Battlefield Park, aside from being among the oldest public spaces in the city, is a refuge for loiterers. The venue is also littered with fast food vendors around the clock and the combination makes for a volatile mix, one which has contributed significantly to a spike in crime and violence in the area over the […]
Twenty-three year old Frank Edwards, the only accused culprit detained for the March 2010 robbery of Scotia Bank in Spanish Lookout which ended in the fatal shooting of security guard Steven Lopez, walked away a free man today after being acquitted of murder. Edwards appeared before Justice Troadio Gonzalez in Belmopan this morning represented by […]
One man who has seen a litany of charges and always manages to walk away clean is Darien Banks. The thirty three year old is tonight behind bars where he will serve a minimum of three years after being found guilty of drug trafficking. Banks was convicted for trafficking a little under twenty-seven pounds of […]
An airplane flipped over when it made contact with the sea. The seaplane is designed to take off and alight on water. However, some models of these floatplanes can’t handle waves greater than twelve inches. And on March twenty-fourth, a routine exercise shook up fifty-seven year old James Glen Wagner, the pilot. Wagner, a United […]
There is a foreboding sense of apprehension going into the weekend in the Taylor’s Alley neighborhood where security forces clashed with residents on Wednesday night. An investigation is being launched into the allegations that the Gang Suppression Unity and the Dragon Unit harassed and brutalized members of the Taylor Alley Gang. The incident is threatening […]
On Monday we reported on the vicious attack on a group of American tourists who were spending the night off the coast of the Pelican Cayes near southern Belize. During the incident a sixty-one year old woman was sexually assaulted by one of four men. Two of her colleagues were also stabbed and relieved of […]
There has been increasing violence in the Placencia peninsula where the beaches are among the most pristine and the area has become a hot diving destination. What was once a small sleepy village has boomed into a major adventure getaway. But the crime wave is threatening the security of residents and visitors and can potentially […]
Tons of e-mails and messages are being received at this station in respect of our website. For the past two days, our online readers have been experiencing difficulty accessing channel5belize.com. Our website was hacked and has been tagged by Google and Mozilla as malicious. It was cleaned up and repaired by the technicians at Idea […]
The recently imposed moratorium on rosewood harvesting and exportation in the south has received mixed responses. While the NGO community supports it, many residents in Stann Creek and Toledo are protesting because they have logs that were already harvested and the moratorium means a financial loss if they are not allowed to sell it. We […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow was sworn in on March ninth for his second term in office. This Wednesday, the national assembly held its first session in Belmopan. And on Sunday, the PM will be traveling to Miami, Florida with his wife, Kim Simpliss Barrow, who has been undergoing chemotherapy battling stage three breast cancer. The […]
The Gang Suppression Unit was in open conflict on Wednesday night with residents of Taylor’s Alley. Shortly after seven, six residents of the area say that the GSU descended in the alley where the well known street figure, Arthur Young was hanging out with a group of young men from the Conscious Youth Development Programme. […]
According to the men, they all had to get medical attention for varying injuries after the GSU brutalized them. Among the group is Tulio Caseres, he suffered a broken jaw. Caseres says the actions of the GSU weren’t warranted and he is expecting continued harassment from the GSU. Tulio Caseres, Alleges GSU Brutality “Deh […]
Residents of the area say they witnessed the GSU overstep their bounds in an abusive manner. Many of them fear further brutality, but one woman says she is willing to speak out because in all her years in Taylor’s Alley, this is the first time she has witnessed such brutal incidents. She says they have […]
From the high seas to the court, an application for leave to present an Election Petition was filed with the Supreme Court by Yolanda Schakron. Schakron was rejected on nomination day to contest the general elections in Lake Independence. Schakron would have been on the P.U.P. ticket and was considered a sure winner, but it […]
City Hall has had its fair share of controversies over the past decade. Two previous mayors have been questioned about financial transactions that did not have wise business sense or were carried out using irregular accounting practices. To make sure that his term as Mayor is beyond reproach, Darrell Bradley says he immediately launched an […]
Since the municipal elections, Mayor Darrell Bradley hired a team of professionals to examine and straighten out the mechanics of city hall. Everything from financial practices to the health of the working environment are under review. Bradley told News Five that audits of most of the departments of city hall are being carried out to […]
The ceremonial opening of the House of Representatives took place this morning and we’ll have all the pageantry of that event coming up. But first, the new Senate was installed. The twelve-member body is comprised of mostly new faces; Marco Pech is President and there are six Senators from the government side. The opposition has […]
Cabinet met this week in its first session since the March seventh elections and this morning in open-air, the ceremonial opening of the National Assembly took place. As is traditional, the Throne Speech was delivered by Governor General Sir Colville Young followed by a shorter statement by the Prime Minister. The elected representatives and the […]
Symposiums do not always attract large audiences, but there was a full house of students today at the Belize at Thirty event. The handout politics and the history of broadcasting were two of the more interesting topics presented in the afternoon session of the symposium organized by NICH. Isani Cayetano reports from the Fordyce Chapel […]
A Salvadoran national who was caught in Belize after overstaying her visitor’s permit was charged today before Magistrate Sherigne Rodriguez. Forty-two year old Maria Cruz Argueta Flores arrived in Belize on December twelfth, 2009 and was granted a permit to stay until January fourth, 2012. Since she never left, Argueta was charged for Failure to […]
A freeze was put in place on the harvesting and exportation of rosewood last Friday within days of the resumption of office by the Dean Barrow administration. It was a first major policy statement coming from the new Minister of Forestry and Sustainable Development, Lisel Alamilla that immediately won praise from conservationists. But there are […]
And while some protestors made it Belmopan to picket outside the National Assembly Building this morning, a second busload was turned back upon reaching Armenia. Both buses were met by a contingent of armed officers, believed to be members of the Dragon Unit, who formed an ad hoc checkpoint near the outskirts of the village. […]
APAMO which comprises numerous conservation NGOs, on Monday applauded the suspension of harvesting and exportation of rosewood. Letters of support were sent to the Prime Minister and to Minister of Forestry, Lisel Alamilla describing the moratorium as “the first positive and assertive step in mitigating the environmental crisis caused by the unregulated harvesting of rosewood […]
In anticipation of Wednesday’s opening of the House of Representatives, we note that, Francis Fonseca, took the oath this afternoon as leader the Opposition in the House of Representatives. It is his second term as leader in the House, the first was on November third. Other members of the House will be sworn in on […]
The private sector will also have a new face in the Senate to succeed Godwin Hulse who has been named as Minister of Labour. On Monday evening, businessman Mark Lizarraga of Southside Meats handsomely won elections to represent the Chamber of Commerce and the Belize Business Bureau. Lizarraga is also the Chamber’s representative on the […]
