And tonight’s question is: Do you think the US is justified in saying it is disappointed in Belize for not allowing a US lab technician to disembark in Belize in the recent Ebola scare? Send your comments and responses using your SMART phones to 8686 or post your vote on our e-poll at channel5belize.com. You […]
The Ebola scare last Thursday fizzled after a Texan lab technician traveling on a Carnival cruise ship that called to port in Belize was declared free of the deadly virus. But the scare has kicked health officials and relevant authorities into overdrive. The Belize Ports Authority is one of several government agencies on the frontline […]
Benque Police are investigating a very curious shooting which has left one Guatemalan minor injured and another likely dead. It happened at around four Sunday afternoon, when three minors from Melchor de Mencos crossed the border illegally to fish in the Mopan River near Clarissa Falls. One minor told Police that while fishing the trio […]
While police continue to search for the Guatemalan minor, who is presumed dead, the body of forty-four-year-old Samuel Dawson, a truck driver of Hattieville, was found in his San Pedro apartment early on Saturday. Dawson, who had been working at a construction site on the island since the beginning of October, was dropped off at […]
Twenty-four-year-old Ivan Aldana is hospitalized at the K.H.M.H. after being shot in San Pedro on Sunday during an incident in which someone he is familiar with attacked him and fired as many as five shots at him. Sometime after ten p.m., Aldana, who was socializing at Iguana Gardens Bar in San Pedrito, was accosted by […]
It has now been confirmed that a lab technician who was a passenger on the Carnival Magic cruise ship, has been cleared of the Ebola virus. Tests were done on her before the Carnival cruise ship was to arrive in Galveston, Texas. The woman and her husband arrived in Belize on Thursday and the possibility […]
Important training sessions will continue throughout the week to further sensitize frontline workers on the dangers of Ebola. Via Phone: Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Interim Head, Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health “The activities will continue this Wednesday and Thursday, we are doing training sessions with the surveillance team from across the country and we hope […]
As we reported on Friday, the U.S. State Department dissed Belize for not allowing the lab technician and her partner to be transported from the Carnival Magic to the P.G.I.A. Belize was not the only one…Mexico also turned down a request and even Texans did not want the passengers to disembark; they only did when […]
The construction of a forward operating base on Hunting Caye has been halted on the strength of a stop order from U.S. Southcom. The workers left the island on October ninth, upon receipt of that stop order, but the question of their status has remained unanswered. Minister of National Security John Saldivar stated on national […]
The possibility of a threat from the deadly Ebola virus placed the nation on edge on Thursday night, but tonight there is a sigh of relief. The scare started when it became known that a lab technician who may have had contact with fluids from Ebola victim, Thomas Eric Duncan, was travelling on the Carnival […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow was also at this morning’s press conference to quell fears. He reiterated that if there had been any way at all that he could have assisted the U.S. without risk, he would have. And there were discussions entertained at first on getting these quarantined persons on a plane which would fly […]
Barrow says that he thought that was the end of the matter, until he was informed later in the day that the plane was in the air. But despite the unwillingness of the U.S. to accept Belize’s official position, he says the window of opportunity, if it ever existed, had slammed shut. There was one […]
A regional response to the threat of Ebola in the Caribbean earlier this week, prompted several island nations, including the government of St. Lucia and Jamaica to restrict the influx of visitors from hot zones in West Africa. On Wednesday, prime ministers Kenny Anthony and Portia Simpson-Miller embargoed the arrival of passengers from Sierra Leone, […]
The immediate implementation of those new immigration policies is one prong of G.O.B.’s preparation for the threat of Ebola. The Ministry of Health, in the face of Thursday’s wake up call, has also been forced to step up their game. The reality is that even the superpower U.S.A. has been caught off guard by Ebola, […]
The order for seven hundred and fifty hazmat kits has already been placed through the Pan American Health Organization. The order will be some time in coming, since those kits are being sold out across the world, for obvious reasons. But Belize isn’t waiting on those kits – G.O.B. is looking to set up a […]
Will there be repercussions for rejecting a U.S. request to allow the quarantined passenger to be brought on shore? The government was being assured that the lab technician was low risk for the Ebola virus, but the U.S. was persistent in the face of what the Prime Minister says was a firm refusal. So persistent, […]
Just before nine Wednesday night, the body of twenty-two year old Gregory Goodfellow was discovered on the side of the Boom/Hattieville Road. The Ladyville youth was lying in a pool of blood. He had been shot multiple times, allegedly to the body and head. Police immediately cordoned off a two mile stretch of road as […]
Twenty-one year old Brandon Flowers was stabbed Sunday morning in Ladyville, which means that this is the second murder in that community in four days. But is there a connection between the murders of Flowers and twenty-two year old Gregory Goodfellow? The two men grew up in the same area and knew each other, so […]
The Chiquibul has been in the news since Danny Conorquie was executed at the Caracol Archaeological Site. On Wednesday night, we showed you the concerns and recommendations coming out of a trip to the Chiquibul by representatives of the People’s United Party. While nothing new, the concerns are real, and the recommendations are sound. For […]
As we said, the Chiquibul has been on centre stage – or perhaps we could more accurately say that all territorial and border issues have become the ten thousand pound gorilla in the room. While the foreign ministry plays diplomatic tic-tac-toe with its Guatemalan counterparts, the B.D.F. has been put on high alert on our […]
Since the murder of Special Constable Danny Conorquie, and the ensuing hostilities between B.D.F. personnel and residents from the border community of San Valentin, there have been strong public sentiments against Guatemala, the age-old territorial dispute and Belize’s national security. A majority of those views have been expressed openly across the airwaves. Recently, it came […]
As we reported earlier this week, a high-level delegation led by former C.E.O. Alexis Rosado, including representatives of the Opposition, the Belize Defense Force and the Police Department, left for Guatemala City last Friday where a meeting of the Joint Belize-Guatemala Commission was held. The purpose of the gathering, which saw the participation of the […]
According to Elrington, despite the fact that Guatemalan authorities were unable to prevent the despoliation of natural resources on their side of the border, they are prepared to work with Belizean counterparts to come up with agricultural initiatives that will see less encroachment on Belizean soil. Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs “I […]
On major international news agencies, the news today was about Ebola and how countries are preparing to deal with any eventuality. The virus has been detected close to the Jewel in Dallas, Texas. The U.S. today went into emergency mode to coordinate a response in case of an outbreak. Elsewhere, in the Caribbean, Saint Lucia […]
Ebola has captured the attention of the world, but what has caused real dread is the realization that a first world nation like the U.S. has been caught unprepared. And with cases being reported in the US, how long will it be before there are restrictions on visitors from that nation? Today, P.U.P. leader Francis […]
