The House of Representatives is meeting next Tuesday in a special session where it is expected that the ruling United Democratic Party will be tabling the Petrocaribe loan motion for a second reading. Government is seeking the house’s approval for loans totaling approximately two hundred and forty million dollars from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. […]
On Tuesday, we reported that Orange Walk East Area Representative Marco Tulio Mendez had formally announced his resignation from electoral politics. Mendez will not be contesting his seat in the 2017 general elections, having cited medical reasons for his inability to run again. Today, P.U.P. Party Leader Francis Fonseca expressed his disappointment in the recent […]
At the press conference today, the P.U.P. leader was also quizzed about campaign financing and if any was forth coming from Lord Michael Ashcroft. According to Fonseca, there is none and his approach is to the P.U.P. from contributions from ordinary folks. Fonseca also said that the nationalized company, B.T.L., will remain as a public […]
On July fifth, 2014, the battered body of Ramon Cervantes Sr. was found buried in a shallow grave on a farm outside of Orange Walk Town. He had been kidnapped a week before and then beaten to death. Three men were arrested for the crime. One other man, Manuel ‘Pelon’ Castillo, was suspected of masterminding […]
A massive rally is being organized by the United Democratic Party to coincide with Tuesday’s house meeting. The demonstration to be held at the foot of the Assembly Building is being billed as a show of support for government’s Petrocaribe loan motion which will be presented for a second reading during the special sitting. The […]
Earlier in our newscast, the B.S.C.F.A. spoke about an agreement which B.S.I. is trying to sell to farmers. There are five critical points in that agreement which has raised the ire of the B.S.C.F.A. and which the Association refuses to accept. Primary among those is an assertion by B.S.I. that once the cane is delivered […]
The second point of contention in the new agreement is of course one that has dominated the sugar industry scene for the past year – payment for bagasse. In B.S.I.’s proposal, there is no mention of bagasse…just fibre, and a formula which the factory proposes to use to pay farmers for the fibre taken from […]
Earlier we told you about the arraignment of two Roaring Creek residents for the murder of twenty-four year old Corwin Mendoza. Mendoza had been missing since Sunday following an altercation that ended with him being stabbed multiple times, bashed in the head and his body dumped in the creek. But there is some good news […]
There is a crisis of significant proportions brewing in the sugar-cane industry, lifeblood of the north and one of the country’s largest export-earners. A.S.R.-owned B.S.I. on Monday announced that following a failure to come to terms, it would be bypassing the B.S.C.F.A. completely. The company has now initiated discussions with the leaders of the three […]
Even as B.S.I. was trying to convince farmers to jump the B.S.C.F.A. ship, that body was holding emergency meetings with the eighteen directors of the different branches. Today’s round of meeting ended at just after midday and the media was on hand to get a preliminary response from the B.S.C.F.A. reps. It was a little […]
The People’s United Party has issued a statement in respect of the developments in the sugar industry. The party says the B.S.I./A.S.R. decision to bypass the B.S.C.F.A. is unprecedented and does not augur well for the viability of the industry. The opposition also notes that there is an absence of participation by the government. In […]
Work on Douglas Jones Street in Belize City came to an abrupt stop this morning. A letter from the Ministry of Works to the Flood Mitigation Project which in turn sub-contracts Medina Infrastructure Limited, informed that health and safety issues of workers were at the core of the decision. About seventy persons were employed; they […]
Tonight, News Five has been able to confirm that at least twenty persons from Benque Viejo del Carmen and Succotz have been summoned to appear in court on Thursday, November thirteenth. There they will be read charges for participating in a protest which turned violent on August nineteenth. The very heated protest was spurred by […]
Reports circulated last week but tonight there is confirmation – popular P.U.P. Area representative for Orange Walk East, Doctor Marco Tulio Mendez, has decided to step down. He made the announcement this morning at his political office, where he says he will stay in a supporting role for whoever will be the new standard bearer […]
In other political news…A special sitting of the House of Representative is slated for next week Tuesday in the Capital. In an ad aired in this newscast, the U.D.P. called on its supporters to join in a rally at the steps of the national assembly. The government will be taking to the House for a […]
On Monday, we reported that a late-afternoon meeting between the National Institute of Culture and History, the Belize Tourism Board and representatives of FECTAB ended into the night in a walkout when disgruntled tour operators decided that they had had enough of a seemingly fruitless discussion. The parties convened at the B.T.B. headquarters to discuss […]
The mysterious disappearance of Joeth Pratt, an employee of Cisco Construction Ltd., conjures up recent memories of the loss of Hattieville Chairman Kevin Carcamo, who also went missing a few months ago in a densely forested area. Pratt, who also goes by the nickname Chyna, is a resident of Lords Bank. She was last seen […]
The hostilities between Belize Sugar Industry and the Belize Sugar Cane farmers Association will no doubt be ratcheted up a significant notch today after an unexpected announcement by the factory. Starting immediately, B.S.I. will bypass the B.S.C.F.A. and will attempt to deal directly with the farmers in the delivery and milling of cane. It’s an […]
Executives of the National Institute of Culture and History, the Belize Tourism Board and the Federation of Cruise Tourism Associations of Belize met well into this evening at the offices of the Belize Tourism Board. The meeting was called after FECTAB told the media on Friday that NICH had instituted a forty-eight inch regulation which […]
And while the Cervantes family walked into the Police Station today unescorted, News Five has been informed that additional security has been provided for Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega and his family. We’ve listened to the same recording everybody has, and we’ve also heard the DPM state that his life and his family have now […]
FECTAB held a press conference this morning and as expected, there was some drama to the proceedings because archrivals were sitting at the same table united in a common cause. But in the following story, News Five’s Isani Cayetano deals with the real purpose of the event. Tour guides are feeling the pinch; new regulations […]
A FECTAB press conference, as we have come to learn, is never quite complete without its share of histrionics. This morning, archrivals Yhony Rosado and Vitalino Reyes, proprietors of Cavetubing.com and Cavetubing.bz, respectively, shared opposite ends of the head table, albeit out of striking distance from each other. Their history of enmity dates back several […]
In August, Benque resident Yanie Cu was badly injured in a collision with a government vehicle being driven by Deputy Commissioner of Police Miguel Segura. In October, News Five ran the story of Cu, who had gotten surgery in Guatemala but was still in terrible pain, unable to walk and further crippled by mounting medical […]
It’s that time of the year and red kettles will be popping up all over the city for the Salvation Army’s annual Kettle Appeal to raise funds for its community outreach programs throughout the year. The red kettle and the ringing bells are signs that Christmas is around the corner. For several years, the CIBC […]
The St. John’s Credit Union has been in existence for over sixty years and today across from its headquarters on Basra Street in Belize City, the lending institution celebrated its sixty-eighth birthday. To commemorate the milestone, the institution put off a fair showcasing various businesses, including various health agencies and departments as well as the […]
