As part of his Budget address, Prime Minister Dean Barrow gave an update on the continued wrangles with the former owners of Belize Telemedia Limited and the owners of the various arbitral awards. He hinted that Government may again go to the Caribbean Court of Justice concerning the second portion of the settlement award for […]
Attorneys for the Belize Bank, as well as the Government of Belize, filed into the courtroom of Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin shortly before eleven o’clock this morning. The litigants were there in an attempt to convince the presiding justice of the Supreme Court why he ought to or ought not to dismiss an injunction granted […]
A woman was gruesomely murdered over the weekend and police need the public’s assistance to determine the identity of who at this point is Jane Doe. Here is the little known so far. The woman had tattoos on her arm and is of fair complexion. She was stabbed multiple times, her throat slit and then […]
The medical community, along with family and friends of Rubia Briceño, continues to mourn her untimely demise, following a fatal road traffic accident on Thursday afternoon. The well-known physiotherapist was reportedly on her way to an appointment with a patient when the vehicle she was traveling in collided violently with another pickup near mile nine […]
This evening, it was announced that there is another, possibly final, extension of the Consent Solicitation Offer for the Belize U.S. Dollar Bonds due 2038 or the more common name Superbond. This time the extension is for five days until Wednesday March fifteenth, up to five in the evening New York time and three p.m. […]
As is often the case, the Government has tried to shift blame for the results of the Superbond on the P.U.P. as their predecessors in administration. Alleged “failed” projects cited as proceeds of the Superbond range from the former satellite city Mahogany Heights, to Galleria Maya. But the real purpose of the loans, according to […]
At what cost does the renegotiation of the Super Bond come to Belizean taxpayers? It’s a question that remains to be answered definitively, in dollars and cents. The proposed offer is expected to be approved by bondholders; however, the price tag for doing business with the Creditor Committee will cost a pretty penny. That figure […]
The additional expense, as we’ve mentioned, will be placed squarely on the backs of taxpayers. According to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wilfred Elrington, it was necessary to restructure the Super Bond in order to save the country from what would have otherwise been a sinking ship. Isani Cayetano “While that achievement is being lauded, […]
The budget for the financial year 2017/2018 will be tabled at the House of Representatives this coming Monday. It is known that government will have to do belt-tightening and increase revenues through various forms in the range of a reported seventy million dollars. Prime Minister Barrow, during a press conference on Wednesday, allayed all fears […]
Despite the prime minister being mum about specific tax increases, it is known that ministries will experience cutbacks in their budgets. Minister of Foreign Affairs Elrington confirms his ministry is being affected. Isani Cayetano “The Prime Minister has mentioned that there will be fiscal constraints by way of belt-tightening and what-have-you. In terms of […]
The People’s United Party has offered a quick response to Wednesday’s analysis of the restructuring of the Superbond by the Prime Minister. P.U.P. Leader John Briceño says that it isn’t really a restructuring at all. The result of the U.D.P.’s abject failure to stimulate the economy, protect jobs and investments and think smartly about decisions […]
Briceño was joined by attorney Christopher Coye to explain the implications for Belize’s economy. The Prime Minister insisted on Wednesday that Belize would never enter into any stand-by arrangement, much less a full program, with the International Monetary Fund while it is in charge. But it remains a possibility, especially with the looming spectre of […]
The Government appears to have a turnaround on the issue of re-registration. The Election and Boundaries Commission had decided a few weeks ago that the exercise, postponed twice since 1997, would be postponed a third time to 2018, which is after the municipal elections and after redistricting of electoral boundaries. Following outcry, Government has written […]
Briceño was further questioned about whether it is worth it to wait for the Senate’s inquiry to be completed. The P.U.P. has a vested interest in pursuing re-registration because of the over two thousand one hundred persons it says illegally got nationality during the run-up to the 2012 general election. This, it says, tipped the […]
Is this man the shadowy “Mister Middleton” to whom all focus has turned in the ongoing Senate public inquiry? Middleton, we are told, is a car salesman based in Orange Walk Town, but it is his activities in Immigration that have landed him in the news. On Wednesday, News Five brought you the various testimonies […]
A fatal road traffic accident was reported sometime after one-thirty this afternoon near mile nine on the Stann Creek Valley Road. Late this evening, police confirmed that the well-known physical therapist Rubia Analicia Briceño lost her life in the collision. News Five understands that the doctor was en route to visiting with a patient when […]
Last week, we aired a video of events that transpired at a training program conducted by the Belize Defense Force of recruits. The video went viral and became a topic of discussion in many sectors; there are some who believe that the B.D.F. soldiers conducting the training had breached multiple protocols, while others believe the […]
Since Friday, there was indication that the creditor committee representing bondholders had accepted the latest offer by Government for the restructuring of the Super Bond. Prime Minister Dean Barrow this morning provided specific details of the proposal where payment towards the national debt should see an interest rate that sits below five percent per annum. […]
Government did not meet the February payment in light of the ongoing restructuring. And according to the Prime Minister, the big saving is in the amortization, which was set to increase in August of this year. However, government says it has been able to curtail as much as eighteen million dollars annually from the coupon […]
Going forward, government will make repayments on the principal. It will, however, have to make five soft bullet payments leading up to the maturity of the bond in 2034. Those payments are expected to be made as of 2030. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “For the entire life of the bond all we will pay […]
The People’s United Party was quick to respond to the Prime Minister’s latest press conference calling it nothing more than a ‘smoke and mirrors’ presentation. According to the release, Barrow and his anointed financial pundits spent much time today lauding themselves for what is nothing more than an attempt to clean up the U.D.P.’s own […]
While the Prime Minister was crunching the numbers at the Biltmore, the Senate Select investigation was taking place in the capital where insights into the immigration illegalities were coming from witnesses. Now, it took a summons carrying more legal weight than an extended invitation, but today former Belize City Deputy Mayor Eric Chang appeared with […]
Chang also specifically denied helping anyone obtain Belizean visas, nationality and passport except in the case of a Taiwanese-Belizean whose daughter had obtained nationality by descent and needed a passport as part of her documentation to attend school. The involvement he spoke to was germane to a discussion as part of a gathering at his […]
All good stories, perhaps, are long stories, and the case of Won Hong Kim is a good one. The revelation that former Minister of State Elvin Penner assisted the jailed South Korean fugitive to obtain Belizean nationality and a passport was strange enough. But the unveiling of Eric Chang as a possible accomplice was even […]
Belize and holders of the Superbond have hammered out an agreement to restructure the terms of the notes for the third time in a decade. After months of negotiations, a committee representing the majority of bondholders has endorsed a revised proposal from Belize that reduces the interest rate on the note and shortens its maturity. […]
