Turning to crime…thirty-one-year-old Kearny Thompson lost his fight to survive injuries received during an armed attack on March third in Belize City. He succumbed to gunshot wounds on Wednesday at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after two and a half weeks of treatment. The shooting, now upgraded to murder, has not yielded any fruit for […]
A father and his two sons are recovering from gunshot wounds after being fired upon by a farmer in the Stann Creek District on Sunday night. Forty-four-year-old Raphael Choj, along with fourteen-year-old Ernesto Choj and his younger brother Raphael Junior, received multiple injuries when they were shot at inside a cornfield. According to Santo Cucul, […]
American businessman Chad Eckert has responded to a recent claim made against him by former partner Gustavo Cardenas. The cotton farmer alleges that he has been frozen out of his own agriculture venture; following a falling out with Eckert over twelve thousand pounds of West Indian Sea Island Cotton that was harvested in 2016. In […]
The ink had not dried on a contract with businessman Chad Eckert for the management of the Civic Center when a small cotton farmer from the Orange Walk District reveals the details of a lawsuit against Eckert. According to Gustavo Cardenas, a producer of a high grade cotton, from very early in a venture, he […]
Ahead of Thursday’s Budget Debate in Belmopan, the government has put aside, for now, one of its revenue-collecting measures targeted to affect the agriculture industry. During his budget presentation on March ninth, Prime Minister Dean Barrow proposed to attach General Sales Tax at twelve and a half percent to agricultural services such as land preparation, […]
The Caribbean Court of Justice this morning issued judgment on the first part of a three-part application and counter-application by the Government of Belize and the Belize Bank Limited. The Bank is seeking that the Court enforce its judgment of November, 2017, in its favor for re-payment of a thirty-six million dollar loan initially granted […]
But what happens to the rest of the case? That is still being deliberated by the C.C.J. panel. A large part of it has to do with how Government reacts during Thursday and Friday’s Budget Debate and afterward – but at the moment, according to Bank attorney Eamon Courtenay, no one, including himself, knows what […]
It hasn’t got much notice in Belize, but the U.S. District Court based in Washington, D.C., a week ago on Monday a U.S. district court judge ordered that the Bank can seize property owned by the government of Belize “in the jurisdictions where such attachment or execution is appropriate.” Will it do so, and where? Neither […]
Late this evening, police confirmed that a shooting victim has succumbed to injuries. Two and a half weeks ago, on March third, Kearny Thompson was shot on Vernon Street in Belize City. Just before seven o’clock he was hit to the lower right side of the back and abdomen by a gunman who emerged from […]
Tonight, a Mexican news outlet is providing details of a wet drop purportedly from a suspected drug plane that crash landed in Cuatro Leguas, outside of Blue Creek, Orange Walk last Tuesday. According to the reports, while military and police authorities deployed a large security operation in the Río Hondo, a group of six boats […]
Since Wednesday, the national referral hospital has been providing only about fifty percent of services. The roofing of the facility has been confirmed to be compromised and about one hundred pillars are damaged; likely by an earthquake in offshore Honduras earlier this year. The K.H.M.H. Board of Governors has been looking at the different scenarios […]
How much did the Government know about the situation with the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, and how much of its current state could have been prevented? These are the questions being asked by the Opposition People’s United Party tonight. This afternoon, John Briceño told reporters that the K.H.M.H. would have been a fit and proper […]
The seventh murder since Friday evening occurred in Roaring Creek, Cayo District. A body was retrieved from the river in the village this morning after it was spotted by women heading to the river bank. It is now confirmed that twenty-four-year-old Alvin Montero was murdered and his body dumped in the water. There were cut […]
Two grieving families torn apart by the relentless gunfire are tonight looking for answers as well as for justice. Theresita Flowers and Bernadine Lauriano were both murdered in the recent spate of urban warfare. Family members are left behind to cope with the pain of the abrupt violent loss of life made worse by the […]
On Monday, we introduced you to the new team of managers for the Belize Civic Center. The Government signed a three-year contract with Apex Events Services LLC of Florida, whose sole proprietor is Chad Eckert. Eckert won the bid as manager of the complex on Central American Boulevard, and has since set up a locally-based […]
The People’s United Party this afternoon addressed the state of affairs in Belize City in relation to crime. Party Leader John Briceño and Deputy Cordel Hyde lamented the weekend’s developments and seriously questioned the Government’s commitment to addressing crime’s root causes. They pointed out that the consolidation of the Ministry of National Security seemed a […]
During his tour of municipalities for the recent municipal elections, Briceño spent much time in Belize City touring homes and speaking to residents. But his deputy, Cordel Hyde, has been a City resident all his life and presides over the division where a majority of this weekend’s killings took place. Hyde told us that some […]
The call to address crime has become a plank of the P.U.P.’s public statements, but even Briceño admits it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Beyond an initial acknowledgment from Prime Minister Dean Barrow, little has been done by Government to reach out and partisan rhetoric has been the order of the day. Nonetheless, […]
The soul of the nation was on edge, beginning on Friday evening when the carnage started around six-thirty. Within a span of twenty-four hours, five persons were murdered and several other shooting incidents occurred in the city. In Orange Walk, a sixth person was killed. Now, every murder is horrible, but the double murder of […]
The carnage wouldn’t let up in the bloodiest weekend ever, when the well-known gang leader of the Mayflower/Ghost Town area, Kendis Flowers, was executed in Back-a-Town. Police have refuted any involvement in the execution and say that Flowers was followed when he left a nightclub after two a.m. on Saturday. A confrontation occurred with rival […]
The bloodbath started in downtown Belize City with the murder of Victor Gibbs. The thirty-year-old Belize City resident was shot several times inside his parked vehicle. When police arrived on the scene at the corner of King Street and West Canal, Gibbs was already dead. Police said today that his killing is not connected to […]
Police are looking for a person of interest in the murder of Denroy Alvarez which took place within minutes of the double murder of Theresita Flowers and Delcia Blanco. The investigations so far indicate that Alvarez’s murder was likely triggered by jealousy. He had just become involved with a female, who lives on Hondo Street, […]
There is another crisis on the government’s hand, for which urgent action is required. An emergency meeting was held on Friday night of the board of governors of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. This is after debris started falling from the ceiling in certain sections of the hospital. In fact, patients had to be moved […]
The People’s United Party this afternoon condemned the Government saying the neglect of the K.H.M.H. is unacceptable. The P.U.P. states that between the period 2008 and 2014, the condition of the roof at the K.H.M.H. had been documented in the minutes of many Board meetings and that the Ministry of Health had been kept apprised […]
A Honduran national was killed in the north and his relatives say they have no idea why. Elmer Alexi Palma, better known as Alexi, was found shot to death on the back seat of his taxi on Sunday night in Orange Walk. His relatives and friends say that he was friendly and outgoing and didn’t […]
