In advance of a case at the Caribbean Court of Justice next week involving two accused murderers appealing their convictions and sentences, the Government today introduced four new bills amending pieces of legislation. An amendment to the Criminal Code proposes to specify a minimum term of years in prison before person under sentence of life […]
Parliamentarians at the National Assembly must occasionally share the grand stage with their constituents – particularly those protesting against them. While 2005 certainly comes to mind, the handful of protestors in red shirts today on Independence Hill had concerns much closer to home – which for them is the Toledo District. While the protestors, including […]
Could marijuana soon be legalized, or at least decriminalized? There is support in principle and the matter has been before Cabinet since a special committee released its findings in February 2015, although church organizations have been in opposition. Today, the Leader of the Opposition recorded his side’s willingness to move the process forward, to cheers […]
The 2017 budget is being debated in the House of Representatives where parliamentarians are both criticizing and defending the fiscal plan. But what are the economists thinking? While there have been expert opinions shared with the media, economist Ervin Perez, who has been a prominent voice in the recent Super Bond discussion, has offered his […]
A mother in San Ignacio fears the worst since her son, who is now eighteen, has gone missing. According to Salustiana Jimenez, she last saw her son sleeping in his bed on the night of March eleventh, but when she woke up, he was nowhere to be found. It’s been twelve days since Daniel Bennett […]
Routine can get a bit dull even with workouts. The latest trend in exercise is to use HIIT. Not H-I-T, but H-I-I-T which means High Intensity Interval Training. Tonight on Healthy Living, one fitness instructor explains why HIIT is his technique of choice. Marleni Cuellar, Reporting Fitness trends can change as rapidly as fashion […]
A current and a former Immigration officer both appeared before today’s public hearing of the Senate Special Select Committee in Belmopan. The first, Inez Casanova, has not been directly accused of any wrongdoing. However, other witnesses have claimed that she had accompanied self-styled Immigration agent Barton Middleton to the Princess Hotel’s Calypso Restaurant in early […]
We will come to more of the Orange Walk-based immigration officer’s relationship with Middleton later on, but first, she revealed that she assisted Immigration officers who came to her asking about Middleton. Barton has a brother Eugene, who is a former Immigration officer; so which one was it? Officers, including Mark Tench, who were on […]
Casanova claims that her relationship with Barton Middleton did not go past occasional conversations while she was driving him to town, and never about Immigration-related matters. But Senators seized on a comment by Middleton to Casanova that she did not have to worry about anything. Wise words, but what would she have had to worry […]
How well can you really know a person – especially one to whom you would occasionally allow access to ride in your personal vehicle? In the case of Inez Casanova, the Senate panel was satisfied that she was not directly accused of involvement – but to a man they had trouble with the seeming casualness […]
Former data entry clerk at the Immigration Department, Erwin Robinson, spent six years in the Public Service, five of those in Immigration, until he was suspended over the Won Hong Kim case. The jailed South Korean businessman was the recipient of Belizean nationality and a passport half-way across the world in Taiwan until a scheme […]
The debate begins this Thursday in the House with the budget rebuttal by the Leader of the Opposition, John Briceño. The P.U.P. Area Representative Kareem Musa will also go on record in the House of Representatives sometime over the next two days, debating specific points in respect of the 2017 budget. Musa has publicly criticized […]
Musa also points to what he describes as an odd proposition being made by the Prime Minister where he puts forward that there will be a turnaround of the economy and a projected primary surplus of three point four percent. This is in light of the fact that government has been operating in the red […]
Back to the senate inquiry… earlier we shared with you Erwin Robinson’s recollection of the day “Won Hong Kim” purportedly visited the Immigration Department to take his passport picture. But as we all know, he was never actually here and a different photograph of Kim wound up in the passport, one with a shadow over […]
Robinson’s inability to explain the Kim caper haunts him, as he was unable to hold a job in the Public Service following his suspension. But as he was shown photographs of the doctored image of Kim and the real image, he was able to tell the difference and concluded that there had been a switch. […]
As telling information is revealed at the ongoing senate inquiry, we asked the Cayo South area rep Julius Espat if he thought that the so called big wigs would face the music for the immigration illegalities. Espat says that unfortunately it is the messenger who will be blamed. Julius Espat, Area Rep., Cayo South […]
In light of World Water Day celebrated across the globe today, staggering facts and data have been published that brings into sharp focus the shortage of access to potable water today and in the next couple years. The United Nations, since 1993, has marked March twenty second as World Water Day – it is a […]
A primary school in Cotton Tree Village, Cayo District, is a safer place tonight. The compound, which was previously exposed to criminal elements roaming the area, is now properly fenced providing safety to the students and teachers. Duane Moody was present for the inauguration of the perimeter fence this morning. Duane Moody, Reporting There […]
The sprawling Cayo South division has below eight thousand registered voters. The P.U.P. has been lobbying for a re-registration exercise to take place this year, but the process has been delayed twice. Now the Prime has announced that redistricting will take place after re-registration set to take place in 2018 and after the municipal elections. […]
Before departing Belize last Friday, the Secretary General of the O.A.S., Luis Almagro, held a press briefing. While Almagro did not take questions from the press relying only on a written statement, Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington did. One answer in respect of the maritime borders, however, has landed Elrington in trouble. In a statement today, […]
Earlier this week the CZMAI launched its third Coastal Awareness Week and we showed you how they kicked off the activities with a trivia challenge for Belize City primary schoolers. Today, they took the awareness in a different direction; engaging the private sector in a forum with regional and local experts on how they can […]
This morning in the courtroom of Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, colleagues in the legal fraternity convened a special sitting in honor of the late attorney Philip Palacio. The former People’s United Party candidate for the Mesopotamia Division passed away earlier this month in the United States after a bout with cancer. The forty-two-year-old has been […]
Government is proposing to increase departure tax for visitors to Belize to forty US dollars from thirty-five. It intends to raise as much as eleven million dollars from this tax alone. The rise forms part of its plan to raise eighty million dollars in new tax revenue for the financial year beginning April first. But […]
The Washington Post and other U.S. news organizations have published a huge story which places a former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump to an offshore company in Belize which is linked all the way to the East European country of Ukraine. The report states that a Ukrainian lawmaker has released new financial documents allegedly […]
In a classic case of “progress brings problems,” the Department of Immigration and Nationality has responded to concerns that its nineteen-member staff at the Philip Goldson International Airport in Ladyville has been overwhelmed with the higher proportion of tourist arrivals in the ongoing high season. Despite the boasts of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil […]
