World Perspective : Government : Belize’s Capital Is Clean, Safe --but Few Want to Live There

BELMOPAN, Belize —  On an isthmus where capital cities grow from hodgepodge squatter settlements into nightmares of sprawl, Belmopan is an orderly grid of paved streets, parks and even a cricket field surrounded by a circular drive.

In a country of lush cays, with tepid turquoise water lapping against sand as fine as sugar, the capital is a tidy collection of gray cinder-block cubes set in the deforested jungle like Lego toys on a freshly mown lawn.

Belmopan is an exception within an exception. Tiny Belize breaks the stereotypes of Central America by speaking mainly English rather than Spanish, and being predominantly Protestant rather than Roman Catholic. And landlocked Belmopan contradicts the image of coastal Belize.

Nearly three decades after Belize’s capital was moved inland--a reaction to the destruction that Hurricane Hattie wreaked on Belize City in 1961--it still has the raw look of a college campus halted in the first phase of construction.

Despite careful planning and businesses with hopeful names like the New Capital Restaurant, Belmopan just hadn’t caught on, with Belize City still the most populous city in the country. But things changed last year, when the threat of the strongest hurricane in two centuries reminded the people of Belize how destructive nature can be.

Hurricane Mitch changed course away from Belize at the last minute, and as a tropical storm it unleashed floodwaters that killed more than 7,000 people in Honduras and Nicaragua. But during the hurricane watch, coastal refugees inundated Belmopan, and the population of this town of 6,000 swelled to more than five times its normal size.

“Belmopan burst at the seams and proved it was a dream come true,” said Aloysius Palacio, general manager of the Reconstruction and Development Corp., the national agency that oversees the capital. “The threat of Hurricane Mitch has driven people to Belmopan, away from the coast.”

The refugees soon left, but since then, private developers have submitted plans for three subdivisions--a total of more than 500 houses--to be built before the end of the year, Palacio said.

“Belmopan is just beginning to grow,” said John D’Silva, 42, who moved here as a teenager and now owns the Bull Frog Inn, the town’s premier restaurant and hotel. He is seriously considering an expansion of the 25-room establishment, which caters mainly to guests on government business, in anticipation of more travelers.

Despite the enthusiasm of its residents, for now Belmopan remains the capital for administrative purposes only. This nation’s cultural and financial center is still 52 miles of a well-maintained, but lonely, road away in the old capital, Belize City, which has nine times the population of Belmopan.

Only a sprinkling of diplomatic missions have moved here. They include the British, who recommended changing the capital before Belize became independent 18 years ago. El Salvador’s consulate here mostly handles visa problems for its citizens, many of whom settled on Belize’s eastern border during the 12-year Salvadoran civil war, which ended in 1992. Belmopan is thus a convenient location for them.

The U.S. Embassy has no plans to leave the stately whaler’s mansion that was shipped in pieces from New England to Belize City in the last century--much less truck it from its place overlooking the coast out here to the sea-less wilderness.

“It’s too expensive,” said one Latin American diplomat. Even though the government has given all the embassies a free lot, buying a building in Belize City is still cheaper than building one in Belmopan, he said.

Even government officials seem to spend most of their time attending conferences in Belize City or attending to their constituents in their districts.

“Belmopan never became a vibrant capital city because planning the new capital and actually building it took so long [nearly 10 years] that a lot of those whose homes had been destroyed had already invested in reconstructing, and it was too late for them to rebuild,” said High Commissioner Tim J. David, the top British diplomat in Belize.

Nevertheless, the experience of Hurricane Mitch reassured Belmopan boosters that their time is coming.

“Every 30 years a major hurricane hits,” D’Silva said. “We’re overdue.”