Manuel Esquivel

Sir Manuel Amadeo Esquivel, KCMG, PC (2 May 1940 – 10 February 2022) was a Belizean politician. As leader of the United Democratic Party, he served as Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989, and then again from 1993 to 1998. His party's victory in 1984 was the first time an opposition party had won a general election in Belize.

Early life

Esquivel was born in Belize City when it was the capital of the British Crown Colony of British Honduras. He attended St John's College and later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics at Loyola University New Orleans; he subsequently pursued a postgraduate certificate in physics education at Bristol University, England.

Politics

After the 1969 British Honduras election, Esquivel became head of the pro-business Liberal Party, which later merged with two other parties in 1973 to form the United Democratic Party (UDP). He was elected to the Belize City Council for two terms, and served as UDP chairman from 1976 to 1982. In the 1979 election, Esquivel was the UDP nominee for the Belize House of Representatives in the Freetown constituency. He was defeated by the incumbent Premier of Belize George Cadle Price, leader of the People's United Party (PUP). Esquivel was then appointed a minority member of the Belize Senate. He defeated Philip Goldson for the open UDP leadership post in January 1983, becoming the first and thus far only politician to be elected leader of a major Belizean political party as a senator. Acting opposition leader Curl Thompson stayed on as the UDP's House leader until the following election.

Esquivel was elected in December 1984 to the House of Representatives from the newly formed constituency of Caribbean Shores in Belize City, becoming prime minister for the first time shortly thereafter. The UDP's victory was the first time an opposition party had won since the introduction of universal suffrage in 1954. He held the seat until the 1998 election, in which he was defeated by the PUP's Jose Coye.

Earlier in 1984, the Price government was faced with a financial crisis, and had nearly depleted its financial reserves. After increasing tax rates twice, they entered into a standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Upon becoming prime minister, Esquivel proceeded with economic reforms under the advice of domestic experts such as Edney Cain. Esquivel began moving the economy of Belize away from his predecessor's mixed economy model, encouraging foreign direct investment and the growth of tourism. In his second term, he implemented unpopular austerity measures such as public sector retrenchment. His government suspended pay raises from 1995 to 1997, but transferred 450,000 shares of Belize Telecommunications to a trust for the affected workers. The opposition PUP dubbed Esquivel as "VATMAN" for introducing a 15% value-added tax (VAT) in 1995. While Esquivel's successor Said Musa repealed the VAT in 1999, Musa introduced a similar 10% goods and services tax (GST) in 2005.

After the UDP won the February 2008 election, Esquivel was appointed by Prime Minister Dean Barrow as senior advisor to government with the rank of minister on 12 February 2008. He was also appointed Chairman of the Central Bank of Belize on 18 January 2011. He stepped down as Chairman in September 2013, and resigned from the Cabinet in March 2014.

Esquivel continued to provide opinions on public issues after retiring. Having served on the national flag design committee, he advocated for a standardized definition of the flag and the coat of arms. Although his government had opposed cannabis trafficking, Esquivel expressed support for decriminalization of small amounts in 2017. He published an editorial in the Amandala newspaper supporting the 2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum. When the government began administering COVID-19 vaccine to citizens over 60, Esquivel and his wife were among the first recipients.