Wilfred Elrington, who finished the term prior to elections as Minister of Foreign Affairs, was one of the winners in the closely contested Pickstock division. Elrington won by seventy-eight votes in 2015 which is four votes less than he got in 2012 against Doctor Francis Smith. Elrington weathered significant attacks for his handling of the […]
Confidential documents show that the aggression by the Guatemalan army and navy started years ago, but intensified dangerously and persistently so since 2010, to the point where the Guatemalans were exercising sovereignty over the Sarstoon. A memo from the Belize Defense Force to the C.E.O. in the Ministry of National Security, dated as recent as […]
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister said that while he would do the courteous thing and offer written congratulations to the new president elect of Guatemala, he would also be stern with Jimmy Morales for his imprudent statements about reviving the territorial claim to Belize. Calling him a novice, PM Barrow said he would not be […]
Members of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of the American States began arriving today in Belize ahead of the November fourth elections. There are thirteen members to the delegation, headed by Ambassador Jacinth Henry-Martin, Chief of Staff to O.A.S. Secretary General Luis Almagro. Henry-Martin and her team will meet with officials of the […]
The president-elect of Guatemala, Carlos Jimmy Morales, assumes office in January 2016. And since his landslide victory on Sunday, he has been making statements on a number of issues. Belizeans have been paying keen attention on what he has to say about the territorial dispute over Belizean territory. Morales says he will not give up […]
Carlos Morales, a comedian, won by a huge landslide in Sunday’s elections in Guatemala, beating Sandra Torres by a margin of two to one. He received sixty-seven point four percent of the votes, while Torres received thirty-two point six. Morales campaigned on a promise to fight corruption, which plagued President Otto Perez Molina last month. […]
The Foreign Minister’s speech to the United Nations in New York on Friday is causing a firestorm. While it is not the first time that Wilfred “Sedi’’ Elrington has come under fire for his pronouncements on the Guatemalan territorial dispute, his statement to the UN, about a minute or so at the very end, is […]
Is the People’s United Party attempting to capitalize on what is being described as the foreign minister’s blunder? General elections are just a month away and whatever can be used to gain political mileage is seen as par for the course. The territorial dispute is of national importance says the Party Leader Francis Fonseca and […]
Since delivering a lengthy address before the UN General Assembly on Friday, Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington has been raked over the coals for failing to properly address the Belize-Guatemala dispute. For many, including the opposition and COLA, it was a final opportunity before the elections for the often criticized minister to come correct on the […]
COLA’s endgame since going on the offensive a few weeks ago is the removal of Sedi Elrington as Belize’s Foreign Minister, but that is a moot point because elections are just around the corner. While the grassroots organization has refrained from calling for his head as an elected official, President Geovanni Brackett is gung ho […]
Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington was among the speakers this morning to address the United Nations Seventieth General Assembly. Nineteen minutes long, his statement covered hot topic issues such as climate change, the Syrian crisis and other matters on the international scene. Elrington also offered the traditional support to Taiwan, calling for an end to the […]
The Belize delegation also included two other ministers—Godwin Hulse and Joy Grant—as well as UN Ambassadors, Lois Young and Janiene Sylvester and Elrington’s wife, among others. While they applauded the offensive statement, here in Belize, there is outrage. The P.U.P. says that it can no longer place trust on the U.D.P. administration to deal with […]
The US Embassy today awarded grants to seven organizations from around the country under the Central American Regional Security Initiative. The US Ambassador, Carlos Moreno says that the awards were given to the organizations based on their work with at risk youths and persons affected with HIV/AIDS. News Five’s Isani Cayetano was on hand for […]
The Guatemalan claim to fifty percent of Belizean territory has surfaced as an issue in the Guatemalan elections. On Thursday, an interview with Guatemalan presidential candidate, Jimmy Morales, spread like wildfire on social media drawing comments from many Belizeans. Now, Morales is the winner of the first round of elections held just this past Sunday […]
This afternoon, within days of elections on September sixth, Guatemala’s Congress lifted President Otto Perez Molina’s immunity of office. It means that Perez Molina can now be charged for a customs corruption scandal that has rocked his administration in recent months. A hundred and thirty-two of one hundred and fifty-eight lawmakers approved the measures so […]
Opposition Senator Lisa Shoman is unrelenting on the issue of the incursion in the Sarstoon by the Guatemalan military. Today she wrote to the Clerk of the National Assembly informing him of a motion which she plans to present at the next Senate meeting. That will happen on Thursday, September fourth, two days after an […]
Shoman has tried to pass a motion once before, requesting an official Senate special select committee investigation into corruption in the Immigration Department. Thanks to a government majority in the Senate, that never came to pass. But Senator Shoman is hopeful that since this issue isn’t so directly political, the motion may see the light […]
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that it will not release the O.A.S. report on the Sarstoon Incident unless both governments, Belize and Guatemala, agree to do so. That’s interesting, since the O.A.S. has told News Five that it has no protocol prohibiting release, and Prime Minister Dean Barrow publicly stated that he had […]
Every Tuesday, the Belize Defence Force heads up the Sarstoon to the observation post at Cadenas where shifts are changed. That’s been happening for years, but suddenly there are claims of consistent aggression and encounters between the B.D.F. and Guatemalan military in the Sarstoon. In fact, there is a claim that just two weeks ago, […]
As the Opposition seeks the report of the Guatemalan incursion at the Sarstoon, Guatemala remains in turmoil as calls for the resignation of President Otto Perez Molina escalate. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court gave the green light to proceed with the impeachment of Perez Molina, but that still has to go before the Congress. Today, […]
Since the scandal broke in April, there have been waves of protests across Guatemala. According to McDonald, President Perez Molina can be made to stand trial as a civilian for his alleged role in the scheme should the Congress find him culpable. Isani Cayetano “Earlier I asked you to describe for me the political […]
A small detail of territorial volunteers, led by Wil Maheia, is headed to Sarstoon Island on Tuesday morning again. The trip is the first of several planned visits to the remote location where Belize Defense Force personnel will be on routine patrol. As explained by Brigadier General David Jones in a previous interview with News […]
Still on the matter of the Sarstoon….The O.A.S. report on the incident has been handed in to the Government of Belize. Today, News Five was able to confirm that the Ministries of National Security and Foreign Affairs have received copies. Last Wednesday at a press conference, Prime Minister Dean Barrow claimed that he had just […]
Over in Guatemala, there is huge political crisis which could lead to the collapse of the government of President Otto Perez Molina. On Friday, the former vice president, Roxana Baldetti who resigned back in May, was arrested at a hospital for customs fraud in which three point seven million dollars in bribes were accepted as […]
The first release from the National Security Council, issued just before the expedition on Sunday, broke the news of “countless encounters” between the B.D.F. and Guatemalan military. The release speaks also of attempted interceptions, and the clear indication is that this has been happening since the B.D.F. started travelling up the Sarstoon to change troops […]
