Monday’s announcement by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Patrick Faber that Government is using a million dollars to hand out special bonuses for Easter has sent shockwaves through the country. The bonuses are to be paid to members of the teaching corps who did not participate in either last October’s strike by the […]
Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie has directed a formal investigation by Professional Standards Branch into a video which first surfaced six weeks ago. The footage obtained by News Five shows police officers, assisted by “run-men” from the area, carrying contraband items up from the Rio Hondo, near the Botes-Santa Cruz river crossing, to a police […]
World famous Parandero, Aurelio Martinez, is back in Belize to celebrate thirty years of Garifuna music with the launch of a new album. Darandi, or thirty in Garifuna, is a collection of a dozen songs that are either composed by Aurelio or performed by him, and includes a cover of Paul Nabor’s classic, Naguya Nei. […]
Is the Department of General Sales Tax playing fair with taxpayers’ money? That is the question tonight after News Five obtained a letter written to the office of the Solicitor General from a senior tax officer stationed down South. At the end of December, the officer questioned to what extent that the Department’s management is […]
The Belize Police Department continues its media offensive tonight, in the wake of disturbing footage of officers shooting indiscriminately at residents in San Pedro on Saturday morning. The department has been doing damage control since the video went viral. In the aftermath of the mayhem on Barrier Reef Drive, a press brief was convened by […]
PCs Coye and Madrill are on interdiction following their arraignment in the San Pedro Magistrate’s Court. The gun-toting officers, specifically Police Constable Norman Coye, wounded as many as five persons when he discharged his service firearm unto the pavement during the scuffle. Enfield Henry Garcia was struck in the left eye by fragments of a […]
Amateur video captured by spectators during the disturbance shows an unnamed female patron being manhandled by the responding officers, despite being handcuffed and subdued on the ground. She was hit multiple times to the head and kicked, even as she was manacled while on the ground. She is also seen squirming on the pavement, but […]
Former head of the Gang Suppression Unit, Senior Superintendent of Police Marco Vidal, who has been operating under the radar for some time, returns to Belize City on July first, as Commander of Eastern Division South. He will formally replace Assistant ComPol Chester Williams who is destined for the Professional Standards Branch in Belmopan. The […]
The announcement on Monday that those teachers who did not strike last year will be getting a hefty honorarium is not going down well. The Belize National Teachers Union is calling the move a case of union busting at a time when the treasury is broke. The C.W.U. today told News Five that it is […]
The last time stevedores at the Port of Belize Limited broke off from work was in December of 2015. They held the Port at their mercy for four days over negotiations on their pension plan, in which they asked for increases retroactive to 2004. The matter remains under negotiation, but a different group is bringing […]
This afternoon, the CWU made good on the threat by stevedores, firing off a letter to the Minister of Labor through the Labor Commissioner Ivan Williams and copied to the receivership of the Port of Belize. It’s a notice of pending strike action against the Port by the stevedores. According to CWU President Dale Trujeque, […]
There have been heinous murders in the west since the start of the year and tonight, the murder count went up by one. The latest victim is a seventy-nine-year-old pastor from San Ignacio. The brutal beating of Florencio Guillermo Bardalez has left the community in disbelief. On Monday, the soon to be octogenarian, a Pastor […]
Police have arrested and charged a man for the crime of murder exactly one year after the crime was committed. Twenty-three-year-old Marlon Padillo of Selena Village in Cayo was slapped with the charge in connection with the chopping death of Guatemalan national sixty-three-year-old Edgar Alfonso Perdomo Aldana. The incident happened back on April second, 2016 […]
Two cops were arraigned today at the San Pedro Magistrate court. The two were captured on video manhandling a woman and then firing indiscriminately on Barrier Reef Drive where a crowd had gathered after four o’clock on Saturday morning. Five persons were injured in the mayhem. The wild shooting by the cops has sparked outrage […]
As we reported on Monday, Minister of Education Patrick Faber confirmed that a million dollars has been set aside as a “honorarium” for teachers who showed up to work during the industrial action. That announcement doesn’t sit well with the trade union because teachers have been paid, regardless of their attendance during the protest. So […]
According to Palacio, government is being crafty with its description of the payout. That million dollar bonus flies in the face of government’s proposed strictness at the start of the fiscal year. The B.N.T.U. says that the monies could have been used to repair classrooms and school buildings that were damaged during Hurricane Earl. […]
There is more from B.N.T.U. President Luke Palacio, who sat with the media this evening to discuss other concerns, including the salary adjustment. Prior to the 2017 budget presentation, Prime Minister Barrow announced that increments for teachers would not be affected. While government has stayed true to its word, the B.N.T.U. views the latest action, […]
To make matters worse, Palacio claims that the ministry is being disingenuous by requesting that teachers volunteer to mark Primary School Exams under the guise that they are attending workshops. The correcting of papers are scheduled to take place from Monday to Wednesday of next week, during the days set aside for teachers to make […]
The police say they are carrying out a thorough investigation of an early morning shooting in San Pedro. Since Saturday morning, two videos have been circulating on social media. In one the police are seen manhandling a handcuffed woman, pinning her down and then hitting her. That incident happened at about four o’clock on Saturday […]
The blasts of up to fourteen shots could be heard in the video, but authorities say only ten expended shells were recovered from the scene in the prime tourism destination. On the island today, business owners are still reeling from the shooting, which is likely to have an impact on the industry as the Easter […]
Suffering from a black eye in the wake of the shooting, the police called a press conference this morning. While two of five officers have been charged for their roles in the shooting incident, the Professional Standards Branch of the Belize Police Department says it continues to conduct an investigation into the shooting incident. According […]
The officers in question clearly acted outside of the rules of engagement when they began firing their weapons during the disturbance. Both have been charged for wounding as many as five persons and will also be facing disciplinary charges as a result of their actions. The investigation, says ACP Lino, saw interviews being conducted and […]
At the heart of the chaos was the failed detention of an unidentified woman, whom officers assigned to work duties at the establishment, were attempting to subdue. That woman was being severely manhandled and roughed up by the officers, even though she was in handcuffs. Despite the ordeal being recorded by patrons of the night […]
A Guatemalan national identified as twenty-one-year-old Bryan Geovanny Corado was murdered on Sunday night in an area on the Belize side of the O.A.S. Adjacency Zone known as El Champon. Corado has been described by local police as a member of a transborder criminal outfit operating from Melchor de Mencos. He was recently released from […]
Three persons perished in traffic accidents over the weekend. An accident in the south has left two teenagers dead and several others injured. More than a dozen persons were traveling in a truck when the driver lost control and overturned multiple times on the Placencia Road. The accident happened on Sunday afternoon and before the […]
