Ruth Meighan was extensively questioned on the process of sponsorship and recommendation for visas, which according to the Report was one of the easiest ways into the fast-track world of Belizean identity. The Department, according to Meighan, had accepted policy that if needed, sponsors would be able to establish proof of financial viability for visitors […]
The afternoon session of the Committee opened with a look at an internal report concerning an apparent illegal sale of visa stickers to then-Deputy Mayor of Belize City Eric Chang by an Immigration officer. Chang’s name was also called in the infamous Won Hong Kim case. The scheme was reported by another officer, who later […]
Agassi Finnegan, the daughter of Minister Michael Finnegan, was this afternoon called to the Bar in a ceremonial session held in the chamber of Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. The induction was witnessed by many including Finnegan’s family, friends and legal colleagues. Notably present for the ceremony was Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber as well as […]
On Monday the legal year opened with a new Attorney General – Michael Peyrefitte. He told the members of the judiciary that one of things he wants to do is a comprehensive review of the existing criminal laws which will focus on the appropriateness of the mandatory minimum sentences. Peyrefitte pointed out that one of […]
Last week Monday PASA informed the Solid Waste Management Authority that they would not be carrying out anymore works at the transfer stations and the regional sanitary land fill at mile twenty-four. And so far work has not resumed, and from we had gathered all indications were that it was an issue surrounding the contract. […]
The National AIDS Commission is hosting a series of training sessions to sensitize key sectors in HIV stigma and discrimination. The sessions started on Tuesday with media personnel and will continue with Judiciary members, law enforcers, health workers and administrators, which seek to create an enabling environment for key populations affect by HIV. Today we […]
The controversial Puerto Azul project was a scam from the get go. It was launched at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival in France, where Ministers Manuel Heredia Junior and Erwin Contreras travelled for the grand event along with other high profile personalities. It came crashing down this morning when, financial police in Varese, Northern Italy, […]
On the heels of three arbitration awards upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last week and a fourth involving the Belize Bank still making its way through the U.S. court system, the last thing the Government wants to hear about is further litigation. But that is exactly what it faces from Glenn D. Godfrey’s G.D.G. […]
It’s been one week since the N.G.O. community voted overwhelmingly in favor of Osmany Salas to represent its membership as the thirteenth senator. While an official appointment is pending, the inaugural meeting of the Senate for 2017 has been scheduled for this Thursday, one day ahead of the Commencement Order taking effect. In light of […]
While the N.G.O. community is fully aware of government’s position to amend the N.G.O. Act, it maintains that the N.G.O. Amendment Bill has nothing to do with the swearing in of the thirteenth senator on January twentieth. Osmany Salas, Senator-Elect “We don’t see what is that urgent that can’t wait a couple days. So […]
Back in December, a San Ignacio couple came to our studios to make a complaint against a GSU Officer. They claimed that they were brutalized at the hands of the law enforcement personnel. Well, it has been over a month and the couple claims that they are being harassed by the officer, whose name we […]
If you purchased butane since the eleventh of this month, you would have noticed that the price went up big time. Last week the Bureau of Standards sent out a release to say that LPG – known to most as butane – would be seeing an increase of eighteen percent. The last time consumers saw […]
The Belize Bureau of Standards has received a grant from the Caribbean Development Bank to the tune of two hundred and eighty thousand U.S. dollars to be used to enhance the National Quality Infrastructure. The first step has been an assessment of standards currently in place and the preparation of a draft plan to bring […]
The competition is heating up in Manila, Philippines where Belize’s Rebecca Rath is holding her own in the sixty-fifth edition of the Miss Universe pageant. On Monday, the twenty-three-year-old beauty and the other eighty-nine delegates from across the world were hosted at a Governor’s Ball at the SMX Convention Center. There they were all introduced […]
Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte assumed office on January first, several days after a claim had been filed against businessman Andre Vega and U.D.P. insider Sharon Pitts. Legal action is being taken by the Government of Belize against those individuals in an effort to recover almost one million dollars that was disbursed in two sums of […]
The 2017 opening ceremony of the Supreme Court took place this morning; the proceedings started with a service at the historic Saint John’s Cathedral after which the judiciary and Bar members headed to the other equally historic building, the Supreme Court on Regent Street. After the pageantry of the inspection of the guard of honor, […]
The transition from Speaker of the House of Representatives to Attorney General has been a work in progress for Michael Peyrefitte. He formally took over that government department at the beginning of January, when outgoing Attorney General Vanessa Retreage demitted office. Since taking over that responsibility a number of high profile cases have landed on […]
The Government of Belize has announced through a Communiqué that the meeting of the Senate scheduled for Thursday, January nineteenth, will proceed as scheduled. The commitment for a thirteenth senator was made eight years ago, but newly-elected Senator representing non-governmental organizations, Osmany Salas, will have to wait even longer to sit in the senate. That […]
The House of Representatives began debate on the Referendum Act (Amendment) Bill, on its second reading, shortly after its break to consider the first reading bills. That debate lasted nearly three hours, and passions were brought to the fore on an amendment that, as several debaters said, was intensely personal to all Belizeans. The basic […]
A total of sixteen grenades have been discovered and removed from the streets of Southside Belize City. Most have been without incident, but there have been three explosions, two of which produced fatalities. More than eight years after the first instance of violent and criminal use of a grenade on Mayflower Street, Belize City, the […]
Rebecca Rath is among ninety delegates from countries all over competing for the crown of Miss Universe. Only once has Belize been able to make it among the top ten was in 1970’s, Rath hopes to break and improve that record. But the challenges for the girl from Dangriga are immense. Tonight, she is in […]
The House of Representatives held its first sitting of the New Year in Belmopan today. The session continued through the afternoon with extensive debate on the amendment to the Referendum Act. We’ll have that coming up, but the first order of business was the installation of a new speaker. Nurse Laura Longsworth, president of the […]
Absent for this first sitting of the House of Representatives in 2017, was Cayo South area representative Julius Espat. He has not seen the halls of the National Assembly since he was forcibly removed after being suspended on August twenty-sixth. But it is now a new year, and while no one will ever forget the […]
The House introduced six new Bills and read four others held over from the last meeting. The most important of them is the amendment to the Referendum Act, which proposes to lower the threshold for validity of a referendum to take the Guatemalan claim to the ICJ, from sixty percent of registered voters participating to […]
Debate on the amendment was fierce and robust. Members of the Opposition focused on other issues that need to be addressed before any referendum is considered, such as a re-registration of voters, reaching out to the Belizean Diaspora, and settling outstanding issues such as the Sarstoon Protocol. But the most important, and, by some views, […]
