Mayor-elect Bernard Wagner and his team of ten councilors will be sworn in on Wednesday afternoon, exactly a week after their landmark victory in municipal elections on March seventh. The P.U.P. nominally won six of ten divisions and votes in the other four, knocking off the veteran United Democratic Party slate led by Dion Leslie. […]
The Council has seen two fairly high-profile departures in the days immediately following the municipal elections. Joe Bradley, former Mayor Darrell Bradley’s father, resigned from his post as a compliance officer with the Council; he also acts as a talk-show host on the U.D.P.’s Wave Radio. Shane Williams, the recently-appointed public relations officer, has also […]
Former Mayor Darrell Bradley left behind several incomplete projects and plans, most notably the Commercial Center and City Hall upgrade. In the area of streets, a considered hallmark of the past Council, contracts for nine street upgrades with RJB Construction had been signed last November. The affected streets are West Canal and East Canal; Eyre […]
The long-awaited first and second reading of the General Revenue and Appropriation Bill dominated today’s proceedings at the House of Representatives. The budget for the 2018-2019 financial year is for one point one eight three billion dollars in revenue, which is slightly less than last year. The Government’s total spending comes up to slightly more […]
In the last few weeks, Financial Secretary Joseph Waight, in a memo to C.E.O.’s of government ministries, suggested that national debt had reached one hundred percent of GDP. The official figure is lower, but not by much. Belize is completing its first year of the re-structured Superbond. Interest payments on that astronomic figure are expected […]
Outside the House, the Prime Minister referred to the proposed budget as being a case of ‘steady as she goes.’ But in the case of the new taxes, did he seem to be going back on his announcement on Thursday that there would be no new taxes in the Budget? Barrow doesn’t seem to think […]
If the Prime Minister sounded somewhat lukewarm concerning the new Budget, Leader of the Opposition John Briceño is downright cold. Offering his first impressions ahead of the debate in two weeks time, he called it lifeless. And he added, playing on an old sobriquet of his opposite number, that it was no glitter and no […]
The Government of Belize’s acquisition of Belize Telemedia Limited was also a feature of the Budget speech. A figure of more than half a billion dollars was widely quoted, but the final figure of four hundred and forty-eight million dollars is all fully paid to Dunkeld and B.T.L. Employees Trust. It was broken down into […]
For those worried about imminent increases at the pump, the Prime Minister quickly said that lesser used fuel oils, including kerosene, are the products affected by the G.S.T. re-balance. But with the recent troubles with Petrocaribe shipments, P.M. Barrow is still uneasy about the fuel situation, though he is still willing to work with Venezuela. […]
Another child has been sexually abused in a disturbing incident involving a four-year-old little girl in the south. On Thursday, a fifty-two-year-old mother reported to police in Bella Vista, Toledo, that her daughter had fallen ill. When she was taken to a doctor for medical attention, it was found that the infant had been raped. […]
Following Wednesday’s momentous municipal elections, Prime Minister Dean Barrow called a press conference this afternoon that was chock full of news and analysis ahead of Friday’s budget presentation. We’ll have more on that later on. But first, while the United Democratic Party retained six of nine municipalities, the People’s United Party won three and scored […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow readily admits that the loss of the Belize City Council is a heavy blow to his United Democratic Party, and not one that will be easy to get over. But speaking as much to his supporters, as to the press, he encouraged the party not to lose heart, nor to forget […]
U.D.P. Belize City mayoral candidate Dion Leslie suffered a stunning defeat on Wednesday. The People’s United Party slate, led by political newcomer Bernard Wagner, dealt the ruling party a staggering blow, trouncing them by eleven seats to none at City Hall. Today, we caught up with the beaten politician who magnanimously conceded the loss to […]
Leslie was personally endorsed by both former Mayor Darrell Bradley and many of the upper echelons of his party. His victory at the ITVET grounds seven months ago over Philip Willoughby seemed pre-ordained. But it makes Wednesday’s loss sting all the more, and so Prime Minister Dean Barrow singled out Leslie among the losing candidates […]
Steady efforts by area representatives Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington and Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez in the Pickstock and Port Loyola constituencies, did not prevent the United Democratic Party from losing considerable grounds in both electoral divisions. While Martinez has declared that he will not offer himself for candidacy in the next general elections, Elrington is optimistic that […]
Minister and Port Loyola area representative Anthony “Boots” Martinez remains under a cloud of accusations concerning his relationship with former caretaker and alleged contractor Kirk Lamb, who says he used Lamb’s credit union account to funnel payments for alleged contracts with the Ministry of Works. Martinez has denied these charges. He is also accused, a […]
Discussions continue at news time in San Pedro, where on Wednesday night the People’s United Party felt they had claimed yet another scalp from the ruling United Democratic Party. But as the night progressed, it was the U.D.P. seven led by incumbent Mayor Daniel Guerrero who narrowly reported as victorious. This afternoon there was an […]
A young boy, a student of the Port Loyola Pre-school, did not live to see his fifth birthday. Before eight o’clock on Monday night he became the latest victim of the relentless gun violence in the City in which mothers have been left to grapple with the pain of innocent lives lost. Young Treshawn Goff […]
It has been a deadly child Stimulation Month so far in which two children lost their young lives in violent and despicable circumstances. Before that, two others perished in gun violence. Today, at a City pre-school, teachers had to explain to young children why one of their own would no longer be at school. At […]
While freshly outraged by the death of Treshawn Goff, Belizeans are still thinking and talking about the tragedy of Allyssa Nunez of Maskall Village. She was sexually assaulted and sustained severe injuries which led to her death on Sunday morning. As of news time tonight, police say no additional charges have been filed against twenty-one […]
Voters go to the polls in a matter of hours, but the national consciousness of the people is also focusing on the violent deaths of children. Around midday today, the Leader of the Opposition, John Briceño gave a press conference on the alarming situation of gun violence. In the city, in the past two days; […]
Briceño’s youngest son is fourteen; he says he fully understands the pain of the families who have lost their children and others to violence. And despite the doubling of boots on the ground, Briceño believes that the root causes of crime are the poor economy, unemployment and corruption in the highest levels of government. The […]
In addition to the recent revelations of massive land compensation to connected government supporters revealed in the past few days, there are ordinary Belizeans still complaining about the shady dealings in the Ministry of Natural Resources. A case of out-and-out alleged thievery was reported to us by Cayman Islands resident Derick Garcia, who believes inside […]
Andre Vega, the son of former Lands Minister Gaspar Vega and Sharon Pitts were taken to court for the return of over four hundred thousand dollars given to them as compensation for privately owned land near the Haulover Bridge in 2016. While Pitts is currently in mediation to see the funds given back to G.O.B., […]
Tonight, we have full coverage of the events leading to the death of a little girl from Maskall, who has rallied the nation against the despicable sexual abuse of children. And the latest word to our newsroom just before five this evening is that a post mortem has concluded. The results show that she died […]
