As the PM has openly stated, litigation over the remaining B.T.L. bill will certainly be taken up at the CCJ level, notwithstanding the presumed total that’s left to be paid. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “Without wanting to get too much into it, I repeat that the whole issue of what is fair and what […]
Is the owner of the Belmopan Bandits, Minister of Defense John Saldivar, justified in using coast guard vessels to ferry members of his basketball club to San Pedro on game day? He has issued a statement addressing the use of the gifted resources and Rear Admiral John Borland, Commander of the Belize National Coast Guard, […]
The use of the boats, says the prime minister, isn’t a decision that he would have taken; however, he says that Saldivar will not be using those vessels for future private excursions. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “My own opinion, my own sense of what ought to be done and what ought not be done […]
Belize Rural North Area Representative Edmond ‘Clear the Land’ Castro was the trending topic today, following a statement from his office confirming the embarrassing cancellation of his diplomatic and tourist visas by the United States Embassy. Perhaps most stridently, was the rate at which his name was being called during today’s senate hearing where whistleblower […]
Castro’s Chief Executive Officer, Ruth Meighan, a former Immigration Director, was also denied entry into the U.S. in late July, 2016. Together, neither the minister nor his C.E.O. can visit or transit through that country. Castro maintained today that he has no interest in finding out the reason why his visa was canceled. When asked […]
The Senate Select Inquiry on the Immigration Department resumed today in Belmopan. And after going toe-to-toe with former friend and Government Minister Edmond Castro in the courts and on this television station, whistleblower Alvarene Burgess appeared before the Senate Special Select Committee. This despite Senator Aldo Salazar’s position that there was no need for her […]
Burgess told the senate panel that she learned that the U.S. Embassy had at least two recordings of her conversations with Castro and other persons whom she could not recall. That further frightened her into stopping her activities and eventually coming forward when the Penner scandal broke and she heard the Prime Minister say that […]
But why was Alvarene Burgess recruited into the visa recommendation scheme? Was it because she had access to the top players? Committee Chair Aldo Salazar repeatedly asked, but Burgess’ answer remained the same: a conversation between the other players in the ring left her on the hook. Alvarene Burgess, Whistleblower “I am assuming that […]
The Committee’s first witness today was former Ambassador of Belize to the Republic of China (Taiwan), Cherie Nisbet. She was at post when South Korean businessman turned fugitive Won Hong Kim was granted citizenship despite never setting foot in Belize. Her office was contacted by then-Deputy Mayor Eric Chang after he heard of Kim’s issues […]
Even with a week’s absence, the Senate Special Select Committee has not been absent from the news headlines. When we last left it on May seventeenth, it had descended into farce after the U.D.P. Chairman Alberto August and macebearer Brian “Yellow Man” Audinette hijacked the proceedings. Due to reports of an attempt to spark another […]
On the eve of the expected testimony at the Senate Special Select Committee of whistleblower on visas Alvarine Burgess, Minister of National Emergency Management and Transport and Belize Rural North area representative Edmond Castro has confirmed via press release this evening that he has been notified of the U.S. Embassy cancelling his diplomatic and tourist […]
Deshawn Ramirez – she is the woman who was charged with her husband’s murder on Monday and remanded to prison. But tonight she is free, after the murder charge was withdrawn and Deshawn was released from custody. On Friday night in Seine Bight, Deshawn and her husband Glenn Ramirez Junior were engaged in a confrontation […]
While Castro is in the news tonight for the cancelation of his visa, Minister of Defence John Saldivar is pushing back heavily against claims of misuse of Coast Guard assets to support his Belmopan Bandits sporting teams, which is being investigated by the U.S. Embassy, which gifted the vessels. Following a statement by his Cabinet […]
This morning, the body of a man was found floating in the Caribbean Sea near First Avenue in the Bay of Corozal Town. The person has since been identified as forty-three-year-old Anthony Pasos, a resident of the Santa Rita community in Corozal. A postmortem exam conducted this afternoon confirms that Pasos died as a result […]
The plot thickens in the Miss Belize saga. Twenty-four hours ago, Miss Belize Rebecca Rath appeared to be stripped of her title by pageant director Opal Enriquez. Her family had come out strongly against Enriquez’s management of the run-up to Rath’s appearance at the Miss Universe pageant in January and Enriquez hit back on her […]
The hassle of applying for Belizean citizenship, in some cases several years in the making, has paid for a handful of immigrants who have found their home in the Jewel. From as far away as Turkey and Bangladesh, they have traveled to Belize and decided to stay. The swearing-in ceremony got off to a late […]
A murder over the weekend involving a couple in Stann Creek has stunned the community. In a case of domestic dispute, a husband was killed in Seine Bight, two days before he celebrated one year of marriage. On Friday night around eleven-thirty, Glenn Ramirez got into an altercation with his wife as he and his […]
There were two other murders over the weekend. Up north in Orange Walk, police have not been able to determine the identity of a man whose decomposing body was found by a farmer in the bushes off the San Estevan Road on Sunday afternoon. A post mortem conducted on the scene, has determined that John […]
Also on Sunday, but this time in Bella Vista Village in the Toledo District, a man was shot and partially decapitated and his body left lying next to the highway. Shortly before eight, Independence Police were called out to miles forty-five and forty-six on the Southern Highway where they made the gruesome discovery. The person […]
A mishap on Friday evening led to the unfortunate death of twenty-two-year old Kenworth Castro, who had moved to Caye Caulker just two months ago. Castro, a diver, was last seen alive swinging under the palapa of a well-known establishment. Soon after, he was dead from a broken neck. Despite efforts to save him, he […]
Last Wednesday, a popular DJ and activist was killed just outside his home on Central American Boulevard. Forty-year-old Andrew Bennett, known as Hard Rock, was shot multiple times to the head and body and died on the spot. He will be laid to rest later this week and tonight police are looking for a person […]
Minister of Defense John Saldivar is embroiled in another scandal. This time he was caught using coast guard vessels donated by the U.S. government to shuttle his Belmopan Bandits, as well as family and fans, to and from San Pedro for various sporting activities. It’s a practice that is very much frowned upon because those […]
Two years ago, Guatemalan Armed Forces bullied their Belizean counterparts from the Coast Guard off Sarstoon Island, where the Coast Guard men had been seeking a platform on which to build a Joint Forward Operating Base with the Belize Defence Force. It was never confirmed who in Belize gave the order to back down, but […]
The Director of the Government’s Press Office, Dorian Pakeman, walked out of the Magistrate Court this morning, a free man. In March 2016, Pakeman was accused of causing the death, by careless conduct, of a Gardenia resident on the Phillip Goldson Highway. It took almost ten months to bring a single charge against the highly-connected […]
Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley is taking a tough stand on the fiasco at last week Wednesday’s public hearing of the Senate Special Select Inquiry. The Mayor says shame on the persons responsible for the assault on the media and disrupting the proceedings. Today, when the media caught up with him over at City Hall, […]
