The People’s United Party, following a bolt from the blue, during a testimony given by former Immigration Director Ruth Meighan, claims that the 2012 general elections were stolen by the United Democratic Party. The charge comes after it was revealed during the ongoing Senate Inquiry that hundreds of immigrants were fraudulently naturalized ahead of the […]
Our news crew is just back from the fields in the west covering the very important story of the plight of local farmers whose livelihoods are being threatened by the importation and contraband of potatoes from Mexico. The crisis in the agriculture industry, according to the farmers is because licenses are being issued to highly […]
It has been quite a week during which well-known Belizeans and friends of Belize died. We have covered the passing of Doctor Robert Horwich, primatologist and founder of the Community Baboon Sanctuary in Bermudian Landing; as well as Arthur Francisco, also known as Mister Pou; and on Thursday, the Most Reverend Bishop Osmond Martin of […]
The Government of Belize has joined in with official condolences to the family, friends and Roman Catholic community on the passing of first native Bishop of the Church, the Most Reverend Osmond Peter Martin. Bishop Emeritus Martin died on Thursday morning at home of natural causes at the age of eighty-six. While he was appointed […]
Turning to economic news…Belizeans await the return of Prime Minister Dean Barrow from New York City, where he is meeting with Belize’s legal and financial team over the Superbond. But it is not looking good for the third restructuring of the superbond and there is a likelihood that Belize will default in the February payment. […]
In late August 2015, Alberto Coleman—then fifty-five years old—was charged for the July third murder of his twenty-nine year old ex-girlfriend, Juana Cowo. The decomposed body of the young woman was discovered in the bedroom of her apartment at the corner of King and Jose Maria Nunez Streets in Punta Gorda. She had been brutally […]
According to Bradley, the case fell apart because the murder was poorly investigated. And from evidence before the court, while he was smitten by Juana, there was no proof that Coleman had killed her. Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney for Alberto Coleman “As one example of many that emerged, there was—when police broke down the […]
Also before Judge Denis Hanomansingh in the Punta Gorda Courts, two cops are on trial for the shooting death of eighteen year old inmate Rasheed Elijio. He along with Brian Garcia had escaped from the police station in that jurisdiction. Elijio was shot and killed back in May of 2013; he was reportedly shot to […]
Belize’s first native Roman Catholic Bishop, The Most Reverend Osmond Peter Martin of Dangriga, is dead. He died, at the age of eighty-seven, sometime after three this morning at home of natural causes. Bishop Martin was ordained a bishop in 1982 after entering the priesthood in 1959, and after a short time as auxiliary bishop, […]
There has not been a murder in the City since February third when Keimar Nicholas succumbed to shooting injuries sustained days earlier. But early on Wednesday night, gunshots were heard in the south side of the city. Twenty-one-year-old Jason Cortez of Balan Street was shot multiple times as he walked on Western Avenue. He died […]
A murder conviction was secured today in the courts. After languishing inside a prison cell at the remand section for more than one year after his trial concluded, Supreme Court judge, Troadio Gonzalez made a ruling in the murder case against thirty-year-old Byron James. James was accused for the May ninth 2012 murder of Frank […]
Media Officer of the Belize Police Department, Inspector Fitzroy Yearwood also gave the media an update to the shooting of Alrick August, which occurred on February ninth on Western Avenue in Belize City. The twenty-three year old remains in a critical condition inside the Intensive Care Unit of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, and while […]
Senior Counsel Denys Barrow has been a key Government helpmate in legal cases for many years, but he now appears to be moving on. He has confirmed that he has been selected by the regionally appointed and non-political Judicial and Legal Services Commission to take up an appointment as a judge on the Caribbean Court […]
The Immigration Department has an entrenched culture of corruption and hustling, from the top of the ladder to the bottom. That is what former administrative officer in the Department Teresita Castellanos bravely said at Wednesday’s public hearings of the Senate Special Select Committee. The issue of this culture has been brought up to multiple visitors […]
Teresita Castellanos is a seasoned public officer. She provided scandalous details on Wednesday at the Senate hearings about the rot at the Immigration Department. She says she has been a public officer for thirty years and until she went to the Department of Immigration in 2011, she had said she only heard about the goings-on […]
There is breaking news of a shooting in the city. It happened at around six-forty p.m. in the Saint Martin’s De Porres area. One person, identified as Jason Cortez, was shot at the corner of Electric and Western Avenues and reports to our newsroom is that the victim has succumbed. We’ll have more on this […]
The public hearings of the Senate Special Select Committee on Immigration have moved into high gear and today under oath, a bombshell was dropped from an unexpected corner. In the first six sessions of the Committee, from the end of November to the end of January, not counting holidays and other breaks, just three witnesses […]
Castellanos went on to accuse immigration officers of treating ‘civilian’ officers like herself as ‘intruders’ at the Department and even cannibalizing their own who were doing the right thing. She added that efforts by Maria Marin as Acting Director, among others, to clean up the Department were undercut by the lack of support from the […]
While the cases of Won Hong Kim and the eight visa foils are dominating recent headlines, there was no shortage of scandal at the Immigration Department that necessitated immigration officers being taken before the Public Service Commission for various offenses. At today’s hearing, Teresita Castellanos charged that the Department made recommendations for pursuing such matters […]
The second witness to appear at the Senate Special Select Committee this afternoon was George Reynolds. He is entering his twenty-seventh year with the Immigration Department and in 2013 was the Port Commander in charge of Immigration Services at the Department’s Belmopan headquarters, in charge of visas and other temporary permits such as for students […]
As a senior man in the Immigration Department, George Reynolds saw his share of important people coming in and out – even a Minister or two. But he told the Senate Special Select Committee that he personally saw little of them in his area and their interventions played a role. He also commented on the […]
From the senate to the courts…Belize’s highest court, the Caribbean Court of Justice, has ordered changes to the appointment of judges to the Court of Appeal. Today, the CCJ dismissed a claim by the Bar Association of Belize against the Attorney General concerning an amendment to the Constitution on the appointment and tenure of judges, […]
A handful of protesters headed to the steps of the law firm, Courtenay Coye LLP, on A Street this morning as the United Democratic Party heats up its campaign against Senator Eamon Courtenay. Under the banner of an ad hoc, C.O.L.A.-styled group known as Belizeans Against Lord Ashcroft and Courtenay (BALAC), they were there to […]
The target of the protestors’ ire returned to his office just before they arrived. He had been at court for an unrelated matter and spoke briefly in response to the idea of the protest. Having been on the frontlines a time or two himself, he appreciates the importance of free speech and free will, although […]
The Government and the United Democratic Party are on a campaign claiming that Senator Eamon Courtenay is a textbook case of conflict of interest since he sits on the senate for the People’s United Party and represents the Ashcroft Group of Companies as its attorney. But Courtenay today cited many cases, including that of the […]
