The New Year did not start well for two Belize City families. Their houses on Flamboyant Street were destroyed by a fire that spread quickly gutting the two wooden structures. As many as eight persons are displaced and a mother of three is clinging to life at the K.H.M.H. Elena Reina was sound asleep when […]
New Year’s Day is usually a time for celebration and a day to look forward to exciting things in the year ahead. But for one family in Cotton Tree Village, 2020 began with an unexpected misfortune. A fire destroyed the family home and they lost just about everything inside. Here’s the story with Andrea Polanco. […]
As you heard just now, the Samoza family lost all their belongings in a blaze that damaged their family home. They are now in need of roofing materials and other items to rebuild their lives. The fire was caused by faulty electrical wires and the Fire Department says that families need to do more to […]
The militant Belize National Teachers Union is starting the New Year with a bang calling on its membership to wear their ‘Teechaz Gat Yu Bak” t-shirts on Monday when classes resume to show their disapproval to the ministry’s proposal to amend the Education Rules. According to B.N.T.U. National President, Senator Elena Smith, the Ministry of […]
Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte has responded to bold assertions made by Opposition Leader John Briceño in his New Year’s address during which he states that the endless landings of drug planes around the country are directly tied to ranking members of the United Democratic Party. In his capacity as government’s chief legal officer, Peyrefitte challenges […]
In our first newscast for 2020 we head to Caye Caulker where electricity has been restored somewhat on the island after five days of outages that plunged one of the top tourism islands in darkness. Water is running, but at a trickle, and residents are struggling to cope with normal routines such as cooking, washing, […]
Following a press conference held by Belize Electricity Limited in Caye Caulker this morning, the local chapter of the Belize Tourism Industry Association, as well as other stakeholders and concerned residents, took to the streets of the island in protest. While the numbers may not have been as immense, the message that better service is […]
Belize Rural South Area Representative and Minister of Tourism, Manuel Heredia Junior also attended today’s press event in Caye Caulker where he took the opportunity to voice his discontent with the manner in which the crisis is being handled by both utility companies. While he admits that B.E.L. was slow on the draw in addressing […]
The People’s United Party has registered its concern over what is describes as the complete breakdown of electrical and water services in Caye Caulker Village. The Opposition party is calling on the government to urgently find a solution to the problem. P.U.P. Standard Bearer for Belize Rural South, Andre Perez, says that the island is […]
Belize Water Services is yet to follow it sister utility’s lead and face the people of Caye Caulker. Representatives of the company were noticeably absent from the island today, despite there also being a water shortage issue at hand. On Tuesday, B.W.S. was able to restore limited water to its customers and that flow was […]
2020 did not start right for a constable who came under attack by as many as four men. It happened during a football match in the Belmopan area and it was captured on camera. The images show the constable attempting to break up two warring groups but the violence escalates and the men turn on […]
In his twelve-minute long New Year’s message Prime Minister Dean Barrow spoke on several challenges that the country faced in 2019. Barrow touched on agriculture, tourism, the economy and citizen security. The latter part of his message focused on promises for 2020. Fifty million U.S. dollars will be invested in small farmers and vulnerable citizens. […]
Tonight, residents and visitors on Caye Caulker are doing their best to distribute a limited supply of potable water, amid a crisis situation where there is a severe shortage of water from the utility company. It has been two and half days since a shaft broke down at the water treatment plant and things on […]
To make matters worse on La Isla Cariñosa, there have also been intermittent power outages on the island. On Monday, sometime after five p.m., there was an emergency outage which affected the southern portion of Caye Caulker between eighty-forty-five p.m. and one a.m. According to a released issued by the company, the temporary loss of […]
While work is underway to refill a hundred fifty thousand gallon water reservoir in Caye Caulker, Belize Water Services Limited is still sending out water trucks via barges to the island, to distribute, as well as replenish its supply. Dave Pascascio, Operations Manager, B.W.S.L. “Yesterday when we sent out the first barge of water, […]
The effect that the shortage is having on local tourism on the island cannot be understated. While BWS is aware of that issue, Operations Manager Dave Pascascio explains the process of procuring a new shaft. Dave Pascascio, Operations Manager, B.W.S.L “We understand the time of the year, we understand the number of people on […]
A Belize City resident was arraigned in the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court today for the murder of Densmore Bowman. Bowman, a thirty-four-year-old Belmopan resident had been reported missing back in November. His decomposing body was later discovered on the George Price Highway almost three weeks later on December sixteenth; he had been hacked to death and […]
Two brothers have been charged for attacking and chopping Genaro Martinez and Patricio Kuylen on Sunday morning in Bullet Tree Village, Cayo. Police say that eighteen-year-old B.D.F. soldier Rony Hob and twenty-eight-year-old Ryan Hob committed the crime. They are charges of grievous harm, aggravated assault, and wounding. Martinez and Kuylen told police that they were in […]
We are in the last few hours of 2019, and about to enter the New Year. So far, there have been more than one hundred and thirty homicides across the country. That’s the unofficial figure and the police department is expected to release the official number in early 2020. Since Commissioner of Police Chester Williams […]
In 2019, we saw heinous and unbelievable murders. The official number of murders has yet to be determined and will be released in 2020 but by our count, it is dangerously close to 2018’s murder count which is a hundred and forty-four. The majority of the murders in 2019 were caused by three main elements: gang […]
The Court of Appeal today handed down a ruling, upholding the Chief Justice’s 2016 ruling on Section Fifty-Three. Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin ruled that Section Fifty-Three of the Belize Criminal Code, which criminalized ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature,’ contravened the constitutional rights to dignity, equality before the law, privacy, freedom of expression and […]
According to Orozco, Section Fifty-Three of the Criminal Code is a law which discriminates on the basis of sex and is void to that extent. He says that the ruling shows the strength of strategic approaches to communication and community mobilization used across the Caribbean. Caleb Orozco, Executive Director, UNIBAM “In the decision in […]
With Section Fifty-Three being struck down by the Supreme Court and with the Court of Appeals reaffirming the Chief Justice’s ruling, what other LGBT issues are there? Well, there is gender identity and marriage equality. Around the world, members of the LGBT have been challenging the status quo and according to attorney Lisa Shoman, Belize […]
Sixteen-year-old Chantuse Martinez died on Saturday night after being hospitalized for more than a month for gunshot injuries. Martinez and her boyfriend Mervin Martin were shot while near the entrance of Martin’s residence on Antelope Extension, Belize City. On November twenty-fourth, a lone gunman crept up on them, firing a barrage of bullets. One-year-old Melanie Martin who […]
Social media was abuzz over the weekend, following a leaked memo from within the Belize Police Department. It prompted commentary from various sectors that the department was ramping up its level of profiling. Earlier this year, residents were up in arms when police officers began intercepting people and photographing them as part of the stop […]
