The ruling United Democratic Party has issued a call for the Opposition People’s United Party to remove its lead Senator, Eamon Courtenay, for what it calls an “outright betrayal of Belize’s national interests, and extreme conflict of interest.” According to the U.D.P., Courtenay as Senior Counsel filed a constitutional challenge to strike down the Central […]
The Senate Special Select Committee met with three witnesses today at its public hearings in Belmopan. These were senior Immigration Officer Edgar Cano; Finance Officer Teresita Castellanos, and the now-retired, former C.E.O. in the Ministry of Immigration, Candelaria Saldivar-Morter. The sister of Belmopan area representative and Minister John Saldivar was sent on paid leave for […]
All the senior officers who have visited the Senate Special Select Committee complained that there was little to guide them other than their own judgment, and in some cases, the wishes of the Ministers of Government and their hangers-on. But Saldivar-Morter today contended that the standard manuals for each section of the Department – minus […]
But what of Saldivar-Morter herself? At one point in the Auditor General’s Report, she was mentioned as one of the persons who asked for the Department to facilitate visas for selected persons, and there is an appendix in the report listing the names in question. But Saldivar-Morter insists that she knows better than that; as […]
The first witness to be called today was Edgar Cano, the former head of the Services Section of the Immigration Department and briefly posted to the Western Border. Cano, accompanied by attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley, has been a public officer for thirty-two years and with the Department for twenty-eight years. But one incident appears to […]
Further questioning by the Committee established that Edgar Cano did not leave Belize during his vacation and that he was contacted about the missing visa foils by a Department employee, whom he advised to report the matter to the then-Director. The matter even went to the Public Service Commission, whom Cano says could not determine […]
The matter of Ministerial influence in writing recommendations for passports, visas and even nationality has been a continued topic of discussion in the Senate’s public hearings. But to a man, or woman, the senior Immigration officers called so far have insisted that they did not treat applicants who had a Minister’s ear any different from […]
We can confirm tonight that Caribbean Investment Holdings Limited, formerly BCB Holdings, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Monday. The companies were seeking motions for a restraining order against the Government of Belize; a permanent anti-suit injunction; and permission to enable attachment of assets of the […]
Officers of the Immigration Department countrywide were serious enough about the issue of promotion in the ranks that they were reportedly willing to stage a go-slow at their offices on Monday and today, Tuesday. But after an urgent meeting between the Public Service Union and representatives of the Ministries of Immigration and Nationality and the […]
Even with the promotion matter now cooled down, there is context – the ongoing public hearings of the Senate Special Select Committee on Immigration. While only current and former senior officers have so far been called, we questioned whether the timing of this issue coming up had any effect. Both Willoughby and Neal rushed to […]
Police are investigating a robbery reported this morning at the Belchina UNO gas station on Youth for the Future Drive, right across from the United Democratic Party headquarters. Approximately fifteen thousand dollars in a knapsack was taken from an employee inside the convenience store just before nine a.m. by one of three armed men. News […]
Moneylenders Laura and Julio Blanco of Pay Day and EZY Loans Pawning, located in Orange Walk Town, have been ordered by Supreme Court Justice Sonya Young to surrender a thirty-acre property they transferred into their name after a customer, Janine Vega, was not able to repay in full two separate loans totalling three thousand, five […]
Minister of Defense John Saldivar and his C.E.O. Felix Enriquez today commenced a national tour of facilities operated by the Belize Coast Guard. The visit started in the south with a visit to the Forward Operating Base at Hunting Caye. Now, you would recall that construction was interrupted on the building of the new forward […]
Just last month, Donald Trump was sworn in as the President of the USA and since that day, Carlos Moreno’s tenure as US Ambassador to Belize came to an end. Handling the Ambassador’s role at the US Embassy in Belmopan is Deputy Chief of Mission Adrienne Galanek. Today when we caught up with her, she […]
The body of a Gardenia resident was found before the crack of dawn between miles nineteen and twenty on the Philip Goldson. It took some time before John Ortiz could be identified and as much time for police to determine if a hit and run had caused his death or if Ortiz had been murdered. […]
Police in Rural Eastern Division have one person detained for the murder of John Ortiz, and in Belize City, police also believe they have arrested and charged the men behind the murder of twenty-nine year old Mark Jones last Thursday. Two face charges – nineteen-year-old Deandre Adolphus for the murder itself, and thirty-three-year-old Bruce Reneau. […]
Meanwhile, police are yet to crack the murder of Felix Ayuso, whose body was found last Thursday at his house in San Pedro. That is because the suspect is on the lam; still yet, police say they have enough evidence to lay charges. On Friday, we reported on the brutal killing of the forty-three year […]
There were two shootings in the Old Capital which has seen a spike in gun-violence since the start of 2017. On Saturday, a man was robbed and shot in the city off Jasmine Street in Saint Martin De Porres. Sometime before midday, thirty-year-old Jovanie Sutherland was working with a co-worker when two men approached him. […]
In the other shooting, thirty-one-year-old Eletero McKenzie was shot to the right calf and chin on Friday evening. Sometime after six p.m., Police visited the K.H.M.H. where they observed McKenzie suffering from gunshot wounds. Investigations reveal that he was standing behind a fence on an alley off Amara Avenue when two men on separate bikes […]
A fire completely destroyed a family home in San Pedro over the weekend. A father and his two sons were not on the island when the blaze claimed their home and all their possessions. The owner of the house hasn’t ascertained the value of the property lost, but nothing was insured. Today, we met the […]
Today was set for trial in the case of Geovannie Brackett, President of Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action (COLA); Perry “Sticks” Smith, the founder of the Days of Healing organization; as well as thirty-year-old Clayburn Pascascio, twenty-three year old Adrian Avaloy and two minors, ages seventeen and sixteen. But it did not happen due […]
The prime tourism destination San Pedro has lost an outstanding member of the community who was murdered inside his home in the island. Forty-four year old Felix Ayuso was a well-known and respected advocate for a wide range of issues from culture and the arts to carnival. He was also a businessman and the President […]
There was another murder, this time in Belize City where Mark Jones, was shot to death in his own yard. After eight o’clock on Thursday night, Jones was returning to his home on Iguana Street Extension, accompanied by his girlfriend, when he was ambushed. While Jones’ family believes it may be related to another shooting […]
The third murder victim to the ongoing gun-violence in Conch Shell Bay, Belize City is nineteen-year-old Keimar Nicholas. Around ten o’clock this morning, Nicholas succumbed to gunshot injuries he received back on January twenty-third. He was left paralyzed from the neck down when he was shot while hanging out on a basketball court in front […]
Developments have been happening fast and furious in terms of another arbitral award being contested between the Government of Belize and the former B.C.B. Holdings and the Belize Bank Limited. On Thursday, the Caribbean Court of Justice declined via order to hear an inter-party application for an anti-enforcement injunction. It was brought by Attorney General […]
