John Antonio Briceño (born 17 July 1960) is a Belizean politician who is the 5th and current Prime Minister of Belize since 12 November 2020, and the leader of the People's United Party (PUP) since 2016. He was Leader of the Opposition from 2008 to 2011 and from 2016 to 2020. From 1998 to 2007, he served as Deputy Prime Minister under Prime Minister Said Musa. Early life and education Briceño was born in Orange Walk Town, Belize, on 17 July 1960. His father Elijio Briceño was a government minister in the 1980s, but in 1985 was convicted of conspiring to smuggle marijuana and cocaine into the United States, with the indictment naming a brother and a nephew as co-conspirators; in September 1985, his father was sentenced to seven years in prison. Briceño graduated from Muffles College in 1978. He earned an associate degree in business administration from St. John's College in 1980, and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin in 1985. In 1990, Briceño and his brother Jaime founded Centaur Communications, a cable television provider which later branched out into Internet service, television news, and radio. Career Briceño was first elected to the Belize House of Representatives from the Orange Walk Central constituency in 1993; in 1994 he successfully ran in the town council elections of Orange Walk Town. In 1994, Briceño was elected Co-Chairman of the People's United Party; in 1996, he was elected Deputy Party Leader. When the PUP won the 1998 elections, Briceño was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Natural Resources and the Environment. In August 2004 he led a group of ministers, known as the G-7 alliance, who made a number of reform demands, including the dismissal of Ralph Fonseca from the Cabinet. When Prime Minister Said Musa failed to meet these demands, the group resigned; however, Musa subsequently agreed to all of the demands except for the dismissal of Fonseca and the G-7 ministers remained in the Cabinet. Briceño also gained an additional portfolio, the Ministry of Finance. Briceño was later one of the ministers who opposed Musa's proposal to settle the country's Universal Health Services debt; as a result of this, Musa attempted to demote Briceño from his position as Deputy Prime Minister, but Briceño refused to accept the lesser posts in the Cabinet that he was offered and instead resigned from