A Belize Defense Force soldier found himself on the wrong side of the law this morning. He was placed under arrest by police officers on a West Line bus that was traveling on the George Price Highway. The incident was caught on camera by one of the commuters. The thirty-second video shows S.P.U. officers pushing […]
Bowen and Bowen Limited has fired three employees but not due to the COVID 19. It is because police in Pomona Village found seventy-three point eight grams of marijuana in the delivery truck. It was on May fifteenth that Melvin Velasquez was intercepted by police officers who informed him and his co-workers that a search […]
For years, we have been covering the loud noises coming from the leaders of FECTAB, the Federation of Cruise Tourism Associations of Belize on all things related to tourism. But tonight, the news is about the association itself which finds itself a house divided. The situation began to unravel a few days ago, following a mini […]
The once booming tourism industry has been hardest hit as COVID-19 continues to wreck havoc to the economy. On Tuesday night, we reported that Tropic Air is cutting staff; today the local airline confirmed that it has informed the Ministry of Labour that it is letting go as much as sixty percent of its employees, […]
The cut backs are not exclusive to the domestic airline industry; every sector has had to make adjustments, including telecommunications. Over at Digi, a tiered approach to cuts in salary is being implemented; general staff are taking a fifteen percent cut, managers twenty percent and Heads of Departments twenty-five percent. This will initially last for three months […]
As you have heard, the economy continues to shrink and with it, hundreds more join the unemployment numbers. Government is struggling with an astronomical monthly wage bill of forty-five million dollars and another forty-five million dollars in operating expenses. The Public Service Union and the Belize National Teachers Union have agreed to forego increments as […]
Still on the economic downturn…last week, Prime Minister Dean Barrow famously said that he intends to borrow and borrow to keep public officers employed. But the PM also warned that the next leader of the country would have to address the issue of the massive wage bill, as high as forty-five million dollars monthly, and […]
Minister of Education, Patrick Faber says that there will be cuts in some of the services that his ministry offers in the days ahead, as a matter of priority to deal with the financial crisis. One of the biggest recurrent expenditures of the Ministry of Education is spent on salaries for teachers. But like the […]
Today marks thirty-seven days straight without any active case of COVID-19 in Belize. And while this is good news for the country as it continues to relax restriction measures, the possibility of a second wave continues to increase as cases of COVID-19 are on the rise in neighbouring countries like Mexico and Guatemala. To crack […]
There has been a turn of events in respect of a huge tract of land on the George Price Highway. The Belmopan Land Development Corporation has come forward to claim ownership of the land being sought by residents of Cotton Tree Village and other interested parties from across the country. The B.L.D.C. is represented by […]
According to Ysaguirre, the land in question had been tangled in the courts for a number of years and a decision was eventually handed down in favour of Belmopan Land Development Corporation. An appeal is presently before the courts over the quantum of the settlement. But the acreage is privately held and Ysaguirre says it […]
The Public Service Union and the Belmopan City Council have buried the ‘Hilltop’ hatchet. They have reached a settlement in the form of another piece of property. Today, the P.S.U. says that they have received a prime location and good value in the agreement that will be signed later this week. As you’ll recall, the […]
Since the start of the state of emergency, the churches have been meeting online for services to prevent any contagion of the novel coronavirus. Stay-at-home orders, the cap on gatherings of no more than ten persons as well as social distancing mean that for now, church pews cannot be filled by church goers. The ease of […]
While locally the B.N.T.U. and P.S.U. have reached agreement with the government to forgo increments, there is a storm brewing involving regional exams. That is because despite opposition in the region, the Caribbean Examination Council, with the nod from the Council of Human and Social Development, is standing by its decision to hold examinations in […]
The regional union says that it has seen no evidence of any action plan by Ministries of Education in the region, which suggests that they have adopted any approved set of standards specific to the reopening of school. Elena Smith agrees. Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U. “In Belize we have not yet come up […]
The desire to own a parcel of land sent hundreds of persons out to mile forty-four on the George Price Highway. Activist Nigel Petillo, formerly of BGYEA, has identified two thousand five hundred acres of arable land, whose owner is now deceased. Petillo promises to parcel off the property at an acre each per person. […]
We will have a look at the local tourism industry later in the newscast, but tonight the news for hundreds of employees at a local airline is not good. Tropic Air is reportedly sending home more than two hundred employees, including long standing ones, who have been employed at the company for years. The COVID-19 […]
Belize now stands as the only country on the American mainland without a new case of COVID-19; that’s because today, Suriname recorded a positive case after forty-four days of no confirmed cases. It is exceptional news coming out of the region, especially for Belize, which has been able to contain the first wave of the […]
It’s day thirty-five since Belize has recorded a positive case of COVID-19, but the Ministry of Health remains on alert as border communities in neighbouring Central American countries continue spiking. Up north in Mexico, there are forty-nine thousand two hundred and nineteen confirmed cases, with five thousand one hundred and seventy-seven deaths. Meanwhile in Guatemala, […]
Restaurants resumed on-premises dining on Saturday but the hospitality industry is looking a whole lot different. The use of the face mask by diners and employees is a must and so is the practice of social distancing. On Saturday, the first day of the resumption of business, some were not yet ready to transition to […]
And while some restaurants were able to begin to operate over the weekend, there is another category of restaurant-style businesses that will have to adapt to the regulations. According to the Attorney General, Michael Peyrefitte, business establishments that possess a restaurant license were allowed to operate but those which possess a ‘publican special’ license have […]
A crowd of persons showed up at mile forty-four on the George Price Highway on Sunday, lured by the promise of a piece of land. Nigel Petillo, of the Belize Youth Grassroots Empowerment Organization, is attempting a repeat of the Harmonyville Community where he successfully took over acres of land and parcelled it out to […]
So while Petillo and his attorney were both arraigned this morning for matters having to do with social distancing, use of face masks and movement outside of the curfew, their brief time in the holding cell at the Belmopan Police Station contravened all those stipulations. According to the men, they were placed in a very […]
While there has been no official word on whether a deal has been reached, the Public Service Union has re-examined its view of the use of the word “defer” in respect of an agreement with the Government of Belize where increments for public officers are concerned. The original use of the word, as it appeared […]
According to Flowers, a formula will be devised to calculate what each public officer will receive in gratuity at the point of retirement which will also factor in what they would have received were this increment to have been included. The use of the term defer, he says, was for simplicity. CC, 1st Vice […]
