Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat held two of the strong P.U.P. seats in Belize City. Espat and Hyde bowed out at the eleventh hour of the 2012 General Elections and many P.U.P. insiders blamed them for the loss of the elections. In a previous House Meeting, Minister of Housing, Michael Finnegan called them home and […]
Luke Espat has announced his political candidacy in Cayo Central in loud fashion. The reaction to that announcement both inside and outside the People’s United Party has been mixed, but Espat remains confident. The problem is that Cayo Central already has a political officer. Collet Montejo narrowly lost that seat in 2012 and since then […]
In the south, SATIIM and Alcaldes of communities in the buffer zone of the Sarstoon Temash National Park have filed for an injunction against US Capital Energy. That injunction seeks to halt activities by the oil company within the park. Today SATIIM’s Executive Director, Greg Ch’oc, told News Five that the court will hear the […]
The Ministry of Health is still reeling from the effects of the death of thirteen newborns, seven of whom died from a bacterial outbreak at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in May. A report which was commissioned by the Pan American Health Organization detailed serious structural breakdowns, negligent practices and inadequate attention to basic hygiene. […]
Businessman Luke Espat, largely recognized for his controversial roles in an unsuccessful projects such as the failed cruise tourism project at the port, has announced his intention to run on the P.U.P. ticket in Cayo Central. Not surprisingly, that announcement has met with mixed reviews. Party Leader Francis Fonseca told News Five on Monday that […]
And as for his business woes, which include failed ventures, multiple receiverships such as the Renaissance, Crocland and even bankruptcy…Espat says that business is separate from politics. He says that rather than look at those as failures, they should be regarded as gutsy moves by a Belizean entrepreneur who continues to invest in Belize. And […]
On Sunday morning, fifty-one-year-old Pedro Antonio Vasquez, a Guatemalan national, was brutally murdered in Benque Viejo del Carmen after a night of socializing on the town. While his son initially came forward to say that Vasquez was last seen at the Picadilly Lounge, he has since retracted that statement. The laborer was discovered lying in […]
There are fresh details on Samer Akil Rada, the Venezuelan Lebanese businessman, whose name has been linked to eight hundred and eighty pounds of cocaine that was consigned to the Corozal Free Zone. The cocaine was found in containers of frozen pineapple juice in a vehicle that was busted in the outskirts of El Salvador […]
Earlier this year, the Auditor General came under siege by the Guardian Newspaper, the political arm of the United Democratic Party Government. Dorothy Bradley’s reports for 2010-2011 spoke of many inadequacies, irregularities and inconsistent bookkeeping practices. The duty of righting the wrongs in government departments and ministries is tasked to the Public Accounts Committee, or […]
San Pedro town councilor Carlos Barrientos was reportedly detained by police on the island, following a brawl at the Reef Village Resort over the weekend. Barrientos was purportedly at the establishment socializing with a male companion on Saturday when it is alleged that the two got into a heated argument which resulted in blows being […]
Businessman, Luke Espat, is no stranger to political or financial circles in Belize. He’s generally stayed in the background of politics in the People’s United Party even as he is front and center in finance and business, but usually where controversy is involved. Well, tonight Espat is making the news for an early announcement that […]
And even as Francis Fonseca’s response to Luke Espat’s political intentions seemed lukewarm at best, he appears ready to roll out the fatted calf for a prodigal son who might be coming home. Cordel Hyde won three consecutive elections in Lake Independence before he walked away on the eve of elections 2012 and many believed […]
Turning to crime news, there was a vicious murder over the weekend in Benque Viejo del Carmen. A Guatemalan national who made the border town his home for at least fifteen years, was bludgeoned to death and his body found near a gas station in the downtown area on Sunday morning. Most of the injuries […]
Several persons including Mark Sewell, Rhett Fuller and more recently, Dion Bruce, are currently behind bars at the Central Prison, as they are fighting extradition to the United States. Well, just after ten this morning, Belizean national Khalid Jamil El Turk was saved from being sent to the U.S. Since October eighteenth of 2012, El […]
Stephen Buckley was shot in April 2010 by an on duty police officer, Inspector Denis Lopez, in the Port Loyola during a police operation. Buckley was not armed, but was shot twice to the head through the windshield of his boss’ vehicle despite complying with the instructions of the police. He almost died, but a […]
Buckley was thirty-seven years old when the shotgun blast penetrated his skull and the shrapnel embedded in places that surgery would not help. Doctor Joel Cervantes, the neurosurgeon in his report said that the injuries permanently injured the right brachial plexus. Since the shooting, Buckley has been unable to make a living and it has […]
Much of the media attention over the past few years have focused on Buckley’s recovery and mounting medical bills, but little has been heard of Inspector Dennis Lopez. Lopez is the officer who is accused of shooting Buckley with a sixteen gauge shotgun to the face. According to Bradley, that is a separate criminal matter […]
Norwegian Cruise Line’s mega-million dollar destination in southern Belize is one step closer to a done deal with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between G.O.B. and N.C.L. The signing took place on Thursday, but up until now, government had been tight-lipped on details of negotiations over the past month. But the two parties […]
The Norwegian Cruise Line’s memorandum of understanding has been signed. Industry stakeholders, including the well established hotel sector, have not been consulted regarding the long term effects on the environment. On Thursday, the Belize Tourism Board’s Director of Tourism, Laura Esquivel Frampton and the C.E.O. for the Ministry of Tourism, Tracy Taegar Panton, dismissed the […]
Krohn was not the only one who threw a few punches at the architects of the M.O.U. and the press release. President of B.T.I.A., Herbert Haylock, spoke of a political need to inject cash into the economy. Rather than thinking of the long term future of tourism for Belize, Haylock postulated that that the government […]
Two weeks ago, Forestry Minister Lisel Alamilla revealed on national television that G.O.B. sold containers of rosewood to exporters for fifteen thousand dollars. That’s a giveaway, especially since a container of rosewood has a market value of over two hundred thousand dollars. According to Alamilla, she got tired of the back and forth with exporters […]
And while P.M. Barrow says he didn’t know about the rosewood cheap sale, the PM admits to knowing about the Fresh Pond lots giveaway by his deputy and Minister of Natural Resources, Gaspar Vega. The situation got public attention after C.E.O. in the Ministry of Housing Lawrence Sylvester was escorted out of the Natural Resources […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow has gone out of his way to express his fullest confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega. Vega’s name keeps coming up whenever there is controversy, scandal or whiffs of corruption in government. Today Barrow defended Vega again, even though the man who benefitted the most from the almost-giveaway of the […]
There is more information tonight in respect of a huge drug bust in San Salvador two weeks ago, but has just come to light. Anti drug agents used drug-sniffing dogs on a vehicle that was found to be carrying more than eight hundred pounds of cocaine, which as it turns out was heading to Belize. […]
Police are preparing to arrest a San Ignacio resident for a serious crime of conspiracy to commit murder. While the charge is not unusual, the case is rare in Belize, but the plot is made for television. It involves a Belizean woman who recently married a British national, Glen Wilson. The young bride allegedly masterminded […]
