Budna says that he is attempting to make a formal complaint with the Professional Standards Branch to have the matter addressed. Joseph Budna, Claims Police Harassment “If you are going to apply this law, apply it across the board to everybody; stop targeting me. But this wasn’t the main thing. The main thing is […]
The Government of Belize signed a ten-million dollar agreement with the I.D.B. this morning. At the signing, the I.D.B. Country Representative and PM Dean Barrow spoke about the educational quality improvement programme two which, aside from quality improvement, will encompass a new component on innovation on science and technology, arts, engineering and other mathematics. It’s […]
Lakers and basketball superstar Kobe Bryant is dead. The NBA MVP, his thirteen-year-old daughter, six friends and the pilot were all killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. The helicopter carrying the nine persons is reported to have encountered heavy fog when it crashed and burst into flames in the hills above Calabasas in California, […]
Former U.D.P. Albert area representative Herman Longsworth is the subject of a criminal investigation. Longsworth was fired by Prime Minister Dean Barrow after his name surfaced in the Auditor General’s Report on the National Sports Council. Longsworth, who was the then Minister of State responsible for Sports reportedly created Go Enterprises Limited which received contracts […]
But here is a kick; Longworth’s release was accompanied by a set of photographs showing clean and completed facilities at the Marion Jones Sports Complex. But just before news time, News Five received information that those photos were taken as recent as Thursday and do not reflect the state of work when Longsworth was in […]
As you heard, the former minister says the establishment of the company, Go Enterprises, was undertaken to facilitate the completion of work at the Marion Jones. Longsworth states that work ceased when the National Sports Council could no longer pay. But the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wilfred Elrington, who was Longsworth’s boss until this week, […]
As to the firing of Longsworth for the allegations made in the Auditor General Report, the Foreign Minister offered a lawyerly explanation, saying that it is for the court to determine guilt, tantamount to the PM’s well-known statement on factual guilt and legal guilt. Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs “The practice […]
The United Democratic Party, in the final year of its three-term administration, is plagued with scandal after scandal. The most recent involves both leadership candidates and the prime minister has been busy trying to douse the flames caused by public outrage. In sitting down with Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington today, we asked the Pickstock Area […]
Thirty police officers completed basic training in criminal investigation. The course spanned a period of three weeks during which officers were training on professional and effective investigation in skills, attitude, and aptitude. The course was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy of Belize which also provided facilitators with technical expertise. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says […]
One of first agencies you meet at the border points is the Customs Department. At the Philip Goldson International Airport, you will see them checking luggage as well as collecting taxes. But their work is evolving to areas of trade facilitation and security. Today, on the occasion of International Customs Day, they mounted displays and […]
Hostility while patrolling the borders can result in crossfire between law enforcement officers and contrabandistas in buffer communities along the Belize/Mexico border. The enforcement officers of the Customs and Excise Department have been strategic, often times partnering with the police to carry out operations in villages such as San Victor in the Corozal District. Ronald […]
There is new information tonight in the case of Lev Dermen, an Armenian national with U.S. and Belize citizenship that is causing tremors inside the U.D.P. as it heads to a leadership convention on February ninth. Dermen is the accused mastermind in a scheme that defrauded the Internal Revenue Service of the United States of […]
The allegation of text messages between Jacob Kingston and John Saldivar as court exhibits prompted reaction from Belmopan. The PM did not give interview, but instead issued a four-paragraph statement this afternoon to cool down temperatures. In the statement, the PM concludes that there is still no evidence of wrongdoing and as such, the texts […]
A statement from John Saldivar was short and curt. It states that nothing has changed from his position outlined in a statement on January fifteenth, 2019. Saldivar also echoes what the PM has said; that the information being circulated regarding expected testimony in the U.S. proceedings contains no allegations of any wrongdoing against him.
The text message referencing Minister Saldivar was also the focus of a statement by Opposition Leader John Briceño. He is calling on the Prime Minister to fire Saldivar from his cabinet. Speaking on the scandal that is rocking the U.D.P. government, Briceño asserted that the text messages must contain important content for the prosecution to […]
According to Briceño, if the Prime Minister wanted to act, he could have already done so. Today, Briceño advised the PM to check with the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to obtain the documents and have the Financial Intelligence Unit contact the Justice Department in Utah for further information. In response to Briceño’s statement, the Prime Minister […]
As we said, the Lev Dermen scandal has been unraveling for days. Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow called a press conference on the recent allegations. At the time he said that he was being hamstrung on immediate action against whomsoever in his cabinet is named until proven to be culpable for having accepted bribes […]
As the scandal rocks the U.D.P., the likelihood of the upcoming U.D.P. convention being affected by the pending trial in Utah was a question that was placed squarely to the prime minister. At the time, PM Barrow said that if necessary, he will remain in office until general elections are called. Reporter “Sir, do […]
The Lev Dermen saga has been coming up in many ways. At the sitting of the House of Representatives on January seventeenth, Caribbean Shores Area Representative Kareem Musa suggested that the names of the government ministers in question could have been sought through diplomatic channels via a request from the Prime Minister to the U.S. […]
The People’s United Party’s case against the Government of Belize regarding the spending of over one point three billion dollars, including the PetroCaribe funds that were borrowed from Venezuela, has yet to conclude. The P.U.P.’s legal challenge revolved around four key points, including that according to the Finance and Audit Reform Act, public monies exceeding the […]
The Belize Bank Limited, the country’s oldest banking institution, has been assigned an investment grade rating by the Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services. CariCRIS is the Caribbean’s leading credit rating agency and is an associate company of the globally-recognized rating agency Standard and Poor’s. The designation is a first for any entity in Belize. […]
The assigned rating augurs well for other local companies wishing to improve their profiles on the regional and international markets. It is in line with some of the more prominent and larger regional banks across the Caribbean and thus provides a platform to attract talent across the region, as well as to assist initiatives to […]
We also found out that Senator Elena Smith’s patience is running thin. The senator says organizations are tired of waiting for U.D.P. Senator Aldo Salazar to present his report on the findings of the Auditor General’s Special Audit Report on the Immigration and Nationality Department. It took the Senate Special Select Committee thirteen months to interview […]
One more story on the dilemma facing the U.D.P. Minister of Natural Resources, Hugo Patt is running for first deputy leader under team Saldivar. They have been around the country meeting delegates who they say have been endorsing the slate. Earlier today when we spoke with the Corozal North area representative, we asked him whether […]
A staggering six-figure debt owed to Pedro’s Inn by the Belize Police Department remains unpaid and Commissioner of Police Chester Williams is turning to tourism stakeholders in San Pedro to help defray the hotel bill. An increase in crime on the island town resulted in more officers being deployed to San Pedro, without adequate housing […]
