If you didn’t know there was a very significant election planned in Cayo North, you’d be hard-pressed to guess from the amount of political activity. Maybe it’s the timing, maybe it’s the Christmas and New Year lethargy…but whatever it is, there doesn’t seem to be the passion, fire, energy or urgency we generally associate with […]
Popular around this time of the year are people making resolutions for the New Year. Here in Belize, last minute reservations and parties are being planned to say goodbye to 2014 and welcome 2015. But often times the resolutions are to challenge individuals—either to lose weight or to become better persons. So today, we went […]
Sunday will be a pivotal day in the future of this year’s sugar-cane crop. This morning the B.S.C.F.A. met in heated session, and agreed to go back to cane-farmers on that day. The plan is to break down the proposed agreement to farmers in detail, and there are two possible outcomes – one, a majority […]
And if you thought the situation in the sugar cane industry was complicated, an announcement late this evening makes that an understatement. At around five today Audrey Matura Shepherd, flanked by cane farmer Lucilo Teck and Finance committee chairman Javier Keme, broke the news that they had filed an application for mandamus in the court. […]
And while the application for the order of mandamus is one thing, there’s also the matter of the application for an interim injunction to prevent the B.S.C.F.A. from signing any agreement with ASR/B.S.I. The court has set Friday as the date for a hearing on that injunction. But the B.S.C.F.A. has agreed to go to […]
On Monday, firebrand attorney Audrey Matura-Shepherd filed an injunction to stop the signing of an agreement between the two parties. But tonight, where does she fit into the equation? As you’ve noted, there are two distinct factions in the B.S.C.F.A. – one which wants to sign now, and one which doesn’t. The group which wants […]
The 2015 Cayo North bye-election is less than a week away and candidates for both major parties are hitting the pavement during the final days of a rather brief political campaign. The six thousand plus voters will vote at Sacred Heart School and in Bullet Tree on January fifth immediately after the New Year’s celebrations. […]
P.U.P. Secretary General and former Chief Elections Officer, Myrtle Palacio, says Bruce’s untimely transfer is questionable since it precedes very closely the upcoming bye-election. The move, she says, is contrary to good governance and only serves to further politicize the election process. Myrtle Palacio, Former Chief Elections Officer “We find it very suspicious, as […]
A huge part of the argument is an allegation that U.D.P. Chairman Alberto August was reportedly seen inside the elections office in Cayo North over the weekend. It is suspected that he may have visited the office to retrieve binders containing voter information. Henry Charles Usher, Chairman, P.U.P. “When we got the information about […]
The People’s United Party says it is still awaiting confirmation on the whereabouts of U.D.P. Chairman Alberto August who they claim was seen inside the elections office in Cayo North on Saturday. It is a bold claim, one in which August is being accused of political interference in the process leading up to Monday’s bye-elections. […]
A resident from up north has reason to celebrate on the eve of the start of the New Year. Rogelio Alcoser went back to his home in Caledonia with ten thousand dollars in his pocket. Alcoser won the popular SMART Fantastic Fridays raffle and has plans to spend it wisely. Isani Cayetano reports. Isani […]
On Monday, we reported on the sudden death of a Guatemalan laborer at his Eve Street house. The decomposing body of thirty-nine year old Walter Humberto Melendez Ortiz was discovered by police just after midday lying face down on his bed. The report was made by tenants, living in the lower flat of the two-storey […]
A group of women from Kentucky, U.S.A., has been in the Jewel since Monday…their mission – to empower women of all ages. The group, called Building the Sisterhood for Christ Mission, comprises a team of four women led by Belizean American, Therese Wright. They are here to share the gospel, encourage and inspire women and […]
Although there are systems in place to empower women, for Wright, some disenfranchised women have slipped through the cracks. Friday’s women conference and revival entitled “Daughters of Virtue” will be held at the Nazarene Church on Princess Margaret Drive and according to Wright, everyone is welcome, regardless of their religion. Therese Wright, Building the […]
As the clock ticks away to welcome 2015, we caught up with a charming centenarian. Mary Tate has lived a century and will turn one hundred and one in February. But far from being weak and feeble, we found her to be energetic and full of life. Her experiences are many and varied; she was […]
The New Year may yet turn out to be a good one for cane-farmers in the north, as there is word tonight that the signing of the agreement is likely, sooner rather than later. It’s been a complicated back and forth between the B.S.C.F.A. and ASR/B.S.I., but last word to News Five is that the […]
Like we said, the industry and players are volatile. That interview with Chairman Cansino was done this afternoon, and about an hour after, we got word that parties had filed for an interim injunction to halt the signing of the agreement. It gets pretty complicated, but in a nutshell, cane-farmer Lucilo Teck is claiming that […]
Four of the eighteen directors under the B.S.C.F.A. signed a petition last week to go back to the general assembly. They were outvoted by the majority. So now those directors, and the cane-farmers who support them, made the decision to take the fight into another arena. They feel that the farmers have not benefitted from […]
That brings us to the industry bottom-line, which is that for all stake-holders from factory to field, the crop season needs to get underway. And it can, according to those we spoke to this afternoon. They state that the Sugar Industry Control Board, government’s player in the industry, has the authority and the obligation to […]
The by-election in Cayo North is scheduled for January fifth, 2014. On December twenty-second, 2014, three days before Christmas, the Registering Officer for that division, Jerrylyn Bruce, received a letter from the Elections and Boundaries Department informing her of her transfer out, effective December twenty-third. Now even without the looming by-election, the sudden transfer of […]
Traditionally, by mid-December every year all attention is focused on things Christmas-related…and that lasts up to the day after New Year’s. That’s been pretty much the case this year, even though in just a week there’ll be a significant by-election in Cayo North. For the P.U.P., their candidate is the underdog, trying to pull off […]
On December eighteenth, Antonia Cal got the news that no mother wants to get. Police came to her workplace in Ladyville to ask her to identify the bones and clothing believed to be those of her son, Marvin Bul, found in the Dewdrop Estate in Ladyville. His Social Security card was also found inside the […]
CARSI, the Central American Regional Security Initiative, is a program particularly designed to help create a more responsive police force, enhance public police cooperation, improve the judicial sector, modernize correctional facilities, and to assist with anti-gang programs with a focus on youth at risk. Today the media was invited to witness the presentation of a […]
We’ve all heard the derogatory but very accurate description of the holding cells at the Queen Street Police Station, and truth be told, the others across the country aren’t in much better condition. For those of us just passing through, it’s unpleasant…for the persons detained there, and even the Police officers working in the proximity, […]
And while the Ministry is looking at the holding cells, it has also looked at the living conditions of Police Officers stationed in Caye Caulker. A few months ago News Five showed you the dorm room where officers working on the island must live – we use the term live loosely. It was a mess…dilapidated, […]
