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Has the senate inquiry run its course? Prior to calling several past and present ministers to testify before the Senate Special Select Committee, U.D.P. ministers have been singing the same chorus; that the inquiry on the Immigration Department has served its purpose and should be discontinued. The hearing has been disclosing information not known before […]
Written on July 6, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Tracy Panton Says Inquiry is About Recommendations, Not Grandstanding
On Wednesday, OCEANA and the Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage organized a media tour to Cadenas, and an additional trek to Gracias A Dios in southern Belize. This was to follow up on a crude oil spill that happened over in Guatemala but not officially reported. From our own investigation online, a driver […]
Written on July 6, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on News Five Investigates Sarstoon River “Oil Spill”
As you heard in that story, the local press didn’t observe anything that looked like crude oil in Belize’s water ways. But Guatemalans living in the area claimed that the oil had already gone down river since Monday. The Department of Environment didn’t issue any information on the reported oil spill; that is, until this […]
Written on July 6, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on DOE Says Tar Was Spilled; National Plan Still in the Works
As expected, today’s public hearing of the Senate Special Select Committee was a spectacle, though not of the best kind. For the first time since the Committee convened in November, Ministers of Government began making appearances. It has been established in extensive testimony of both Immigration officers and others that a word from the Minister […]
Written on July 5, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Ministers Martinez and Castro Repudiate Alvarine Burgess’ Testimony
Minister Martinez poured out his troubles to the press last Wednesday, including an extensive discussion about the need for recommending persons to obtain visas, passports and nationality and whether a Minister’s recommendation made the person more likely to obtain what they wanted. While various Immigration officers have suggested that they trembled before the might of […]
Written on July 5, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Why a Recommendation is Only a Recommendation
Anthony “Boots” Martinez’s sole appearance in the Auditor General’s Report is in Appendix Four of the Visa section as a recommender for Wen Zhan Yu, which he says was done as a favour to Wen’s sponsor and his former constituent, one Zian Li. He states that he took the word of the sponsor that Wen […]
In the case of Edmond Castro, there is a trail in the Auditor General’s Reports as well as in documentation provided by previous witnesses in the inquiry. Castro’s name appears multiple times as recommender for various nationals who did not otherwise meet requirements. And there is an example of a letter of recommendation Castro wrote […]
Written on July 5, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Did Someone Forge Castro’s Words?
In today’s appearances before the Senate Special Select Committee, both Ministers Martinez and Castro took strong objection to answering questions that they felt appeared outside of the scope of the inquiry, which they narrowly interpreted to be only the times their names appeared in the report. They especially recoiled, in Martinez’s case, from the mention […]
Senator for Trade Unions and Civil Society Elena Smith took the chair for the first time as pro-tem chair, replacing the absent Aldo Salazar who returns next week after being elected by her peers. She humorously denied being the cause of the Ministers’ behaviour but did not hold back in criticizing them as disrespectful and […]
Written on July 5, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Pro-tem Chair Chides Ministers’ Conduct in Hearing
Back in May, journalist and owner of Plus TV Louis Wade was taken before the Magistrate Court in San Ignacio and arraigned for common assault and use of insulting words. Those charges were levied on Wade months after a purported incident at the Santa Elena Sporting Complex with the son of Minister Rene Montero. There […]
Written on July 4, 2017 | Posted in
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A ballistics examiner employed with the National Forensic Science Service is still awaiting the result of a second application for bail following his conviction for abetment to perverting the course of justice. Orlando Vera was jailed for two years by Chief Magistrate Ann-Marie Smith following trial in the Magistrate’s Court. He was recorded telling Belmopan […]
Written on July 4, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Orlando Vera wait continues; court pushes decision on bail to Friday
But why can’t Vera apply directly to the court as a result of appealing his conviction? The answer lies in a change to the law that in fact limits his options, according to Sylvestre. Direct appeal to the court is only permissible for convictions on charges listed under the Crime Control and Criminal Justice Act, […]
Written on July 4, 2017 | Posted in
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Police are actively looking for a person of interest in the murder of Bangladeshi national Abdush Salam. The nude body of Salam was found in his Orange Street apartment by one of his housemate on Saturday night. It is believed that Salam invited a man to his room sometime after one-thirty that day, when he […]
Written on July 4, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on “Person of interest” sought in Abdush Salam murder
He was wanted by Corozal Police for last Thursday’s chopping murder of Amilcar Omar Morales Gonzalez and the attempted murder of Doniver Ruano, but on Monday, police formally arrested and charged Arthur Joel Tzul, a resident of San Joaquin Village for the murder of Gonzalez in the Corozal District. In the immediate aftermath of the […]
Written on July 4, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Accused San Joaquin killer, Arthur Tzul, charged
Wednesday’s Senate Special Select Committee public hearing in Belmopan is expected to turn up the heat on the Government of Belize. For the first time, sitting Ministers in Cabinet will be appearing before the Committee. In fact, one of the two scheduled witnesses, Minister Anthony “Boots” Martinez, was called to appear last week, but his […]
Written on July 4, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on The Ministers are coming to Belmopan on Wednesday
At least nine percent of the population is jobless. The latest figures released by the Statistical Institute of Belize also show that as of April 2017, almost two thousand persons were unemployed. The labour force, however, has increased to one hundred and sixty-four thousand persons. But the most disturbing factor is that only one hundred […]
A Bangladeshi national who operates a small business was strangled to death over the weekend. This afternoon police confirmed the cause of death after the nude body of Abdush Salam was found in his apartment by a roommate on Saturday afternoon. The motive behind the murder is not ascertained even though it is believed it […]
Written on July 3, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Bangladeshi Businessman Murdered at Home
But there was other violence over the weekend in Belize City. On Friday night on Raccoon Street Extension, several blocks away from the Eastern Division South headquarters. In the cover of darkness, a gunman took aim at a group of men, hanging inside a yard. Several shots were fired, but only one bullet made its […]
Written on July 3, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Who Shot Raheem Bodden and Why?
Three years ago this week, the Cervantes family of Orange Walk Town was plunged into a personal and political nightmare. Personal, because of losing their patriarch, Ramon Cervantes Senior, to an alleged plot that left him battered and dead in a shallow grave along the Honey Camp Road. Political, because the absconded chief plotter Manuel […]
Written on July 3, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Ramon Cervantes Says P.M. Can’t Prove “Threat” Accusation
Orange Walk Police were not available for comment today. Meanwhile, twenty-two-year-old Noe Gonzalez, nineteen year old Angel Cardenas and twenty-eight-year-old Mateo Pott are charged with the murders of Ramon Cervantes Senior and housewife Sonia Abac, who was similarly buried in the same area. As we told you, also accused is Manuel “El Pelon” Castillo. But […]
Written on July 3, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Civil, Criminal Cases Dragging; Police Non-Cooperative
Thirty-one-year-old Letson Broaster was missing since last Wednesday but over the weekend his body was retrieved from the Macal River, in the area of Branch Mouth in the Cayo District. His seventy-three-year-old mother was at the police station when she was called out to do what any mother would dread. She believes that her son […]
Written on July 3, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Letson Broaster Drowns in swollen Macal at Branch Mouth
There are reports coming out of Guatemala that there has been an oil spill in the Sarstoon River. The tributary originates in Guatemala and forms the southernmost border with Belize. According to a published account, a tanker transporting oil overturned while on its way to Chahal, Alta Verapaz. A pipe is said to have come […]
Written on July 3, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Oil Spills Into Guatemala’s Sarstoon
Corozal Southeast area representative Florencio Marin Junior rose on the House adjournment on Friday after colleague Julius Espat’s urgent plea regarding crime in his Cayo South. In Marin Junior’s constituency, police shot Richard Garcia dead in Chunox following an eviction attempt, leaving villagers riled up. Marin Junior contended that it can’t hurt to give police […]
Written on July 3, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Was Richard Garcia Death “Accidental” or Result of Poor Training? House Debates
The House of Representatives met in its final session before the mandated summer break and there was a lot to discuss. We’ll have all the highlights, but first, to the development bills. The Economic Development Council is now a creature of law, following an interesting debate in the House of Representatives. The Council is considered […]
Written on June 30, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on House Meets; P.U.P. Questions Make Up of Economic Development Council
Accusing the Leader of the Opposition in particular and the Opposition generally of ignorance of the role of the Council, Prime Minister Dean Barrow gave them credit for several of the bills introduced in the House earlier this year and debated today, as well as being supported internally and externally as Belize positions itself to […]
Written on June 30, 2017 | Posted in
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Comments Off on P.M. Gives EDC Members Credit for Legislation
