The Deputy Prime Minister: he's like Belize's Vice-President, the number two man, second in charge but tonight John Briceno has fallen about 18 spots down the executive ladder, he's no Longer a Minister of Government. Briceno resigned today, ending a 9 year run as the Prime Minister's deputy. He resigned after the Prime Minister presented him with an offer of a seriously downgraded portfolio. It's part of a sweeping move by the Prime Minister to re-calibrate his Cabinet after the disruptions and dismissals brought on by the Universal debacle.

Jules Vasquez has been following the story since this weekend when the Prime Minister returned from Venezuela and went into meetings with his closest allies. Tonight he has put together a narrative of the events, along with an insight and commentary.

Jules Vasquez Reporting,
At a meeting this morning in the PM's office in Belmopan, the Prime Minister informed his Deputy Prime Minister that he would be taking away the Ministries of Natural Resources, Petroleum and Environment. The PM told Briceno he would give the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, where Briceno had been Minister for 9 years, to Florencio Marin Sr., a long time Briceno rival in the north.

As a slight consolation Briceno would be given the Ministries of National Development and Defense. Those Ministries were left behind after Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat were fired two weeks ago. Hardly a consolation for the man that had been the second most powerful Minister, and Briceno flat out rejected the offer and told the PM he would rather resign.

That was this morning; in the interim Francis Fonseca reached out to Briceno and offered a compromise. Briceno rejected it as well, feeling it was a disrespect for him to be demoted simply because he opposed the takeover of the Universal debt.

And while that standoff was brewing, Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Courtenay, who is away on official business in Panama, called the PM this morning, and told him that, faced with the forced ouster of Briceno who is his closest Cabinet ally, he too will be resigning as well when he returns tomorrow.

And so by 1:00 pm, in his last act as Deputy PM, Briceno went into the Prime Minister's Office. where the eminence of the PM's hard line hawks, Ralph Fonseca, Francis Fonseca and Godfrey Smith were gathered, and Briceno handed the PM his letter of resignation. It was a brief letter saying simply that he was grateful for the opportunity to have served and would return to work in his Orange Walk Central constituency.

One hour later: the official announcements were made: Vildo Marin, a party deputy leader who went on the record on Briceno's radio station to say he supported the Universal guarantee is now the new Deputy Prime Minister. For Marin who has steadily ascended the party's hierarchy through acts of unquestioning loyalty to Musa, it is a well earned promotion - though he brings no special talent other than saying yes. And having him as Deputy puts the Prime Minister in no better stead externally.

The other major upgrade is for Florencio Marin Sr., the former Musa adversary who resigned from the Cabinet in 1999 and moved to the Corozal Free Zone. But now in the last year of his last term, the man who defined himself as a Minister of Natural Resources in the 80's and 90's - is going back into the Cabinet. While it's a big promotion for Marin, for Musa, having the two Marins from the north in his camp is critical, because it weakens Briceno, by isolating him.

And while that may have been the move to put Briceno in check, you can call it check and mate with Musa's co-opting of Servulo Baeza, a long time Briceno ally and dependent who did not resign in solidarity like Eamon Courtenay but stayed on as a Minister of State in Natural Resources. Additionally, Dave Burgos, a non-aligned retiring candidate, has been brought squarely into Musa's camp by also being made a Minister of State, his portfolio in agriculture and fisheries.

So now even as head of the Northern Caucus, any support Briceno may have been able to muster for a convention challenge or even a showing is completely undermined.

And the only man who will resign in solidarity with Briceno, Eamon Courtenay, will be replaced by Ambassador to Washington Lisa Shoman who will be brought back home, made a Senator and Minister. She is the niece of former Foreign Minister and current chief negotiator Assad Shoman.

It's a day of many moves that change the balance of power and the state of play in the government, particularly with a national convention one month away.

First, the sudden alliance between the PM and the Marins and the severing of the Briceno relationship effectively takes us back to the leadership convention of 1996 where Musa with Briceno as his ally was seen as the candidate of reform and renewal and Marin, the candidate of the tired old guard. Now, ironically it is that same old guard that Musa has called on to shore up support and serve as a defense against reform elements

But, the move also sees PM Musa taking charge, resisting accommodation and in the mode of his hawks, exacting a punishment on Briceno for, he feels, abandoning him during the Universal loan motion crisis. That's when Briceno threatened to resign if the PM went ahead with the motion and went so far as to pack up his office at the Ministry of Natural Resources.

It was a bold move by Briceno and for which he has paid dearly as the PM has responded with a bold move of his own. It is also a deliberate move by the PM as head into a convention, having now effectively neutralized one who may have hoped to challenge him, if not now, then sometime down the line.

And while the internal intrigues are many, in the broader national picture, these resignations, coupled with the firings of Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde two weeks ago, hurt the Musa administration more than the new realignment helps. So while the PM may have put his political house in order four weeks from a national convention, he's still a long way from getting it battle ready for the general election which is nine months away.

And though it was mentioned, it was not underscored in that story that the Prime Minister did not propose for Briceno to lose his post as deputy. It is when Briceno resigned that he left the post vacant for Marin.

There is some question tonight as to whether Briceno will be able to hold on as one of the three deputies of the PUP at the July first national convention. The post of three deputies is advertised but it's left to be seen if Briceno will be challenged for it.

As for the Ministries of Defense, Sports, and Youth left behind by Hyde and National Development and Culture left by Espat, those have been distributed as follows.

• Stann Creek West representative Rodwell Ferguson is brought into the Cabinet and takes over the entire Hyde portfolio of Youth, Sports, and Defense.
• As for Espat's ministries, the Prime Minister takes over National Development,
• and Francis Fonseca takes over Culture.

Also of note in the Cabinet changes is that Marcial Mes who had been suspended as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development after he knocked down two children, has now been re-instated. He is now Minister of State in the Ministry of Education.