Prominent Ministers of Government, from former Minister of Immigration John Saldivar to Edmond Castro, have been named as being frequent visitors to the Department of Immigration in the time of the Auditor General’s Report. But were there others of lesser profile who could get similar business done without a raise of the eyebrow from the […]
Also part of the “culture” at the Immigration Department was a tendency to take everything at face value – if the preparatory work had been done at the lower levels on particular files, only a final sign-off was needed by either then-Director Ruth Meighan or then-deputy Maria Marin to complete it. According to Gordon Wade, […]
The 2017 National Elite Basketball League tournament began in January of this year and a total of seven teams: San Pedro Tiger Sharks, Belmopan Bandits, Dangriga Dream Ballers, Cayo Western Ballaz, Smart Belize Hurricanes, Belize City No Limits and Orange Walk Running Rebels are making the bid for the coveted championship title. The next game […]
On Saturday, for the first time in Belize, two teams will be competing in a Rugby-Seven match. The sport started in the nineteenth century by William Webb Ellis, who in the middle of a football match picked up a ball and ran to the end of the pitch. It started in a town called Rugby […]
The National Library hosted a one day health fair today – it wasn’t held in 2016, but they say that the initiative is an annual one. A number of local health organizations participated to share with the public and invited schools on how to live a longer and healthier life by making smart lifestyle choices. […]
On Wednesday we spoke with Dr. Adrian Coye, the C.E.O. of K.H.M.H. You heard him talk about the works being done to the operating theatre over the next couple months. Doctor Coye said that while the K.H.M.H. is making these big infrastructural investments, they are also focused on tapping into their international partnerships and training […]
The Senate Special Select Committee sought to call three witnesses to today’s public hearing at the National Assembly in Belmopan. But only one made it – the former Office in Charge of the Nationality Section of the Department, Gordon Wade. We’ll tell you why the others – Ady Pacheco and Edgar Cano – were not […]
Won Hong Kim, the South Korean fugitive, who started the entire current Immigration saga, is hardly forgotten though his ultimate fate after a desperate bid to dodge extradition by claiming the nationality of the Jewel is not known. Kim was granted both passport and Belizean nationality through the machinations of former Minister of State for […]
Senior Immigration Officer Gordon Wade, who has been working with the department for twenty-seven years, also added layers to established testimony that Ministers of Government were in and out of the Immigration Department’s offices doing “business” on behalf of their constituents and favorites. While Prime Minister Dean Barrow has said that these appearances so far […]
Last week, ex-Director of Immigration Ruth Meighan sidestepped questions of whether she was a “rubber stamp” for final approval of applications for visas, passports, and nationality certificates. But she repeatedly made clear over her two appearances for testimony that she trusted her senior officials to ensure that what landed on her desk represented the complete […]
But what did Wade really see in those many files passing over his desk during those two years he was in charge? He said that a completed file with the relevant documents was presented, with the certifications from the accepting officers that the documents they received were true and correct. But something went wrong, somewhere. […]
Auditor General Dorothy Bradley made one major correction to her audit report of the Immigration Department – that former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael Peyrefitte, was allowed under the law to make a recommendation as an official for a passport. Other than that, she has said on the record, she stands by her […]
The decision by the Elections and Boundaries Commission to embark on countrywide re-registration and redistricting exercises after municipal elections are held in 2018 has raised the ire of the People’s United Party. On Tuesday, the P.U.P. issued a firm release calling for those activities to be conducted no later than July first, in accordance with […]
While Elrington is often up to speed on events, he says he has not been keeping up with developments in the ongoing senate inquiry. Last Wednesday, while under oath, former Director of Immigration Ruth Meighan conceded that there was a move by the Barrow administration to naturalize hundreds of immigrants ahead of the 2012 General […]
Is Guatemala ready to go to referendum on whether its age-old claim over Belize should go before the ICJ? Earlier today, an official from the Guatemalan electoral commission told the Guatemalan press that the government has raised as much as forty million dollars to fund the exercise in September. So where does Belize stand in […]
As reported at the top of our newscast, two of the three witnesses scheduled to appear before today’s panel were absent to due to medical and legal issues respectively. Because the Committee’s hearings are mandated to be in public and broadcast live on local media, there is little wiggle room for any recalcitrant witnesses. But […]
A total of four witnesses have been called by the Committee so far: Auditor General Dorothy Bradley; former deputy director Maria Marin; former Director Ruth Meighan; and former Officer in Charge of Nationality Section Gordon Wade. Chairman Salazar says their list is being made up as they go along, but generally speaking that list will […]
Late last week, the K.H.M.H. announced that ongoing renovations have caused a limitation in service delivery. The national referral hospital says that the specific area to be impacted is the operating theatres and sterilization units. It is being done in phases resulting in a delay of elective surgeries, but urgent and emergency cases will proceed […]
A job preparedness training certificate ceremony was held today at the Belize Training and Employment Center on the ITVET Compound. A team of six persons manage a network of partnerships with several training institutions and have providing training in areas of home health care, business processing outsourcing among others. Today, sixty-six persons graduated from its […]
At this hour, a meeting of the Election and Boundaries Commission is taking place. It was called by Chairman Doug Singh to discuss several proposals related to conduct and practice for general elections. Singh and his Government colleagues are proposing to once again postpone re-registration of Belize’s hundred-thousand-plus voters to after the 2018 municipal elections. […]
The P.U.P. also says that it denounces any attempt by the Commission to carry out a re-districting exercise before a re-registration exercise, since such an exercise, in its view would be giving validation to the out-dated, fraudulent and padded voters’ list. The last re-districting took place before the 2008 general elections and saw shifts in […]
The voter’s identification card carries none of the shine of the passport, or Social Security card or driver’s license. Indeed, its sole use seems to be to identify a voter on Election Day. But that may soon be a thing of the past if the Elections and Boundaries Commission has its way. The Commission is […]
The Opposition People’s United Party is planning a press conference on Thursday of this week. On the agenda is a frank discussion of the revelations coming out of the Senate Special Select Committee and in particular from former Director of Immigration, Ruth Meighan. The most damaging of those statements is her admission that of the […]
While the party awaits its turn to address the single biggest revelation coming out so far from the Senate Special Select Committee, deputy leader Kareem Musa offered some general observations of the Committee and its work in our interview with him this evening. For Musa, it is confirmation that the Government was an active participant […]
A custody battle is brewing in Belmopan where a San Martin family is before the courts fighting to regain care of their eight children. According to Santos Fermin Sagastume, back on December nineteenth, he and his wife authorized a US couple from River of Life, Camalote Village, as legal guardian of their eight under-aged children […]
