As we mentioned earlier, the amended Petrocaribe Loan Motion was pushed through its stages today, obviously without debate from the absent Opposition. Earlier in the day, before that perhaps knee-jerk decision to depart in protest, the discussion of Petrocaribe had gotten underway, as PM Barrow went to the House for a supplementary appropriations bill, outlining […]
The Opposition doesn’t want to hear about supplementary appropriations where Petrocaribe is concerned. They maintain that the government is being less than transparent and accountable where the spending of those many millions is concerned – giving only as much information as they deem necessary. P.U.P. Leader Francis Fonseca told the media that where the Petrocaribe […]
Also before the Opposition walkout, another sensitive and critical issue was ventilated by Prime Minister Dean Barrow. On Monday the PM took a hard line against the Mayans of Santa Cruz, and he has taken heat for it. But his stance remains unchanged. Today, in a statement from the floor, the PM reiterated that no […]
That stance has been criticized in various sectors as premature and one-sided, and today the Opposition finally weighed in, from outside the House. According to P.U.P. Leader, the position expressed by Barrow can be regarded as no less than an attempt by the government to flare up ethnic tensions in the country. Francis Fonseca, […]
Tonight, impassioned debate continues to dominate over the incident in Santa Cruz, Toledo in which a Creole man, Rupert Myles, was ordered detained and handcuffed by the community alcalde. That incident sparked the arrest on Wednesday of ten Maya residents and Maya Leaders Alliance spokesperson, Cristina Coc. The villagers were charged with unlawful imprisonment and […]
Following the arraignment of the group of eleven, allegations of physical abuse by personnel from the Special Patrol Unit are being refuted by Superintendent Simeon Alvarez, Officer Commanding Punta Gorda Police Formation. During an early morning raid on Santa Cruz village on Wednesday, a pair of detainees was reportedly manhandled and injured to various parts […]
The race card, as we’ve mentioned in our coverage of this incident, is on prominent display, having been played by Rupert Myles in the wake of his detention on Saturday. His opinion that he is the victim of racial discrimination by the Mayas is a sentiment that is also echoed elsewhere in Toledo. Outside of […]
There have been four shootings in less than forty-eight hours in the Old Capital. And tonight, one man is dead and two others are in critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. The spate of violence started on Monday, but on Wednesday night, a taxi man was fatally wounded around ten o’clock while a […]
But it is likely that police will have another homicide on their hands. Sixteen year old Reuben Leslie, a student of a George Price Highway address, was shot multiple times to the right leg and the center of his forehead. According to relatives, Leslie is brain-dead and is being kept alive by a ventilator at […]
As we told you earlier, Melvin Hulse has retracted comments he made about the prime minister and earlier today, he followed up with a resignation as U.D.P. standard bearer in Stann Creek West. It was not exactly unexpected because internally in the U.D.P., Hulse could no longer expect support financially or otherwise. One senior U.D.P. […]
A News Five crew is in Punta Gorda tonight where the situation is a volatile one. We’ll have much more on this story later on in the newscast, but at about four o’clock this morning, the police rolled into the village of Santa Cruz, Toledo. They rounded up ten Maya residents and took them to […]
As we said, Cristina Coc and ten others were arraigned this morning in the Punta Gorda Magistrate Court following an early morning operation. Several persons in detention were reportedly injured when personnel from the Special Patrol Unit descended on their homes. Doors were allegedly knocked down and one man was said to have been punched […]
Also in the south… On Friday, Magdalena Buul came forward with a story alleging that former U.D.P. Minister of State Juan Coy sold off a forty-five acre tract of land belonging to her in San Pedro, Columbia. The title for the land was granted to Clive Ferrell, a resident of the United Kingdom who reportedly […]
Did the Board of Directors of the S.S.B. approve loans to Belizean businessman and banana magnate Johnny Zabaneh? That’s the report which came out of the S.S.B. last week, and it’s of interest because in 2012, Zabaneh was sanctioned by the U.S. under the Kingpin Act, for his alleged connection to the Sinoloa Cartel and […]
Woodrow West is minutes away from touching down tonight in Honduras where he will join the Club Deportivo Honduras de El Progreso, the Honduras Progresso Football Club. The star goalkeeper signed a three-year contract just last week with the team to play professionally in the National Football League of Honduras. Following a call on Tuesday […]
There was yet another shooting in the city in less than twenty-four hours. Just before nine p.m. on Tuesday night, shots rang out on Old Fabers Road in the Caesar Ridge area. Twenty-eight year old Jamelia Neal is tonight admitted to ward at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after she was shot multiple times to […]
There is a development tonight in respect of a decision reached on Tuesday night in the trial of Daniel Myvett who is accused with the murder of a Nigerian security guard. And that is that Myvett’s attorney will be contesting the decision by Justice Troadio Gonzalez who ordered a retrial when the jury could not […]
There is public outrage over an incident that took place in Santa Cruz, Toledo on Saturday afternoon. A Creole man, Rupert Myles was detained by a group of Maya residents and tied up. The photographs of the man in handcuffs on social media has caused a huge uproar and even the Prime Minister has taken […]
This afternoon in Santa Cruz, dozens of villagers were attempting to determine the possible outcome of this volatile situation. While residents maintain that the buildup, as well as the resultant incident on Saturday, was not racially motivated, they insist that the customary law under which the community is governed applies to everyone who chooses to […]
On Monday night we brought you pieces of an explosive recording in which senior UDP insider and former Minister Melvin Hulse lashes out at Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Allegations made on that tape were serious enough for the PM to seek legal sanctuary, and threaten to sue if anybody dared to repeat. Apart from the […]
The media has elected to not repeat specific allegations against the PM in the Hulse recording, but today the social media lit up bright all day long, gag order or not. Since November, when then PUP Cayo North Area Representative Joseph Mahmud tendered a rather abrupt resignation from the House, the PUP maintained that he […]
While the P.U.P. leader and others in the opposition have had their say on the Melvin Hulse recordings, the Party also issued a statement today. The PUP says the Hulse recordings confirm what the PUP has known for the past seven months, that being, that the UDP government has been corruptly using Petrocaribe funds to […]
And our question for tonight is: Do you now believe that parliamentarians are being paid off to step down? Yes or No? Send your comments and responses using your SMART phones to 8686 or post your vote on our e-poll at channel5belize.com. You can also send an email with your comments to questions@channel5belize. […]
A fifteen year old student is hospitalized in a critical condition but stable condition. Shortly before nine on Monday night, the second form student of Caanan High School was walking on Lakeview Street heading to his home on Sibun Street when he was shot. According to reports, there were at least two men, one of […]
A politically sensational tape recording dropped like a bomb shell early this morning. It came from the U.D.P. and it is about the U.D.P. Melvin Hulse, the standard bearer for the party in the Stann Creek West constituency, who is also a former U.D.P. Minister, has held back nothing in lambasting his PM, Dean Barrow. […]
