The Belize Police Department, according to AG Peyrefitte, is fully onboard with the new law; however, there are officers within the agency that are averse to the idea of persons possessing any amount of weed on them. So how will that skepticism be addressed? The Attorney General says rest easy; you can’t be prosecuted if […]
Perhaps the AG’s most fiery response was reserved for the Council of Churches. When asked to give his two cents on their objection to the passage of the law, he minced no words. Peyrefitte said bluntly that the church has no moral authority to take aim at weed smokers when it does not oppose the […]
A routine trip, by attorney Audrey Matura to the Central Prison in Hattieville to visit with clients, turned ugly this morning. Around ten o’clock, Matura says she was removed from the prison compound by Kolbe personnel after she was refused visitation to one of her clients. It came as a surprise to Matura who had […]
Despite efforts made by Matura to reason with security personnel and to reach out to the C.E.O. of Kolbe, she was denied access to her client. She alleges that her client is being abused at the hands of prison management. When she pressed prison officials, Matura found out that following a court appearance on Monday, […]
A pair of siblings is tonight in a critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after the vehicle they were traveling in collided head-on with an SUV coming from the opposite direction. Just before four this morning, the traffic accident occurred near the cutoff to Vista del Mar on the Phillip Goldson Highway which […]
For some time, the government has been locking horns with the Belize National Teachers Union. The eleven-day strike last October took them to the brink and while tensions appeared to have eased, the Minister of Education, Patrick Faber today launched an attack on the B.N.T.U. Faber says the leadership of the union is neglecting its […]
This evening, News Five spoke to B.N.T.U. National President Elena Smith for a response on that charge as well as other related issues. Essentially, her response is ‘bring it on!’ Smith believes that this unexpected move from the Education Minister to target the Union is as simple as wanting a fight – a fight, she […]
The minister responded to a letter from PAC Chairman and P.U.P. Deputy Leader, Julius Espat, saying that cabinet ministers did not boycott a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee last Wednesday. Two of the four ministers on the committee contracted conjunctivitis and a third the flu, ruling them out of the meeting in which Auditor […]
In regards to the Teaching Services Commission, Smith told us that it was the Ministry that brought the issue to their attention and only one meeting has been missed as a result. A replacement for Smith – Union secretary Ruth Shoman – has been named and will be attending the November meeting. But the bigger […]
The charred, skeletal remains of an unidentified person were discovered off the Coastal Road on Sunday. Since then the Belize Police Department and forensic pathologist Doctor Mario Estradabran have been working to determine the cause of death and the identity of the individual. Five days later, investigators have confirmed that the bones are those of […]
Violence has sparked up in Corozal where an elderly couple was viciously attacked in an early morning home invasion on Monday. This Wednesday, a woman was shot in the abdomen while she was at home. Tonight, twenty-two-year-old Brenda Jandrez is in a critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Jandrez was at home along […]
So far for 2017, there have been a staggering one hundred and twenty-three murders across the country. Belize City has taken the majority with fifty-two homicides, that’s over forty-two percent of the murder count. According to our records, Cayo District is registering twenty-one homicides, two of which occurred in the Capital City Belmopan. Both Toledo […]
Eight years of costly legal battles between the Government of Belize and Dunkeld International Limited, a subsidiary of the Ashcroft Group, over the final payment for the 2009 B.T.L. acquisition, ended in an eight minute ruling handed down by the Caribbean Court of Justice this morning. The government has been given ten days to pay […]
A release from the CCJ points out that the court is holding G.O.B. to tough terms if payment is not met in the prescribed timeline, thereby imposing an interest rate compounded on the existing amount on a quarterly or an annual basis. During his reading of the judgment, Justice Hayton provided a detailed breakdown, in […]
The predicament that government now finds itself in, according to Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay, is entirely the responsibility of PM Barrow, who privately negotiated the settlement of compensation package with Lord Michael Ashcroft in Miami in 2015. As for the monies that were set aside for charitable work in the name of Belizeans, only a […]
So, roughly eighty million U.S. dollars in ten days. It’s perhaps the biggest disbursement that government would have made in respect of the B.T.L. saga within such a limited span. To make matters worse, that hundred and sixty million Belize dollar payout is likely to impact the country’s financial reserves, as it represents approximately twenty […]
Prime Minister Barrow, following this morning’s decision, called a press conference this afternoon to address the judgment. While government will meet its obligations to Dunkeld and B.T.L. Employees Trust in their entireties, PM Barrow is not too happy with the outcome. He says that the CCJ verdict leaves a lot to be desired. The quantum […]
As we’ve reported, government’s attorneys made it a point before the CCJ that they would not accept the results of independent audits done on behalf of Dunkeld and the Employees Trust. The CCJ, in turn, flatly rejected government’s position to verify and agree to the liabilities only after being allowed to peruse relevant documents pertaining […]
The drawing down on seventy-eight million U.S. dollars from the Central Bank’s reserves at this time of year raises serious concerns. Will the local economy be adversely impacted by the withdrawal of such a significant sum within a nine-day period? According to PM Barrow, it should not be a cause for worry since the funds […]
This afternoon, the People’s United Party released a statement of its views on the judgment, which it calls an “absolute disaster” for Belize. It points out that the timing of the judgment comes in the run-up to the Christmas season, when demands on foreign reserves are highest, and warns that the Government must ensure that […]
In an extraordinary move, the Opposition People’s United Party today announced plans to table a motion for debate at the next sitting of the Senate to amend the Maritime Areas Act. It is the first time in recorded memory that the Opposition is taking the lead on introducing an amendment, and doing so in the […]
Senator Courtenay is also a former Foreign Minister. He says that despite having been advised in the past on amending the piece of legislation that is now being challenged, government has failed to act on the matter. Since the Opposition has taken up that mantle, it has garnered the support of all social partners in […]
So what will be the reaction from Guatemala once Belize moves to claim all its twelve miles of territorial waters under international law? It’s a thought that is furthest from Courtenay’s mind, since Belize’s course of action does not hinge upon Guatemala’s foreign policy. Courtenay says the additional nine miles of unclaimed sea was not […]
Twenty-five years after the passage of the controversial law, the Senate is going to be asked to consider the amendment at its next sitting. But the Government side appears to be caught off guard by the announcement. Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington spoke to us in Belmopan today about the now-Opposition efforts to get the […]
The Foreign Minister went on to state that as he understands that the purpose of introducing or repealing legislation is to serve the greater purpose of the Belizean people. Despite the fact that Belize is no longer negotiating with Guatemala and therefore has the right to reclaim its maritime territory, Elrington confesses to being baffled […]
