Pacheco also fingered her boss, Officer in Charge of the Nationality and Services Section of the Department Gordon Wade, saying he was in regular contact with Ministers, secretaries and drivers to accept files to process for nationality. It was often the case that these files were incomplete, and the Department did not always follow up […]
At the hearing, Pacheco denied outright that she was ever paid for her role in reviewing the nationality documents by Minister Penner or Gordon Wade, and had nothing to do with the permanent residency or passport applications for Won Hong Kim. But since he never came to Belize (the double showing up with Penner at […]
A few weeks ago we told you of the confidential report of the Immigration Department and former acting Director Maria Marin on the David Nanes Schnitzer affair. The Mexican-American faces fraud charges in the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme. Nanes had been living in Belize for some time with various false documents until he was caught […]
It had not been discussed at all at prior hearings, but Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s name does appear in the Auditor General’s Special Audit Report on Nationality as a referee for Swedish national Peter Dahlstrom, who was married since 1994 to his wife Kim Simplis-Barrow’s sister. Despite Dahlstrom being married for more than twenty years […]
Pacheco says the application went to Gordon Wade who made the notation that Dohlstrom was fit for Belizean nationality. It was settled policy – verbal, not written – that the legality of applicants for nationality by marriage was set from the date of their marriage and not date of settlement. So Pacheco respectfully took issue […]
The chilling murder of Emy Guerra in the west still has the Santa Familia community reeling. The sixteen-year-old girl and her boyfriend Eleazer Bacab were in the village when three men they knew came up to them and attacked them with a knife – killing Guerra and critically injuring Bacab. On Monday residents from Santa […]
Now, Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams sat before the press on Monday and spent nearly half an hour explaining why police chose not to charge twenty-three year old Wasani, and twenty-one year old Jafari Castro, sons of Minister Edmond Castro, for an incident early on Friday morning when the brothers were stopped for speeding […]
The Brothers Castro and the curious case of the unlicensed Wingle, the haul of contraband beer, and their ministerial connections is a story that won’t go away. The arrest of siblings Jafari and Wasani and the subsequent seizure of eighty-nine cases of illegal booze is another embarrassment, as if the cancellation of their father’s diplomatic […]
According to Panton, Police Constable Shedrick Caliz presumably made an about-face and decided not to proceed with charges when he failed to produce a medico-legal form after allegedly roughing up the brothers. As for the leak of several documents, said to be charge sheets that were filled out for Jafari and Wasani, the validity of […]
While Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams is facing strong adverse criticism by the media and the public, Panton maintains that A.C.P. Williams had indicated from the beginning that a decision on whether or not to charge the siblings was the judgment of the arresting officer. Isani Cayetano “Your position seems to support and […]
The Ministry of Education continues its investigation of a reported incident of corporal punishment and possible child abuse against teacher Ednita Cocom of San Pablo Government School. She is accused of roughly treating a seven-year-old boy, the son of Thais Cowo, who retaliated by attacking her on the school compound two weeks ago. While Cowo […]
Last week a group of stevedores called on President of the C.W.U., Dale Trujeque, to halt the negotiations for the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Port of Belize Limited. Thirty-three stevedores signed a letter asking Trujeque to step away from the negotiating table because there was a lack of communication and they wanted the terms […]
It was a particularly violent weekend in the west. A horrific attack on a young couple has left the Santa Familia community in shock. The sixteen year old girl was slashed to throat and dumped in the Belize River; while her boyfriend was stabbed multiple times. What has left villagers stunned is that the accused […]
There was further bloodshed in the west on Friday night. Hours before the murder of Emy Guerra, twenty-two-year old Maynor Portillo was found shot to the head near the Convention Center in Santa Elena. Police are still trying to piece together what led to the killing of the young man. Andrea Polanco has more. […]
In the city brothers Jafari and Wasani Castro and their companions managed to run afoul of two separate law enforcement organizations in the span of a single day – this past Friday. It started early in the morning when they were stopped by police on motorcycles in the Conch Shell Bay area and detained after […]
The Eastern Division (South) police’s official account differs slightly in that the vehicle was parked when the officers approached, but the rest of the leaked report appears to be true. However, the quibble raised by A.C.P. Chester Williams at today’s briefing, separate and apart from politics, is whether police had enough to charge at any […]
So there will be no charges, and the matter appears to be resolved – except for the leak of a usually confidential police document seemingly designed to bring pressure on the Department to re-open the case. A.C.P. Williams says the Department is concerned about the release of its information and is doing an internal investigation, […]
The family of fifty-two-year old Jorge Lemus is trying to come to terms with his untimely death. His body was found in a drain in the village of Unitedville in the west. But tonight, the cause of his death remains under investigation though the Lemus family believes he was robbed, killed and then discarded in […]
Still in the west, twenty-six-year-old Fabiola Velasquez lost her life in a traffic mishap in the early hours of Sunday morning while riding a motorcycle along the Valley of Peace Road. The young lady was returning from an event in that western community when she overtook a team of policemen who were also traveling along […]
An elderly shop keeper was callously murdered on Thursday afternoon in Orange Walk. Ninety-year-old Pedro Pol was robbed inside his shop in August Pine Ridge at around two o’clock. Police confirm that one of two minors from a nearby village is being held for the callous murder. The elderly man met a horrific death; he […]
While Orange Walk police say one minor is in custody, the family contends that at least two persons; one from Guinea Grass and one from August Pine Ridge have been detained by police since the incident. Late this evening, however, Belize City police granted an interview on the murder but their information is contrary to […]
In the city, shots rang out on Thursday night. A young man was shot on Jasmine Street at around seven o’clock. Wasani Avila was along with a friend when a gunman approached them and opened fire. His friend escaped, but unfortunately for him, a bullet caught him in the back. But was the shooting victim […]
Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams spoke briefly about the shooting incident involving twenty-four-year-old Wasani Avila. According to the Officer Commanding Eastern Division South, the motive for the attack on Avila and his friend may have been robbery. ACP Chester Williams, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South “Sometime after seven-thirty last night or thereabout, police […]
The murder of popular Belize City disc jockey Andrew ‘Hard Rock’ Bennett stunned the deejay fraternity several weeks ago, when word of the deadly shooting on Central American Boulevard spread like wildfire across social media. On Thursday, Hard Rock’s alleged killer was nabbed in Belmopan and extradited to the Old Capital where he was arraigned […]
Twenty-six-year-old Naomi Abigail Taylor, a primary school teacher of Dangriga, lost her life on Thursday evening while riding a bicycle on Ecumenical Drive. Taylor was heading to her mother’s house when a motorcycle driven by twenty-two-year-old Michael Estero collided into the back wheel of the male beach cruiser bicycle. She fell onto the concrete street […]
