You didn’t hear about it. I didn’t hear about it. Almost all contact with the outside world has been cut off for a week due to widespread protesting.

Belize, the only English-speaking country in Central America, disappeared off the map for the past week and almost no one noticed.

Since April 15 the tiny country the size of Wales has been without telephone links as a result of strikes and protests. Only a few internet cafes with satellite connections provide a tenuous link to the outside world.

The prime minister, Said Musa, said technicians at the main telephone company had brought down the entire system in an act of “vandalism and sabotage”.

At the same time there are widespread protests at budget cuts and government corruption. A demonstration on Wednesday night left 37 people injured, including 10 police officers. The National Trade Union Congress of Belize has called for the resignation of Mr Musa’s People’s United Party government.

The outside world barely noticed that a country of 260,000 people had dropped off the map.

A British colony until 1981, Belize is 100 miles from tip to tip, much of it sparsely-populated rain forest. It was Monday evening before the first international news agency, Associated Press, reported the trouble.

The country’s isolation stems from a complex wrangle involving Belize Telecommunications. The company was controlled until late 2003 by Lord Ashcroft, a former Conservative Party treasurer, and a leading figure in Belizean business. The government bought a 52.5 per cent holding from Lord Ashcroft’s Carlisle Holdings, intending to sell it to Innovative Communications Corporation (ICC), a company based in the United States Virgin Islands.

What happened next is subject to legal dispute between the Belize government and ICC, which accuses the Belizean authorities of failing to keep their promises on the company’s framework.

The company’s staff are now demanding that the government sells them a 37 per cent holding in the firm for token price.

Most Belizeans seem to support the telecommunications staff, and would like to see what was once a state-owned company back in local hands.

One woman told a television interviewer: “For a working mother I find it inconvenient. For a citizen I am with them 100 per cent.”

But the conflict is spreading beyond telecoms. A transmission line supplying electricity from Mexico was cut on Tuesday, plunging 90 per cent of the country into darkness for a few hours. It is not clear who was responsible, but Belize Electricity – also a privatised company – blames vandalism.

On Wednesday, students from the University of Belize and the capital’s high schools marched peacefully to the prime minister’s residence, singing the national anthem and chanting ”Resign and free Belize”.

In the evening rush hour, less peaceful protesters blocked the Belcan bridge, one of three crossing the Haulover Creek which bisects the largest town, Belize City. Young men lit barricades of burning tyres, and the mob moved on to loot the main shops in Albert Street. Up to 100 were arrested.

“Things are hot here,” said a woman in Belize by e-mail on Thursday, “it was scary listening to radio last night. Downtown sounded like a war zone”. But Belmopan, the capital, was quiet, as were tourist resorts on the string of offshore coral islands.

The army has been deployed on the street to keep order.

GUATEMALA CITY, April 22 (Reuters) – Army troops and police patrolled the streets of Belize’s main city on Friday after one person died during anti-government protests and looting, government officials said.

More than 100 people have been arrested since demonstrations broke out in Belize City last week at the government’s handling of the sale of the state-run Belize Telecommunications Limited, or BTL, phone company.

“The police have acted with all restraint. We will not prevent people from protesting but they must adhere to the law,” government spokesman Seth Hernandez told Reuters in neighboring Guatemala by telephone.

Telephone, Internet and international banking services have been badly interrupted as workers try to pressure Prime Minister Said Musa’s government to increase employee participation in the company. Hernandez said workers had sabotaged phone lines.
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he government has been hit by a series of corruption and investment scandals in the last year, and Standard & Poor’s recently cut Belize’s foreign-currency debt to CCC, citing the country’s increasing debt load and lack of access to financing.

Britain’s Lord Ashcroft resigned as treasurer of the Conservative Party in 2001 in a row over his business activities in the former colony.

The Prime Minister has blamed the opposition for the unrest.

BELMOPAN, Belize – Prime Minister Said Musa of Belize on Thursday accused the Opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) of having a lead role in the current civil unrest in that Caribbean Community state, saying it was designed to force the government out of office by illegal means.

The allegation was, however, rejected by UDP’s leader Dean Barrow, when he addressed a rally of striking workers of the Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL) and supporters of the Opposition Thursday.
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Prime Minister Musa said that his government stood ready to resume negotiations with the workers representatives, if they were really serious about a peaceful settlement, rather than being caught up in “an opposition plan to destablise” his administration.

There’s a lot of stuff mixed in there that can be attributed to both sides in this political war. I’ll continue to keep an eye on what’s going on there, though the situation looks to be calming down a bit.

For future reference, here are some local news stations:
http://www.7newsbelize.com/
http://www.reporter.bz/ — Great coverage of the looting.
http://www.sanpedrosun.net/
http://new.channel5belize.com/ — Both sides regrouping to strategize.

UPDATE: Here is some commentary on the situation at traveller’s resource Lonely Planet:

The student demonstration was fine when it began and peaceful at the PM’s house. It was a very easy crowd of kids. They ended up downtown at dark and the gangs, who were waiting for this opportunity, jumped in and looted stores downtown. They looted Belizeans (Musa’s brother owns Brodies) and naturallized Belizeans the same, this was criminal, not political.
I watched the scene dowtown last night, it was pretty grim, ugly. Crowd was dispersed quite well by the cops. I’m going downtown now to check the damages and do some biz. I would tel people to stay out of Belize City for now, unless they need the marine terminal. It’ll be biz as usual, as much as possible today. But the demonstrations won’t stop tl this govt is gone. So its not over by a long shot and I would urge visitors to realize all this will occur in Belize city and probably Belmopan, but fne in the rest of the country, that doesn’t even know whats happening here in the old capital. I live 2.5 miles from Belize City and was’t the least cncerned abut my safety. They’ll be fine elsewhere. Just rmember thisis a fluid situation and pls, get the facts from News, not rumours, which they’ll be plenty of. Ask me, I’ll know about most events. Jules Vasquez of Ch 7 running commentary was pretty off kilter last ngith when he called the lootting civil disobidence—-he needs to read about Ghandi and King. anyway, we’l figureit out. I’m on my way and will ry ot keep you abreast of whats going on. I’d say ch 5 would be the best source of accurate nes, even though they are perceived as PUP. They Are not, trust me.