The anticipated results of the Primary School Exams were released this afternoon. Seven thousand two hundred and forty five candidates sat the exams and as has been the trend in the past years, the results show terrible weaknesses in Math, English and Social Studies. In math, a worrisome forty seven percent scored only E’s which […]
According to Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action, COLA, the Auditor-General’s report recommends that Elvin Penner, Director of Immigration Maria Marin and others be charged criminally for their roles in immigration corruption. That report was leaked to COLA earlier this week, and because of an upcoming court case, the organization is not disclosing it in […]
The Auditor General’s report also makes pointed reference to challenges regarding the lack of cooperation during their investigation. In fact, Director of Immigration Maria Marin is named with great prominence in the report – accused of, “blatant disrespect for the Auditor General’s office and lack of regard for the law.” The team stated that they […]
So while Minister Hulse says maximum cooperation, the Auditor-General’s team is saying they received anything but that. That’s actually par for the course where COLA is concerned. They were encouraged by no less than Prime Minister Barrow to pursue private prosecution, but when it came to getting support and assistance from government functionaries, they’re batting […]
There is tension tonight among the farming community of the Valley of Peace. As you know by now, the farmers lost their vegetables when the herbicide Roundup was used in aerial spraying. The company, Green Tropics, was fingered in the spraying but the company says it owns the land. On Wednesday, the farmers received an […]
The Joint Unions Negotiating Team, comprised of the Belize National Teachers Union, the Public Service Union, as well as the Association of Public Service Senior Managers, met with the Ministry of Finance this afternoon to finalize their salary adjustment. The fine-tuning of monthly wages works out to a six percent increase, retroactive to April of […]
Wednesday’s press briefing, hosted by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, lasted three hours and covered much ground. One of the issues which came up is the controversy surrounding SATIIM, drilling by US Capital and a decision by the Supreme Court which all parties are interpreting for their own purposes. We use the word controversy, but for […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow hosted a press conference this afternoon, his first in at least six months. So you can understand that there were many questions. In fact, the session went on for more than three hours. The first segment was dedicated to Belize City Council news, and we’ll get to that in due course. […]
While the PM took his initial jab at ROC, he pulled no punches when it comes to the unions who are behind ROC, and claims that the agitation of the Unions at this time is self-serving. A salary increase should kick in on July first and the PM says that while government has committed to […]
PM Barrow says that the IMF is actually telling the government to retrench public officers, as is being done all over the region. And it’s more than that. Teachers and public servants have made additional demands, including health insurance and payments for so-called lost increments. The PM says those demands are irrational and will not […]
Then the PM turned from the unions to the group which organized the rally on Saturday. BGYEA wants to plant corn on about sixty acres of buffer zone at Harmonyville and government immediately slapped them with an injunction. So BGYEA took centre stage at the ‘Plant di Corn’ rally. PM Barrow says they can plant […]
The Auditor-General’s report on corruption in Immigration surrounding the Won Hong Kim/Elvin Penner passport scandal was handed over on March twenty-first to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Immigration. Since then there has been no word on the findings from official circles and there wasn’t any either today. COLA has requested a copy of […]
And that brings us to the man at the centre of the scandal, former Minister of State Elvin Penner. According to PM Barrow, any suggestion that there is a cover-up is simply not true. In fact, he says, the ball is in the D.P.P.’s court and any decision to prosecute or not lies with her. […]
Gang rivalry was at the root of a spate of shootings that started over the weekend and continued through Tuesday. As many as nine persons were shot and injured including Rafael Cruz, who is clinging to life at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after he was ambushed on Tuesday morning. Then on Sunday, five persons […]
Full scale gang warfare continues unabated in Belize City; nine persons have been shot in three days. The latest casualty is twenty-seven year old Rafael Cruz. He was shot four times this morning in broad daylight on Vernon Street. The two gangs at war are George Street and Ghost Town, and this latest round of […]
As we said, on Sunday night, a pair of gunmen stormed a graduation party at the Brown Sugar Mall and indiscriminately let loose a volley of shots at a number of unsuspecting guests. While most were able to scramble to safety, five persons, including Kirk Smith Junior were injured. Smith Junior was shot in the […]
The shooting incident this morning involving Cruz, an associate of Roger Anthony, is believed to have been retaliatory. When we posed that question to him, Anthony said he cannot ascertain a connection between the two events. The safety of his workmen, it would appear, is being threatened by the series of events, but Anthony says […]
The other shooting in the city today happened less than seven hours after the near-fatal attack on twenty-seven-year-old Rafael Cruz gunshots rang out near a residence on Victoria Street. Shortly after three o’clock this afternoon, a lone gunman emerged on the scene and opened fire at his quarry. Fortunately, the bullets flew wide of their […]
The Auditor-General’s report on corruption in immigration is out…well technically it’s been out since March twenty-first, almost three months ago…sent to the PM and to the Ministry of Immigration. But it has been kept under lockdown. And now it’s out…and we mean really out. COLA today issued a press release revealing that it has gotten […]
On Monday night, we showed you part one of an exclusive interview with Christian Ebanks. Ebanks, who also goes by the name Floyd Ebanks Jurado, is wanted in Ecuador for the 2011 murder of Alejandro Martín Teófilo, which occurred on Puna Island in the Guayas Province of his country of birth. While Ebanks was unable […]
On May twenty-ninth, manager of Cavetubing.bz Vitalino Reyes Junior was badly beaten at the Long Island Bar in Belize City. Six employees of Yhony Rosado’s Cavetubing.com, a competitor, have since been arrested and charged by Police for the assault. Rosado maintains that his employees are innocent and none of them touched Reyes. Still, the twenty-three […]
There was a spate of shootings in Belize City between Saturday and this morning. A total of eight persons were wounded to varying degrees. At a graduation party held at the Brown Sugar Mall on Sunday, as many as five persons were injured after they crashed the party of a student, who is the daughter […]
The spate of shooting started on Saturday. Around nine-forty-five p.m., twenty-eight year old Sigmond Trapp and twenty-five year old Anthony Scott were injured at the corner of Amara and Kut Avenues as they headed towards Euphrates Avenue in south side Belize City. A black Ford Escort car drove up to Trapp and Scott a block […]
Five hours later, sixteen-year-old Corine White was targeted near Newtown Barracks on Sunday morning. The teenager was reportedly in the company of her boyfriend and another person inside a green vehicle heading in the direction of Calle Al Mar, when they came under gunfire. At about three-thirty a.m., a lone gunman emerged on the scene […]
Christian Ebanks, who also goes by the name Floyd Ebanks Jurado, obtained Supreme Court bail last Friday. He was arrested and charged in May after the Gang Suppression Unit raided the Belize City house he shared with his recently wedded wife. The GSU found an unlicensed nine millimeter pistol hidden in a stove. Ebanks is […]
