Rosado Blames “Campaign of Calumny” for His ICJ Exit
The Government accepted and announced Ambassador Alexis Rosado’s resignation as Belize’s Co-Agent before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) late on Monday.
Rosado’s resignation letter to Prime Minister John Briceño opens with Rosado’s “over thirty years of unimpeachable public service to Belize.” Rosado then accuses of “an active and very public campaign of calumny against [him],” or false and malicious statements to tarnish his name through allegations he argues are “wholly unrelated to [his] duties as Co-Agent.”
Rosado currently faces criminal proceedings involving allegations of rape, sexual assault and aggravated assault. Rosado maintains his innocence and said in his letter that he “looks forward to defending those allegations in court, where they properly belong and where, I am confident, their emptiness will be exposed.”
After police charged him in April 2022, Rosado resigned his ambassador postings over the same allegations. House Speaker Valerie Woods pointed out Rosado’s resignation as ambassador, stating, “If stepping aside in 2022 was appropriate to preserve the integrity of Belize’s diplomatic offices when charges were brought against him, the same considerations should apply in relation to his Co-Agent status.”
Minister Henry Charles Usher backed Woods, saying that while Rosado had contributed significantly, “in life nobody is indispensable.” Usher also called for greater consideration of victims in decisions involving criminal proceedings.
Opposition Leader Tracy Panton and the Belize Network of NGOs also called for Rosado to step aside. The NGO network argued that people serving in official or representative capacities must uphold public trust and that clear protocols should apply when serious criminal charges arise.
In his letter to the PM, Rosado writes that he is stepping aside to protect the Office of the Agent “from smears, from lies, and from needless distraction.”
“The vitriol of that media campaign, however, has now begun to be directed not only at me but at the Government and, more particularly, at my Office-the Office of the Agent,” he said. “It is one thing for a public servant to bear the slings and arrows of a hostile press; it is another for the Office itself, and the cause it serves, to be made the collateral victim of a campaign whose logic is animus rather than evidence.”
Rosado insists he is leaving “not in retreat, but in the belief that institutions outlast individuals and that the work of the Agent must not be permitted to labour under a cloud not of its making.”
Rosado said he would remain available to assist the Court and Belize.
Government’s response was brief in a late Monday statement, stating that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “acknowledges the resignation” and will make “no further comment on the matter.”
The ICJ case concerns Belize’s territorial dispute with Guatemala. Shoman remains Belize’s Agent before the Court, and is leading the country’s representation alongside a legal team experienced in international law and territorial delimitation. Belize’s written submissions have been filed, and the government says the case will continue without interruption.