A report and receipt surfaced on social media recently claiming that Minister Omar Figueroa had received a donation from the Hol Chan Marine Reserve to be used in his constituency. Figueroa is responsible for matters relating to the reserves and it seemed that he was piggy-backing his office for political contributions from a fund that […]
As it stands, the Department of Transport and the nine cities and towns across the country all work independently of each other. They also operate on separate electronic databases and manual systems which end up in poorly organized and inaccessible record management and data sharing. The Belize Motor Vehicle Registration and License System is a […]
As many as two hundred primary school students from across Belize City, many of them between the ages of five and ten years old, attended the first Christmas party to kick off the 2018 Yuletide. They all gathered at the Fort Street Tourism Village for lunch and bellyfuls of laughter from Ozzie the Clown. The […]
There is a major shift in the power play in the United Democratic Party in regards to the retirement of Prime Minister Dean Barrow. The PM has decided to stay in power and ride out his term in office which expires in 2020. This was announced today in a rare release following a meeting of […]
Twenty-five former employees of Choice Bank Limited are demanding that Sagicor Life Insurance return their money. Choice Bank went belly up after it announced liquidity issues in April of this year. The Central Bank pulled its international banking license two days after Choice Bank announced that depositors will be able to withdraw up to seventy-five […]
The disgruntled and frustrated former Choice Bank employees say that if Sagicor continues to give them the round-a-around they will resort to legal action. Adrian Arana, Former Chief Compliance Officer, Choice Bank Ltd. “In the process from the windup when we first contact them in 2017 we had legal counsel involved, but when the […]
A pool of local media personalities continues with a tour of the seat of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Marleni Cuellar is among the journalists on assignment in the Netherlands. The highlight of the visit today was tour of the I.C.J.; it was a solemn occasion at an iconic building that houses […]
On Friday, during the Sitting of the House of Representatives, Cayo South Area Representative Julius Espat took on Health Minister Pablo Marin. Espat challenged Marin over the lack of medical personnel and services in many of the rural villages in Cayo South. He said that many of his constituents are not only having difficulties in […]
For the past five weeks, a group of environmentalists have been participating in the Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme. The team from the National Oceanography Centre is in Belize taking samples from the rivers and waterways to determine whether higher levels of carbon dioxide being deposited into the Caribbean Sea is negatively affecting the barrier reef. […]
For the first time, the HelpAge International Latin America and Caribbean Sub-Regional conference is being hosted in Belize. The meeting brought together experts from across both regions to discuss the Inter-American Convention in the region on the Older Persons Rights in El Salvador and Costa Rica taking into consideration the experience and the role of […]
But while Belize was lauded for its work in safeguarding older persons, Patroness Maria Elena Sylvestre says that there is a lot to be done. In the past, we have seen that older persons have been victims of verbal, physical abuse and crime. She challenges the government to increase the penalty for persons who perpetrate […]
The twenty-fourth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate, known as COP24, will take place in Poland from December second to the fourteenth. The key objective of this year’s conference is to adopt the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement. It brings together world leaders and champions of the environment […]
And so if you’re wondering what exactly the IPCC Report means for the small island developing states; the news is grim. For coral reefs and other vulnerable ecosystems it may mean a massive die out if we can’t keep global temperatures down to one point five degrees Celsius. Fuller said that the report has a […]
There was both joy and relief for the families of thirteen fishermen on Saturday morning. The fishermen had set sail fifteen days ago from Copper Bank and during that time, there was no word from them; their seven families hoped for the best, but feared the worst after multiple reports surfaced that the vessel had […]
A pool of Belizean journalists is in The Hague, Netherlands for one week. The group representing seven media houses and the Government Press Office includes our Marleni Cuellar. They arrived in that city on Sunday with the sole purpose to learn more about the International Court of Justice. The journalists have engaged in a number […]
Former High Commissioner for Belize to UK, Kamela Palma is speaking out against the Christmas Cheer by the U.D.P. Administration. Palma has been living in Punta Gorda since she vacated the post in London. She questions what the administration hopes to achieve by giving out Christmas cheer allowances of twenty-five thousand dollars to each elected […]
There is political intrigue to report tonight and it has to do with the retirement of Prime Minister Dean Barrow. For some time it had been known that the PM had scheduled his retirement timeline for one year before the end of the current U.D.P. term in office. The Prime Minister had explained that his […]
The battle among three candidates to represent the Orange Walk Central constituency for the United Democratic Party ended on Sunday evening with incumbent Denny Grijalva defeating Yvette Liu Torres and Evan Williams. Grijalva blew Torres and Williams out of the water, garnering nine hundred and eighty-four votes to Torres’ four hundred and thirty-three votes and […]
Orange Walk Town is known for its tacos and tacos lovers from across the country can attest that the tacos of ‘Shuga City’ are the best. This is why Dillon Jones decided to create a festival around tacos eight years ago. On Sunday, the annual tacos festival took place at the Banquitas House of Culture […]
The police station in San Pedro Columbia is inhospitable. This is according to Toledo West Area Representative, Oscar Requeña, and the pictures he showed parliamentarians on Friday during the Sitting of the House of Representatives. Speaking on the adjournment, Requeña called on the government to immediately rehabilitate the police station which he says has been […]
Area Representative for Toledo West Oscar Requeña also spoke on the state of public roads in his constituency. It’s a topic that Requeña speaks on during the adjournment of every Sitting of the House of Representatives. He did so on Friday, calling out the Prime Minister for not making good on his promise, a promise […]
And while Oscar Requeña demanded that the Government repair the deplorable roads in his constituency, Lake I Area Rep., Cordel Hyde, is demanding that the government re-take control of boledo. The boledo franchise was privatized in 2009 with the Government granting Brads and Company Limited administrative powers. That company was granted an exclusive ten-year contract […]
On Friday, the Government introduced a bill to repeal and replace the Export Processing Zone Act. The revised act seeks to facilitate investment, production of value-adding enterprises and ensure compliance with regulations and standards. The existing EPZ Act was found to be in violation of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures of the World […]
The annual sixteen days of activism was launched in Belize City last Friday, under the theme, “#HearMeToo – End Violence against Women and Girls!” As part of the global campaign, the University of the West Indies Open Campus today hosted a panel discussion for at its auditorium in Belize City. Held in collaboration with the […]
According to Jane Bennett, the issue of gender-based violence is cultural, a bad behaviour, that needs to be changed and will take a village to change. Jane Bennett, Head, UWI Open Campus “Most of the times, it is women and mothers that socialize our children and we socialize boys and girls so we have […]
