The International Monetary Fund has concluded its annual Article Four consultative visit to Belize, held from June sixth to fifteenth. It has issued its preliminary findings, which speak of a weak economy. The summary of their conclusions is as follows: “The economy is expected to return to positive growth in 2017, but the medium term […]
The murder of twenty-one-year-old Omar Barahona Junior shocked the Cotton Tree residents and surrounding communities in the Cayo District. Last Saturday, Barahona Junior was shot and killed as he attended a farewell party in his honour. According to the family, he was getting ready to leave for the U.S. on June seventeenth – a trip […]
Three weeks ago, popular DJ and radio personality Andrew “Hard Rock” Bennett was gunned down on Central American Boulevard. Hard Rock’s murder shook the community because it broke a three-week lull in the murder count. Bennett was also well-known and highly spoken of in the music industry where he provided training for young boys from […]
After a year of investigation by Italian police, the courts of Italy have pronounced justice on several persons accused of defrauding investors of more than twenty million U.S. dollars in a faked hotel resort scheme. Chief Developer of the Puerto Azul “eight-star” hotel project, Domenico Giannini; his partner, Fabio La Rosa; and two others have […]
An internal investigation conducted by the Professional Standards Branch into an officer-involved fatality in Chunox Village is ongoing. On Friday evening, forty-four-year-old Richard Garcia was shot and killed when a team of four policemen visited a residence in that rural community in the Corozal District to carry out an eviction of the handyman. According to […]
The deadly shooting took place on the evening of June ninth, at around five p.m.; however, the lifeless body of Richard Garcia was not removed from the scene until almost eighteen hours later. The corpse remained in the open throughout the night with several officers standing guard until the scene was able to be processed […]
Recently two church leaders, namely the Anglican Diocese Bishop Phillip Wright and the Methodist’s Reverend Roosevelt Papouloute, decided to remove themselves from the Church-State Commission, which is also referred to as the morality commission. Church leaders committed to offer Government their positions on critical moral, spiritual and national issues in the wake of outrage over […]
Since last week, we’ve been reporting on a case of corporal punishment in San Pablo, Orange Walk. It came to a head on Monday when Thais Cowo, the mother of the alleged victim was formally charged and arraigned for harm in the Orange Walk Magistrate Court after she attacked Ednita Cocom, the teacher who inflicted […]
There was another round of senate hearings today. There was testimony from two persons, including Assistant Superintendent of Police Rochelle Chan. Two weeks ago, Chan gave a limited statement in response to the bombshell allegations made against him before the Senate Special Select Committee by Alvarine Burgess. The whistleblower exposed a ring of Ministers of […]
Chan also denied any contact with his brother-in-law, then-Minister of State for Immigration, Elvin Penner, about any Immigration scheme. As far as he is concerned, Burgess’ testimony is untrue. But the question that bedevils Burgess, Chan, the Senate panel and all who heard their testimonies two weeks ago and today is this: what reason would […]
Former Minister of Immigration and briefly National Security, Carlos Perdomo, ended his appearance last Wednesday before the Senate panel hitting back at claims he disregarded his personal standards with regard to approving certain applications for nationality. His return this week resumed with more sparring with Business Community Senator Mark Lizarraga, who referred him to Section […]
Carlos Perdomo was the first Minister of Immigration and Nationality appointed under the Barrow administration in 2008. His time pre-dates somewhat the Auditor General’s Report, but Senator Mark Lizarraga seemed to try to establish through his questioning that Perdomo’s alleged permissiveness was a factor in the recent “culture of corruption” in the Department, which the […]
Perdomo continued to fend off questioning about how it is that as minister he had little to no knowledge of the goings-on in the Department, relying on his most senior officers to assure him that things were going well, even though they clearly were not. Even today, Perdomo said the full extent of what happened […]
Senior Immigration Officer Ady Pacheco has been one of the most highly anticipated witnesses at the Senate Special Select Committee’s public hearings. Her name has been directly tied to the Won Hong Kim affair by former boss Maria Marin. It also appears multiple times in the Auditor General’s Reports in relation to various activities within […]
The upcoming election of the Football Federation of Belize is being hotly contested between two personalities well-grounded in the sport. So far in this newscast you have heard the jabs exchanged between Ruperto Vicente, who is seeking to return to the presidency, and another aficionado, Sergio Chuc, who has been disqualified. In the intricate world […]
The Corozal Police Department remains under pressure tonight. Four officers were assigned by Corozal Police in an operation to evict forty-four year old Richard Garcia last Friday in Chunox Village. The task was accomplished with prejudice – Garcia was shot dead after, the officers alleged, he menaced them with a machete. The Professional Standards Branch […]
One suspect is being questioned following the brazen robbery of the Toledo Teachers Credit Union late last week. The robbers concocted an elaborate plan to break into the building, pry open the vault containing over a hundred thousand dollars in cash, and then flee with the money undetected. But even as the robbers carried out […]
Omar Barahona Junior was shot seven times and killed as he attended a going away party in his honor on Saturday night. The twenty-one-year-old from Cotton Tree was socializing with a cousin and twenty-year-old Devon Brooks when a man fired several shots at the trio; seven of those caught Barahona Junior, one hit Brooks in […]
There is more tonight to the ongoing battles within the Football Federation of Belize. On Monday, you heard Sergio Chuc who has been disqualified from seeking elections as president, call on delegates to stay away from the June twenty-fourth elections. The F.F.B. Electoral Appeals Committee barred Chuc from running following allegations of bribery, corruption, conflict […]
With Chuc out of the way, Ruperto Vicente and Marlon Kuylen will go head-to-head in a few weeks at the annual congress. In the 2016 elections, after twenty-two rounds of voting, there was no clear winner between Chuc and Vicente, and Marlon Kuylen, was appointed to hold over as president. But will the election follow […]
In the immediate aftermath of Sergio Chuc’s disqualification to contest the presidency, the vehicle of Michael Blease, the secretary general of the federation, was set on fire. Both Chuc and Vicente came out against the criminal act, saying whoever is responsible should be dealt with by the law. Sergio Chuc, Football Stakeholder “That was […]
A Belizean attorney is moving up to a senior post at the Inter-American Development Bank. Senior Counsel Lisa Shoman has been appointed to a six-year term as a sitting judge for the Inter-American Development Bank. She joins six other adjudicators on the organization’s administrative tribunal which is tasked with dealing with employment matters. The IDB […]
An internal and a criminal investigation is underway following the shooting death of Richard Garcia, a handyman in Chunox, Corozal, by police who went to the Garcia’s house to carry out an eviction request by the landlord. The officers claim that on Friday afternoon Garcia charged at them with a machete and fearing for their […]
Corozal cops are in hot water after Garcia’s death, but they say it’s not that simple. Today, Senior Superintendent Dennis Arnold said police had previously responded to several incidents involving Garcia, and this time officers were told to go prepared because the Chunox handyman was considered “armed and dangerous.” While the incident is being investigated, […]
Before we go to break…in respect of the shooting death of Richard Garcia in Chunox, Senior Superintendent Arnold also told us today that Garcia had chances to leave the property peacefully, but instead attempted to injure cops with a machete. In the end the tenant would be left dead and the community would lash out […]
