The Government of Belize has announced through a Communiqué that the meeting of the Senate scheduled for Thursday, January nineteenth, will proceed as scheduled. The commitment for a thirteenth senator was made eight years ago, but newly-elected Senator representing non-governmental organizations, Osmany Salas, will have to wait even longer to sit in the senate. That […]
The House of Representatives held its first sitting of the New Year in Belmopan today. The session continued through the afternoon with extensive debate on the amendment to the Referendum Act. We’ll have that coming up, but the first order of business was the installation of a new speaker. Nurse Laura Longsworth, president of the […]
Absent for this first sitting of the House of Representatives in 2017, was Cayo South area representative Julius Espat. He has not seen the halls of the National Assembly since he was forcibly removed after being suspended on August twenty-sixth. But it is now a new year, and while no one will ever forget the […]
The House introduced six new Bills and read four others held over from the last meeting. The most important of them is the amendment to the Referendum Act, which proposes to lower the threshold for validity of a referendum to take the Guatemalan claim to the ICJ, from sixty percent of registered voters participating to […]
Debate on the amendment was fierce and robust. Members of the Opposition focused on other issues that need to be addressed before any referendum is considered, such as a re-registration of voters, reaching out to the Belizean Diaspora, and settling outstanding issues such as the Sarstoon Protocol. But the most important, and, by some views, […]
In the context of the discussions on the amendment to the Referendum Act, a nearly quarter-century old piece of legislation that once split the United Democratic Party was brought back onto the stage. The Maritime Areas Act was passed under the second administration of the late George Cadle Price after then-President of Guatemala, Jorge Serrano, […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow has been consistent in opposing payment of arbitration awards to the former B.C.B. Holdings and Belize Social Development Limited in respect of action over the Settlement Deed and Accommodation Agreement. The Government did not participate in the original arbitration hearings and when B.C.B. tried to enforce their award in Belize, the […]
The Prime Minister pointed out, surprisingly, that in Belize all the cases he has resisted with regard to arbitration awards, the Government has won. But what has been the economic cost? It has been much more than we won, according to Leader of the Opposition John Briceño, who spoke to reporters while the House was […]
At this time, Belize City police are processing the scene of a yet another grisly homicide. Late this evening, a team of officers was summoned to an area off the George Price Highway near mile three, in the vicinity of Tapir nightclub where they found the lifeless body of a Hispanic man. Unconfirmed reports reaching […]
Seven Belizeans were formally appointed to a body that has been under increasing scrutiny in the fight against corruption. The Integrity Commission, established under the 2007 Prevention of Corruption Act, is to examine, without fear or favour, the declared statements of assets and liabilities of persons in public life, primarily those who are elected. But […]
Nestor Vasquez’s appointment to the Integrity Commission proved to be one of the most controversial for several reasons. He was nominated in his role as a chartered accountant; but his certificate of membership in the Institute of Chartered Accountants, a requirement for appointment, was expired as of 2009. An additional concern was that he was […]
You may remember the parliamentarians from the People’s United Party visiting the office of the Integrity Commission on September nineteenth, National Service Day, to submit their declarations, although no members had been named at that time. In doing so, they avoided a three-thousand dollar fine handed to persons in public life – that is, members […]
Senator Godwin Hulse took former P.U.P. Leader Francis Fonseca to court on a defamation charge years ago. Today, that matter went on trial before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin in the Supreme Court and at the end Fonseca agreed to issue a public retraction and apology. Back in October 2013, Fonseca, as P.U.P. leader, made certain […]
In his interview with the media, Attorney Kareem Musa told reporters that the matter of Immigration scandal is one that is still very much relevant. He said that while his client Francis Fonseca was sued for defamation – he never directly named Hulse to be responsible for what happened in the Ministry – but that […]
President of the Belize Tourism Industry Association, Osmany Salas, was elected on Tuesday by his peers as the thirteenth member of the Senate. He was expected to be sworn in by Tuesday, January seventeenth. The Commencement Order, however, signed by Prime Minister Dean Barrow in October allows that the relevant sections of the amendment to […]
Three separate arbitration awards, given to Belize Social Development Limited; Caribbean Investment Holdings Limited and Newco Limited totaling up to one hundred and twenty million Belize dollars including interest, have the Government in a serious headache. While G.O.B. has steadfastly resisted paying the awards, which they call the fruit of P.U.P. corruption, they are not […]
Former deputy – and at one point acting – director of the Immigration Department, Maria Marin, was back on the hot seat for the Senate Special Select Committee’s fourth public hearing today in Belmopan. Last week, Marin indicated that she tried to get the ball rolling on an investigation of the alleged misdeeds within the […]
An example of alleged Ministerial overreach in the Department was pointed out by the officer in charge of Nationality, Gordon Wade. In the Audit Report he criticized Maria Marin for knowingly allowing Ministers to personally submit nationality-related applications that were incomplete, on the promise that they would bring what else was needed later on. While […]
Accompanying each section of the Immigration Audit Report is a list of recommendations from the auditors. While quite a few have been mentioned before, the political wherewithal to follow through has largely been absent. And former Director Maria Marin, who has moved to head up the refugee program, had some sharp words for both her […]
A key question that the Senate Special Senate Committee on Immigration is seeking to answer is: despite all the protocols and manuals and meetings and reminders that officers in major positions, such as the Port Commanders in charge of the main points of entry countrywide, got to keep their records and keep in touch with […]
News Five has learnt that at Friday’s‘ sitting of the House of Representatives, party whip and Area Rep for Mesopotamia, Michael Finnegan, will be presenting a motion for the return of Cayo South Area Representative Julius Espat to the lower chamber. That motion will be voted upon and all things going well, Espat will be […]
The Belize Territorial Volunteers and their political allies, the Belize Progressive Party, sent out separate releases condemning Government’s efforts to pass an amendment to the Referendum Act, proposing to reduce the threshold of validity of a referendum from sixty percent of the electorate to fifty percent plus one. The B.P.P. says that this is “demonstrative […]
An official breakdown of the 2016 crime statistics was provided by the top brass of the police today. As we have reported, murders are up by nineteen when compared to 2015; it means that the bloodshed in the past year was the highest since 2012. Most of the homicides were gang related. Today, the police […]
There is a thirteenth senator to represent the non-governmental organizations. The historic vote took place this morning resulting in the election of Osmany Salas, the president of the Belize Tourism Industry Association. With significant experience in the N.G.O. sector, Salas glided through two rounds of balloting trouncing the other four aspirants. The thirteenth senator was […]
Former executive director Greg Ch’oc, of the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management, had been tapped as the representative of the N.G.O. community in the House of Senate when the United Democratic Party took office in 2008. While that appointment never materialized, today’s outcome is widely viewed as a milestone in the fight for a […]
