Also in the south….Over the weekend, the Belize Territorial Volunteers organized yet another trip along the Belize/Guatemala border in the south. Residents in the southern communities led by activist and BTV founder, Wil Maheia, planted trees along what is believed to be the border between the two countries. After planting the trees, Maheia addressed the […]
The yearly coming together of paddlers in San Ignacio for the Belikin La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge is often a spectacle of colors and athletic abilities and with the growing popularity of the race come the inescapability of the advertising dollar. That’s right; everything from t-shirts to canoes and refreshments is being marketed by […]
Aside from the marketing aspect of the Belikin La Ruta Maya River Challenge, there is the issue of citizens’ safety over the extended weekend. The finishing touches of the canoe race are being finalized and thousands of persons are expected to gather along the river banks to witness the anticipated event. The third and final […]
Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin today issued a writ of Mandamus against Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie. In simple terms, the Court has now instructed Whylie to criminally investigate the Won Hong Kim passport scandal and, of course, the man in the middle of it all, former Minister of State Elvin Penner. In addition, the Chief […]
Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lynn Vidal dropped an inadvertent bombshell last week, in the form of a memo to the National Crimes Investigation Branch. In that memo Vidal quotes from a report by Police investigator A.S.P. Julio Valdez. Valdez makes the shocking revelation that he found discrepancies in the Immigration Department during his investigation, but […]
What is being called a miscommunication between the Belize Defense Force and the police department resulted in the brief detention of several armed officers who crossed into Belizean territory at the northern border last Friday. The incident occurred prior to a high-level meeting held between B.D.F. officials and members of the Mexican military and caused […]
Moses Williams was shot and killed on February seventeenth, on his farm in Big Falls in the Toledo District. Police say they went for the mentally challenged young man to take him to the hospital and he attacked them with a machete. They claim that he chopped one officer before he was shot in the […]
The national budget for the 2014 fiscal year will be presented in the House of Representatives this Friday, where Prime Minister Barrow is expected to formally announce that the unions, after prolonged negotiations with government, will be receiving a salary adjustment of five percent, along with an increment of two and a half percent, respectively. […]
The pressure to have the man who apparently masterminded the Won Hong Kim passport fraud criminally investigated and charged refuses to go away, despite government’s best efforts. And it is building rapidly. Wherever former Minister of State Elvin Penner was today, his ears must have been ringing. The P.U.P. requested and received permission this week […]
We reported on Thursday night that we have a dossier of the immigration scandal, as it relates to the issuance of a passport to Won Hong Kim in September 2013. The documents are voluminous and telling and we will walk you through some of the irregularities we picked out during perusal of the documents. We […]
We’ve presented to you the judicial review hearing in a nutshell, but there was much more of interest coming out of today’s proceedings. Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie was missing in action after being given seven days to answer a letter asking him to investigate Elvin Penner. He refused all calls for interviews with the […]
The Commissioner of Police decided that there would be no criminal investigation of Elvin Penner. That’s what the Court was told today by his attorney. But, did Whylie make that decision all on his own or did he receive instructions from his political bosses? If he did so, then it suggests that he might also […]
After two weeks of carefully ironing out the details on the proposed way forward in the embattled citrus industry, Prime Minister Dean Barrow held a press conference this morning, where he presented the content of a memorandum of understanding signed by various stakeholders, including the Social Security Board, the Citrus Growers Association and Banks Holdings […]
On Sunday, the United Democratic Party will hold one of its final constituency conventions in Belize Rural Central, and it promises to be hotly contested. Michael Hutchinson has been in the area since 2008, when he defeated political powerhouse Ralph Fonseca. He was then defeated in 2012 by Dolores Balderamos Garcia, but has remained in […]
The Sister Cecilia Home is a place for seenagers and has among its numbers retired public servants, world war veterans and elderly naturalized Belizeans. But it is rare that these persons are taken outside the confines of the home for a full day of activities. Well today, the newly renovated B.T.L. Park was the venue […]
Belize has so far done exceedingly well in the Arnold Classic Bodybuilding Tournament. On Tuesday, Mister Belize, Rigo Vellos, and Miss Belize Fitness, Cricel Castillo, traveled to Columbus, Ohio to compete in the prestigious Arnold Classic Bodybuilding Tournament at the Arnold Sports festival. The event is from the twenty-seventh of February to the second of […]
It is almost six months since former Minister of State with responsibility for Immigration Elvin Penner was removed from Cabinet for his role in the illegal issuance of a passport to South Korean fugitive sitting in a Taiwanese jail. There have been allegations of multiple investigations, but a scarcity of any information. And what information […]
The memo from the D.P.P. queries whether the police intends to proceed with an investigation to determine if anyone can be charged for immigration irregularities. News Five has also obtained a comprehensive dossier on two separate internal investigations that were conducted on the immigration scandal that continue to hold the attention of the nation since […]
Shortly after receiving a copy of that damning memo, News Five contacted D.P.P. Cheryl Lynn-Vidal for comment. She was livid about the leak and had absolutely nothing to say about the memo. But she did say that if somebody in the Police Department would see it fit to leak a document which is plainly marked […]
Teachers and public officers will get a salary adjustment in July, retroactive to April. The increase has been the subject of heated discussion and intense negotiations, but it appears, at least as far as verbal commitment is concerned, to be set in stone. The quantum has been the unknown factor and as the numbers continue […]
Prime Minister Barrow has stated that they are locked into the commitment, so even if revenues decrease next year, G.O.B. will still have to shin up. The next big issue on the agenda is the GDP. The Statistical Institute of Belize announced on Wednesday that GDP growth for 2013 was zero point seven percent, much […]
This Friday, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin will hear an application by the People’s United Party’s Leader Francis Fonseca on why Elvin Penner should be investigated by the Commissioner of Police for his role in the passport issued to Won Hong Kim. That aside, COLA today brought its own pressure to bear. The firebrand organization held […]
Minister of Housing Michael Finnegan returned to the jewel this afternoon after a round of successful spinal surgery. Finnegan left Belize for the U.S. late last month and was treated at the Newport Beach Spine Center in California for the spinal problem he had been ailing with for some time. When he checked with him […]
Lord Neil Benjamin Gibson, Minister of Trade and Investment Erwin Contreras and novice U.D.P. politician Ralph Huang…those three names have dominated social media in recent weeks, intensifying after Huang was elected U.D.P. Standard Bearer in Cayo South. By all accounts, at least on the internet, Gibson is a fraud posing as a big time investor. […]
U.D.P. Cayo South standard bearer Ralph Huang, who was recently elected by voters in that constituency, has reportedly admitted to receiving financial contributions from a foreign business interest that has been red-flagged by the Central Bank of Belize. According to a release issued by Vision Inspired by the People, Huang’s campaign, leading up to a […]
