It was an event that may not have registered with many Belizean households but over the weekend, Guatemalan national elections ended with Social Democrat Alvaro Colom topping the polls. The fifty-six year old beat his rival, retired general Otto Perez Molina, with fifty-two point seven percent of the vote to Perez’s forty-seven point three. News […]
Familial relations aside, today Minister of Foreign Affairs Lisa Shoman commented on the implications Colom’s victory could have for Belize. Lisa Shoman, Minister of Foreign Affairs “I think we have to congratulate Guatemala on a very peaceful outcome of an electoral process. I think they’ve held an election that was fairly calm and people have […]
The Belize City Council has a new sister. News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin explains. Zenaida Moya, Mayor, Belize City “I would like to welcome the entire delegation on behalf of myself, the Deputy Mayor, the entire council, all the staff, the management, all the residents of Belize City. And want to tell you this is an […]
While Taiwan has come to be regarded as Belize’s most important financial angel, the assistance provided by Venezuela is big and growing larger. This afternoon, Venezuela’s new ambassador to Belize, Omar Valdiviezo, formally introduced himself to members of the press corps. According to Valdiviezo, the government of President Hugo Chavez is committed to a long […]
The Government of Belize has requested a formal investigation into the latest incident along the Belize/Guatemala border. According to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lisa Shoman, following a report made by members of the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management, Belmopan instructed Belize’s Ambassador to Guatemala, Fred Martinez, to approach officials in the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry […]
He returned from Venezuela over the weekend, having signed on to a far reaching energy agreement with Venezuela plus a ten million U.S. dollar grant for government projects. Today, Prime Minister Said Musa offered details of the budding relationship’s progress … and problems. Prime Minister Said Musa “The whole purpose of this joint venture is […]
Prime Minister Said Musa and his delegation have returned from a weekend summit and ministerial meetings in Venezuela. The talks in Caracas, hosted by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, brought together the fourteen countries participating in the Petro Caribe initiative, a programme in which oil rich Venezuela is providing petroleum products […]
It’s been a rumour most of the week but tonight it’s official: the Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Ralph Fonseca are on their way to Venezuela for meetings with that country’s president. According to a release issued by the Press Office today, P.M. Musa and Fonseca will join other CARICOM leaders in Caracas […]
Prime Minister Said Musa is in the Dominican Republic on a three day official visit. The trip, at the invitation of Dominican president Leonel Fernandez, will focus on the negotiation of agreements for technical and economic cooperation and the establishment of a bi-national commission between the two countries. Tonight in a ceremony at the Palacio […]
It is with great regret that we report the death of Paz Cervantes. Paz, as many of us will recall, served two separate terms as cultural attaché at the Mexican Embassy including the period immediately following independence in the early 1980’s. Paz made numerous friends in Belize and was instrumental in fostering the close relationship […]
His visit was sandwiched between two summits and the P.U.P. convention, but the brief state visit of Mexican President Felipe Calderon came off as scheduled Saturday in Belmopan. The President paid a courtesy call on the Governor General, met privately with the Prime Minister, was hosted for lunch and conferred with the Order of Belize. […]
There were presidents galore on Ambergris Caye today as Belize hosted a pair of regional summits. News Five’s Janelle Chanona joined the crowd in San Pedro that included equal measures of media and security personnel. Janelle Chanona, Reporting Today coordinated chaos dominated the San Pedro airstrip as heads of state from Central America arrived in […]
It used to be that an international summit meeting in Belize would have the whole country in a panic. But tomorrow on Ambergris, Caye not one, but two heads of government meetings will be taking place. The first involves the Central American grouping SICA and the second adds Mexico and Colombia, constituting the Tuxtla and […]
In political news, Prime Minister Said Musa returned to Belize on Thursday following meetings between the Caribbean heads of Government and President of United States George Bush and his government’s top executives. This morning the P.M. told the media he hopes the sessions will have positive results for the region. Prime Minister Said Musa “What […]
When Belize assumed the pro-tempore presidency of the Central American Integration System in January; the appointment also meant heading the various bodies that fall under the organisation. One such group is the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America, COMISCA. Since Wednesday, members of COMISCA under the chairmanship of Minister of Health Jose Coye, […]
Prime Minister Said Musa is in Washington, D.C. leading a delegation of public and private sector officials to the heavily hyped conference on the Caribbean. The three-day series of meetings will hopefully outline a new long-term vision for relations between the U.S. and Caribbean region. In today’s afternoon session P.M. Musa made a presentation on […]
And looking forward to next week, Belize will be the venue for a number of high level meetings leading up to a summit of leaders from Central America, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. Those discussions will be held in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye with the summits of SICA and the Tuxtla group both taking place […]
It looks like something out of the next Batman movie, but the mysterious vessel in the harbour is no work of fantasy. This morning News Five’s Kendra Griffith was welcomed aboard. Kendra Griffith, Reporting Anchored about two and a half miles off Belize City is the aptly named High Speed Vessel-2, Swift. Capt. Douglas Wied, […]
Government officials are feeling good tonight following reports out of the United States that Belize is being praised for its efforts against human trafficking. According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Department has upgraded Belize, moving us from the tier two watch list to a substantive tier two. […]
The story played second fiddle to the boiling controversy over the U.H.S. bailout, but last week Belize City was a diplomatic hotspot for both CARICOM and Central American leaders. The series of technical and ministerial meetings culminated on Saturday with the second summit of the heads of government from the two sub-regions. At the end […]
According to Chief Information Officer Nuri Mohammed, the Prime Minister’s press conference this morning was cut short because of a previous commitment. That pressing engagement had to do with the fact that Belize is the venue of the tenth meeting of the CARICOM Council for Foreign and Community Relations. This week, Belize’s Foreign Minister Eamon […]
Since assuming the presidency of SICA, Belize has signed a number of agreements with countries in Central America and today, it added one more to that list: a cooperation agreement with the Central American Court of Justice. This afternoon Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh and President of the Central American Court of Justice, Dr. Ricardo Acevedo […]
Right now it’s not an issue on the front burner of either country but talks continue between Belize and Guatemala over the question of that country’s claim to our territory. A release from the Organization of American States indicates that foreign ministers Eamon Courtenay of Belize and Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala met Monday in Washington […]
In other news from the world of diplomacy a strange newspaper advertisement has observers wondering whether the seemingly unbreakable ties between Belize and Taiwan may not be under some pressure. The quarter page paid ad in last weekend’s Amandala recounts a visit to Belize made over the Easter holidays by Mr. Chen Jinghua, ambassador of […]
As we reported on Thursday, through their attorneys the Seawell family is claiming that their loved ones rights have been violated by the United States government. On behalf of the family, attorneys Elson Kaseke and Dickie Bradley have outlined their clients’ objections as well as the claim that the extradition treaty between Belize and the […]
