Where the dreaded loss of correspondent banking relationships is concerned, PM Barrow says there is little to report following the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting held in Placencia recently. Coming out of that meeting a decision was taken to send a high-level mission on a round of meetings with federal regulators and other pertinent agencies. […]
The derisking phenomenon is an offshoot of continued pressure from the U.S. to crack down on money laundering and other financial improprieties, real or perceived. The superpower feels that illegal money could be used to fund the narcotics movement into the US or even terrorism. Belize has been feeling the pinch of crippling financial regulations, […]
The House of Representatives met in session this morning, and in short order there was the much anticipated presentation of the budget for fiscal year 2016/2017. It’s Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s ninth budget over three terms of a United Democratic Party administration, and is being called Stability in a Time of Change. Barrow prefaced his […]
Petrocaribe money played a very significant role in the spending which characterized the 2015/2015 fiscal year. The Barrow administration has taken significant and continuous flak for its spending of the three hundred and twenty-five million it has accessed since 2012. As he always has, though, the PM defends the government’s use of the money, accusing […]
Speaking on the adjournment in response to a question raised, the PM also spoke at length about a current crisis facing the citrus industry. In a release issued late last week, the Citrus Growers Association informed growers that making payroll in the immediate future will be an iffy proposition. As explanation, the CGA claims that […]
P.U.P. leader John Briceño has been openly forecasting that the budget would be a dismal one based on a variety of factors, including industries which seem to be falling and failing for one reason or the other. Faced with the same realities and the same figures, PM Barrow says that public finances are sturdy and […]
Not surprisingly, PM Barrow wasn’t impressed by Briceño’s preliminary analysis of his Stability budget. He says that it wasn’t about overspending to buy the affections of the people, but rather investing in the people in a way which is now reaping full dividends. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “I would think that the people of […]
In the prime tourism destination of San Pedro Ambergris Caye, two persons were murdered adding to the list of homicide statistics since the beginning of the year. A Cayo resident was brutally beaten allegedly by three police officers on Friday and passed away on Monday morning after slipping into a coma and undergoing two rounds […]
Domestic violence reared its ugly head again in a murder in San Pedro Ambergris Caye. Last Thursday, a woman from the Salvapan community in Belmopan was killed due to domestic violence. Over the weekend on the island, a man lost his life when he was attacked by his wife of thirteen years. She is a […]
There is a confirmed report tonight of a Guatemalan national being shot in an area south of the Chiquibul known as Cebada. Brigadier General David Jones told News Five earlier this evening that a B.D.F. patrol came into contact with civilians in the vicinity. There was a brief exchange of gunfire which resulted in the […]
Domestic violence has been the cause of several murders in 2015. Tonight, there is a report of a femicide in which the life of a forty-five year old woman of Salvapan was taken by her common-law husband. Candy Reymundo, an entrepreneur and mother of seven children, sold plantain chips in the area and had been […]
In an extended and exclusive interview this morning with Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington, we touched on a long list of pressing issues in respect of the Sarstoon waters in southern Belize where the Guatemalan military has been illegally entering Belize’s territorial waters. Last Saturday, it was patently clear that the military blocked the Belize Territorial […]
This morning, we also asked about the diplomatic note that was to be dispatched to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Guatemala, in light of the incursion in the Sarstoon by Guatemalan gunboats on Saturday. Elrington confirmed that the note has been sent but insisted that such diplomatic practices are not the solution to the […]
On November seventh, 2015 a fire broke inside one of the buildings at the Princess Royal Youth Hostel at mile twenty-one and a half on the George Price Highway. Three female minors, who were locked away in one of the rooms, lost their lives in the inferno. There was public outcry that negligence on the […]
There are reports of new Guatemalan settlements popping up in areas of southern Belize. Those are in addition to others in the Chiquibul where xateros and gold-panners operate within the reserve. On Saturday, at the start of the BTV expedition, activist and B.P.P. Vice President, Wil Maheia pointed to some new settlements where Guatemalans were […]
The issue of illegal settlements was raised with the Foreign Minister. His response was that Belize is likely to continue to rely on the O.A.S. to assist in the removal of the settlements. Elrington says burning down their structures is not the answer. Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs “They’ve always been coming […]
Three men arrested and charged by Orange Walk Police on Wednesday afternoon were today arraigned in Magistrate’s Court on charges of drug trafficking. They were found with a high grade of weed from Mexico which been frequently turning up in Belize. On an intelligence-led operation, police had been on the lookout for a gold-colored Cadillac […]
In June 2008, then Mayor of Orange Walk Town Ravell Gonzalez knocked down and killed two persons near Rhaburn Ridge on the Phillip Goldson Highway. Manuel Coto was pushing a bike with two year old Markita Lopez on it, when a minivan being driven by Gonzalez struck them. He was charged for causing death by […]
There’s another bust to report tonight and it involves conch. The Fisheries Department seized a large quantity of illegally harvested seafood, following a search conducted on a vessel south of Belize City on Wednesday. Five fishermen have been arrested as a result of the bust. They were found in possession of over one thousand undersized […]
Two alleged smugglers from Belize were arrested in Chetumal after they were caught along the bank of the Rio Hondo with multiple packages of clothing, tightly compressed in black plastic bags. According to a news post from Chetumal, during a routine check by Mexican authorities along the border with the Commercial Free Zone, a minivan […]
Imagine you’re a retired pensioner in Belize, collecting your monthly check. It’s your only income. That’s what you use to buy groceries, to pay your rent or mortgage, to pay utility bills. Basically everything revolves around that money which comes in around the fifteenth of every month, like clockwork. And then in mid-February you go […]
So what’s behind this crisis for pensioners early in the New Year? Well, there are only two things in banking that have changed significantly and recently – one is the loss of correspondent banking relationships and the other is the transition of First Caribbean to Heritage Bank. We asked Duncan if either, both, or none […]
Dean Barrow is the fourth Prime Minister of Belize to be named to the Privy Council. The announcement was made in London by Queen Elizabeth so it means that the PM will now be referred to as the Right Honourable. The news of the appointment was made in the UK on March first. Here at […]
Around five o’clock this afternoon, there was a shooting on Central American Boulevard. Two gunmen attempted to rob a salesman from Vega’s Distributors of Benque Viejo del Carmen, Cayo. The salesman was exiting his vehicle on Central American Boulevard when two would-be robbers approached him. The salesman opened fire on the duo, who fled the […]
A long and traumatic journey which began on New Year’s Eve 2008 and included a conviction for money laundering, jail time, countless trips to Court and even a death is finally over. In 2014 the Coye family was vindicated after the Court of Appeal found that they were not money launderers. But since then the […]
