A Nation Reimagined: The Timeline of a Silent Takeover in Belize

Sylvian Hyde
Aug 13
5 min read

BELIZE CITY. In a nation celebrated for its vibrant diversity, a profound and unsettling narrative is taking hold. The recent unveiling of new currency, featuring the faces of national heroes George Price and Philip Goldson, was intended to be a powerful symbol of Belizean sovereignty. But for a growing number of citizens, it has instead become a stark and painful reminder of a history that has been quietly overwritten. This is a story of a silent takeover, a long game of social and political co-option where the hard-fought gains of independence are being enjoyed not by the foundational peoples, but by a new, powerful elite whose roots in Belize are, by comparison, remarkably shallow.

This is a New York Times level expose presenting all the facts we've uncovered, arguing that Belize's economic and political destiny has been hijacked by a group of

"Johnny-Come-Lately" families, a phenomenon with a clear timeline

and a deliberate blueprint.

Foundational Belize: The Deep Roots

To understand the sense of betrayal, one must first recognize who built the nation.

The Maya: The original inhabitants of the land, their history stretches back millennia.
The Garifuna: Arriving in 1802, fleeing colonial persecution, they established
communities that became a cornerstone of Belizean culture.
The Creole: Descendants of enslaved Africans and European settlers, the Creole community was the heart of the anti-colonial struggle. The fight for representation stretches back centuries, with figures like George Hyde, a leading merchant in the 18th century, illustrating the complex and often conflicted dynamics of the colonial elite [1]. The push for self-governance, however, was a long, hard-fought battle led by national heroes George Price and Philip Goldson, both of whom had Creole roots [2].

For centuries, the identity of Belize was defined by these peoples and their struggle against a colonial master.

The New Wave: A Strategic Entry

The early 20th century marked the beginning of a new chapter. As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, waves of immigrants, primarily from what is now Lebanon and Palestine, began arriving in Belize. These were not laborers in the traditional sense, but sophisticated entrepreneurs with a deep history of trade and commerce. They were driven by a powerful desire for a new life, and they saw in Belize a young country ripe with opportunity [3].

The timeline of their entry and ascendancy is critical:

The Espat and Habet Families (Lebanese Origin): Arriving in the early to mid-20th century, these families established themselves in commerce. They began with small retail shops, particularly in the Cayo District, and built their empires on a foundation of tight-knit family networks and business acumen [4, 5]. Today, their names are synonymous with major retail, wholesale, and construction businesses, representing a formidable economic bloc.
The Zabaneh and Shoman Families (Palestinian Origin): Also arriving in the mid-20th century, these families would prove to be the most critical in the co-option narrative. While sharing a similar entrepreneurial background, their influence extended beyond business and into the very architecture of the state.
The Coye Family (Belizean/English Origin): While not part of the Middle Eastern wave, the Coye family, a well-established Belizean family with roots dating back to the late 19th century, also rose to prominence in business and politics. Their story, marked by political leadership and legal controversies, demonstrates that power consolidated through connections and capital is not limited to one ethnic group, but rather, is a feature of the system itself [6].

The Blueprint for a New Belize: A Takeover in Three Acts

This is not a tale of accidental success but, according to critics, a deliberate and multi-generational strategy for control.

Act I: Legal and Political Capture.

The new elite did not just buy their way in; they became the architects of the new nation. Figures like Assad Shoman and former Prime Minister Said Musa, both of Palestinian descent, became lawyers with a worldly perspective. Their legal and academic training, often from prestigious foreign institutions, gave them an intimate knowledge of statecraft, allowing them to participate in the crafting of the very laws and diplomatic protocols that would define the new Belize [7, 8]. It provided them with the tools to shape the nation's legal and political architecture from the inside. Shoman’s position as a key negotiator in the territorial dispute with Guatemala is, in this light, not just an act of public service but a masterful piece of strategic positioning. A "Johnny-come-lately" became the face of Belize's sovereignty.

Act II: Cementing Power Through Legitimacy.

The second phase involved strategic intermarriage and political alliances. By marrying into established families and creating powerful political and business dynasties, these families acquired a veneer of legitimacy that their arrival date alone could not provide. This strategy created a new generation of leaders who could present themselves as Belizean through and through, their names cemented in the political and economic landscape. Their constant presence in positions of power, as ministers, ambassadors, and heads of major companies, ensures that their names become synonymous with the nation itself, effectively rewriting history in the popular imagination.

Act III: The Puppet Master.

This entire process, critics contend, is not purely a local phenomenon but is orchestrated from a higher level by a foreign figure. The expose must highlight the role of British peer Lord Michael Ashcroft. Ashcroft, a major financier for both of Belize's main political parties, casts a long shadow over the nation’s political integrity [9]. When he went on Greater Belize Media, a program in which he is a private investor, to criticize the Belizean voter for accepting money from parties, he exposed the very mechanism of his own influence. The question became unavoidable: Whose money are the voters collecting? In this perspective, the "Johnny-come-lately" families and the political class they support are, in many ways, proxies for a modern British puppeteer, ensuring that a form of colonial control persists through economic and political manipulation [10].

The endless cycle of crime and violence presented on the news, a constant backdrop for Belizean life, is not an accident but a symptom of this disenfranchisement, keeping the Creole population economically marginalized and desperate, making them susceptible to the drug and gun trade that, rumor suggests, is linked to the very same powerful families who preach about crime reduction.

The current government's efforts to curb crime in 2025, focusing on firearms trafficking and transnational organized crime, are viewed with skepticism by some. The concern is that these initiatives, while ostensibly aimed at public safety, fail to address the core economic disenfranchisement that fuels the violence. Without a genuine redistribution of wealth and opportunity, the argument goes, these efforts are a form of political theater, a way of managing a problem without confronting its true source [11].

The new currency, celebrating the heroes of old, circulates through a new reality, a Belize that has been expertly and systematically co-opted, leaving its original inhabitants to wonder if their independence was ever truly for them.