To conclude his five minute statement, the Prime Minister uses the podium to publicly appeal to the Opposition People’s United Party to desist from going to the Sarstoon. Even as he says that the bi-lateral meetings in Washington resulted in what he calls a breakthrough, the PM says that the PUP can ruin it all […]
Late this evening, People’s United Party Senator Eamon Courtenay responded to the prime minister’s appeal for the P.U.P. to stand down from its planned journey to the Sarstoon this weekend. The PM went a step further to urge the opposition to recommit to the diplomatic effort being made in dealing with the Belize/Guatemala issue. News […]
Now here is the thing. There is, according to the Prime Minister, a breakthrough coming out of the meetings in Washington, but he can’t tell us what that breakthrough is. There is progress, but the Prime Minister is also not able to say what that progress is, in even the minutest detail. There was no […]
If all that leaves you shaking your head, we’re in the same boat. But the media persisted, very interested in hearing details about all the splendid progress, and especially interested in this breakthrough in discussion on the particularly volatile Sarstoon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister “Sir, the press conference is to report to the people […]
Since we were obviously going to get nowhere on the meetings in Washington, News Five asked about a timeline heading forward, particularly where the Opposition is concerned. Talks of a bi-partisan approach to the Belize/Guatemala issue have seemingly broken down after the Opposition’s representative was not asked to accompany the Belizean delegation on these particularly […]
This morning, a boat containing rangers from SATIIM was denied entry to the Sarstoon, not by the Guatemalan Armed Forces, but by the Belize Defense Force. SATIIM co-manages the Sarstoon Temash National Park which is bordered on the South by the Sarstoon, but today they were banned entry at the B.D.F.’s Forward Operating Base. It’s […]
The government of Guatemala is incensed at comments made by Prime Minister Dean Barrow at a press conference held in Belmopan on Tuesday. So incensed that today Guatemala issued a fiery release which states that, “The Government of the Republic of Guatemala regrets and rejects the unfortunate statements made by the Prime Minister of Belize, […]
That very interesting and passionate release from Guatemala also took another turn, in between furious rant and commitment to peaceful resolution. It makes reference to the bi-lateral meeting between Belize and Guatemala held on Tuesday, stating that, “there was a meeting between the foreign ministers of both countries, in which this and other matters relevant […]
The murder count went up by another two in the past twelve hours but since Saturday, a total of seven persons have been brutally murdered in the Belize and Cayo districts. This morning just after nine, a shooting ended in murder on the south side. Troy Cole was shot twice as he rode his bicycle […]
The second murder took place on Tuesday night in the Ladyville area where gunshot blasts were heard as early as nine o’clock in the night. A resident of the Japan area was showered by bullets as he was preparing to take a bath. Thirty-one year old Lloyd Gerald Robateau was ambushed and died near the […]
An expecting mother whose pregnancy was terminated under dubious circumstances remains at the center of a police investigation tonight. Police were notified late Tuesday that a fetus had been discarded in a shallow grave on Jane Usher Boulevard in the south side of the city. They have since been posted at the location where preparations […]
Turning to the weekend murders….Today, postmortem examinations were conducted on the bodies of thirty-nine year old cosmetologist Miriam Mai and her sister-in-law, twenty-nine year old Daisy Miralda. The duo was killed on Saturday evening around five-thirty by the estranged common-law-husband of Mai, Andy Bustillos, who turned the gun on himself after he committed what the […]
The double murder of Mai and Miralda in Santa Elena occurred two days after the bodies of two Guatemalan nationals were discovered off a feeder road between mile sixty-nine and seventy leading to the Mopan River in San Ignacio. Last Thursday, fifty-two-year-old Santos Ramon Gomez and thirty-seven-year-old Orlando Antonio Garcia Calletal, who are believed to […]
Last Friday, the Government of Belize passed a most controversial law to prevent the Belize Territorial Volunteers from entering the Sarstoon, over which the Guatemalans are now in full control. We will have that story later, but today, the Prime Minister spoke for the first time of that law and other developments in the Sarstoon. […]
There are many issues on the table between Belize and Guatemala, including what the Prime Minister has termed a crisis averted. But even before that crisis following the Chiquibul incident, the Sarstoon remained a volatile point between countries. So what exactly will the Belizean delegation discuss when it sits across from Guatemala in Washington? […]
As we said a little later, an expedition planned by the Belize Territorial Volunteers for the Sarstoon this past weekend was halted by elements of the Belize Coast Guard and the Police. In fact, the expedition didn’t even get off the ground, so to speak. The Prime Minister had no apology today, and instead hoped […]
With the Sarstoon under lock to Belizeans by both Guatemalan and Belizean law enforcement, all eyes are on the diplomatic channels being maneuvered. That hasn’t worked out so well to this point, but at least where government is concerned, hope springs eternal. But today, PM Barrow explained that it’s not really eternal at all – […]
In one of his recent interviews condemning Belize, Guatemala’s Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales claims that he has an agreement with his counterpart, Wilfred Elrington, in which no Belizean would go to Sarstoon Island. That’s an extraordinary agreement to which we’ve certainly not been made privy. Prime Minister Barrow today told us that that’s because […]
Hours prior to the Prime Minister’s press conference in the capital, the People’s United Party briefed the media in Belize City. The National Executive approved five measures that the party will be undertaking in light of the developments in the Sarstoon. Essentially, the party wants the Sarstoon Law to be rescinded and will file a […]
You have heard the Prime Minister say there was no time to invite the representative of People’s United Party to the discussions to be held by Minister Elrington in Washington. The P.U.P. says there have been other recent instances where the opposition has been left out which signals that the long established bipartisan approach to […]
If at first you don’t succeed, send in the big guns. And if they don’t succeed, just change the law. And they have. Via release issued today, the government informs that a new law passed under Section Two of the Public Safety Act will, “prohibit persons and vessels, without lawful authority, from entering into Belize’s […]
Those immediately affected by the law, and in whose honor the law was drafted are the Belize Territorial Volunteers. The group had planned an expedition to the Sarstoon on Saturday. Public entreaties by Prime Minister Dean Barrow failed to sway BTV head Wil Maheia, so on Thursday the PM dispatched military and foreign affairs leaders […]
Maheia isn’t the only one disappointed by the new law. The P.U.P. has been engaged in the Guatemala discussion, and committed to a bi-partisan approach to resolution, but today the party came out swinging. Representatives declined comment, but the release makes it clear that the new law under the Public Safety Act is considered retrograde […]
The grassroots activist organization known as COLA, Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action, has been quiet lately. But today it re-emerged with a fiery release condemning G.O.B.’s new law, which we could probably dub Wil’s Law. The release blasts G.O.B., claiming that the, quote, latest action proves the government’s lack of priority as it relates […]
Brackett says COLA is prepared to go a couple steps further than condemnation by calling for a national shutdown. He told News Five that “For far too long Belize has lacked true leadership as it relates to this issue and it is time for the citizens of Belize to rise up and demand better.” […]
