Since his wife’s passing, Sagastume and his daughter have not been able to contact the children and don’t know their whereabouts. But the family has been in touch with personnel at Social Services, and has received little comfort since the department reportedly told them that the children cannot be returned to them. Sagastume and his […]
In the run-up to the presentation of the General Revenue and Appropriations Bill, also known as the Budget, in March; there will be planned consultations with civil society, the business community and others coming up. Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dean Barrow and his Minister of State, Doctor Carla Barnett, have spoken of “re-balancing” […]
Has the Department of the Environment cleared a planned beach creation on the popular island of Caye Chapel without the benefit of an environmental impact assessment? The question came up on the adjournment in Monday’s meeting of the Senate in Belmopan. P.U.P. Senator Valerie Woods reported that the owners of the project want to do […]
As mentioned earlier in the newscast, the People’s United Party held the first National Party Council meeting of the New Year in Orange Walk. The main resolution which we told you about earlier concerned the Immigration revelations but there were three others. The party inveighed against Super Bond Three; the resignation of Gaspar Vega from […]
The Hamilton family of Aloe Vera Street, Belize City, continues to look for answers four months after a senseless act of arson of their house. They lost not one, but three children, in the fire in October of last year. Today the relatives of the victims told News Five’s Duane Moody that the investigation is […]
Cops gone crazy over engagement? One woman is alleging that two officers – one attached to Rural Eastern Division and the other assigned to Eastern Division South – made an attack on her son’s life on Saturday night. Nineteen year old Michael Crawford had only just gotten engaged to a young woman on Friday and […]
On Monday night you heard the mother of a thirteen year old boy complain about police actions against her son in Punta Gorda. Today, we spoke with the sister of another minor who says that her baby brother was taken advantage of by police officers in Belize City. Last Friday, twelve-year-old Rhyan Leslie was heading […]
Following the special session of the House of Representatives on Friday, the nation’s upper chamber was convened to further progress the Central Bank of Belize (International Immunities) and Crown Proceedings (Amendment) Bills, 2017. According to the Government, the new legislation is intended to serve as a firewall, protecting Belize’s assets from the imminent threat of […]
The Caribbean Court of Justice’s scathing denunciation of the Accommodation Agreement and Settlement Deed and the actions of their signatories as “malignant tumours,” eating away at democracy has been cited many times by the Government. But the judgment, as pointed out by Senator Eamon Courtenay, also contained advice for the Government about not waiting to […]
As Courtenay pointed out, no one, least of all the Opposition, intended to vote against legislation intended to protect Belize from these and other similar awards. And that spirit of unity – with some misgivings – was in large part led by the Social Partner Senators, who one by one addressed the chamber to say […]
Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte blasted Lord Michael Ashcroft saying that he will ensure that neither Caribbean Investment Holdings Limited nor Belize Social Development Limited gets their hands on the foreign reserves. But as he told reporters following the meeting, the new legislation applies specifically to Belizean companies and individuals – the “vulture funds” that Prime […]
The community of Maya Mopan, located about a mile outside of downtown Belmopan, witnessed tragedy on Saturday afternoon. Eighteen-month-old Edwin Lorenzo Duarte was playing near a well at the back of the family’s residence on La Mux Street, when he apparently fell inside, drowning in the water. He died on arrival at Western Regional Hospital […]
FECTAB is back in the news tonight after an extended hiatus from the media spotlight. This time it is joined by COLA and both organizations are rallying around a common cause, that government has forsaken the Belizean people. The cruise tourism industry, since the opening of Harvest Caye in November, has seen a significant loss […]
And now back to the senate. Osmany Salas, president of the Belize Tourism Industry Association, formally took the oath that marked his ascension to the Senate as its thirteenth member, representing non-governmental organizations. It ends nine years of back-and-forth that started with a campaign promise by the ruling United Democratic Party that gripped the national […]
The congratulations came thick and fast from Salas’ new colleagues, with his friends from the tourism and N.G.O. communities looking on from the public gallery. But with the social partner Senators now holding a stronger hand in terms of the balance of power in the upper chamber, should Government be worried about threatened deadlock, and […]
Two bills were held over from previous meetings of the National Assembly – the Forests (Amendment) Bill and International Insurance (Amendment) Bill. The latter provoked no discussion, but the former addresses penalties in relation to illegal harvesting of woods including rosewood and mahogany. During today’s debate in the Senate, the People’s United Party’s Valerie Woods […]
The U.S. Embassy today issued a release in response to an article that surfaced on social media over the weekend to the effect that Caribbean nationals would be exempted from visas to enter the U.S. All this in the aftermath of an unpopular travel ban imposed by United States President Donald Trump on citizens from […]
Nineteen-year-old Keimar Nicholas is paralyzed from the neck down and remains bedridden at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. The teenager was seriously injured a week ago just outside of his home in the Conch Shell Bay neighborhood in the Old Capital, a community that has seen a rise in violent crimes since the beginning of […]
A mother is claiming that Punta Gorda police used unnecessary force on her thirteen year old son over the weekend. Today, Consuelo Flores told News Five that she was in Belize City over the weekend taking care of a family member in the hospital and her son stayed at home. The primary school boy, according […]
In a final bit of news from Friday’s House of Representatives meeting, the return of Cayo South area representative Julius Espat was relegated to a footnote by the day’s debate, but he still found a way to make his mark. On Friday, he seemed to harbour a resigned frustration as he stood up on the […]
The Belize Police Department has partnered with the University of Belize and the Ministry of Human Development on a mentorship program for at-risk Belize City youths. In its new policing strategy to break the criminal gang cycle, the department identified children to be a part of the program, some of whom were signed up by […]
A Special Sitting of the House of Representatives was called for today, Friday. It is the second in a month and caught just about everyone by surprise. There were two bills left over from the committees and a motion for the re-appointment of Ombudsman Lionel Arzu to a further one-year term. The majority of the […]
The other piece of legislation is an amendment to the Crown Proceedings Act. It intends to make provisions on enforcements of foreign judgments against the Crown, and is also a direct answer to the efforts of B.S.D.L. and Caribbean Investment Holdings to enforce the arbitral awards. According to the Prime Minister, notwithstanding the refusal of […]
On the second reading of the new bill, a debate was held in which the Opposition raised its concerns of punitive action against Caribbean Investment Holdings and B.S.D.L. and the extremely short notice on which the bill was brought to the House, something for which the Prime Minister apologized in length several times. He noted […]
The division of the House on the second reading was a rare unanimous vote in favour, with all twenty-nine representatives present voting ‘Aye.’ It was something for the Prime Minister to savour, but his troubles – and Belize’s – are not over yet. He admits there are no guarantees even after the bill is signed […]
