prime Minister's Office so I'm asking for her to take special attention with that, something she did between 2003 and 2008, she was the Special Envoy for the National Aids Commission and the National Wards Committee and she also wants to work with the elderly so I've already mentioned to minister-elect Thea Garcia, since she hasn't been sworn in yet, that Minister Dolores has offered to help and she happily accepted that so she will be having some work even at that position."

Courtney Menzies:
"But isn't a disrespect to sort of take away her ministry, give it to a newcomer and then put her as the minister of state?"

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Absolutely not. Because as I said, she's on her way out and what she wants to do is to be able to concentrate in the area that she represents, Belize Rural Central, there are a number of things she wants to get done so she wants to use these last five years in getting that work done."

Reporter:
"Did she ask to be removed?"

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well it's not a matter of what they ask, you don't ask the prime minister, the prime minister shapes the Cabinet as best as he possibly can and this is what I did."

And we also asked the PM about Thea Garcia Ramirez's portfolio and Chris Coye's apparent lack of one.

Courtney Menzies:
"And about Ms Thea, newcomer and having her own portfolio?"

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Again, I said I'm trying to find a right balance. As to Mrs Garcia Ramirez, or Ramirez Garcia, she's a newcomer, a woman, we need to have somebody else in the Cabinet."

Reporter:
"Do you feel like other minister may feel maybe jealous is the word I want to use to see her receive such a portfolio in her first term?"

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I don't think so because I said we need to have balance, we need to have representations where I try to have some kind of ethnic balance and gender balance and it's unfortunate that we only have two."

Courtney Menzies:
"Chris Coye is no longer a member of the Cabinet, is there somebody who will be filling his space because he was relied on so heavily?"

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well not necessarily. Chris will continue to work with us and sometime today Chris and I will sit down and decide how he will be able to continue to work with us. He will certainly continue to assist us in the Ministry of Finance."

Notably, Chris Coye was not listed in the weekend's Cabinet assignments but was still scheduled to be sworn in today.