Leader of the Opposition John Briceño has written separate letters to Prime Minister Dean Barrow, Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie, and director of the Financial Intelligence Unit Kent Clare, demanding an investigation of Minister for Human Development Anthony “Boots” Martinez. Briceño writes that an apparent illegal and corrupt scheme was established between Martinez as minister […]
The widespread condemnation and presentation of solutions in the wake of the death of Baby Allyssa is mounting. Separate press releases were issued by the Belize City Council Child Advisory Board; Maya Leaders Alliance/Toledo Alcaldes Association; National Evangelical Association of Belize and the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, offering similar words of condemnation of […]
In 2013, extensive amendments to the Criminal Code of Belize were passed in respect of fully delineating potential offenses of sexual assault against both adults and children. Those laws were endorsed by Special Envoy for Women and Children Kim Simplis-Barrow and the National Committee for Families and Children among others. Today, the Special Envoy told […]
It’s now official: the Government of Belize is going at it alone in the upcoming appeal of the August tenth, 2016 judgment of Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin regarding the amendment of Section fifty-three of the Criminal Code. Following the withdrawals of the Belize Council of Churches, Association of Evangelical Churches and Anglican Diocese from the […]
Just in time for its first session of the year 2018, the Court of Appeal has a new judge. Jamaican national Lennox Kirkwood Campbell was sworn in by the Governor General Sir Colville Young in Belmopan this morning. Campbell, a retired Supreme Court judge, has had a long and distinguished career in his native Jamaica, […]
A routine patrol by rangers of the Southern Environmental Association, better known as SEA, and Belize Coast Guard officers resulted in the arrest of three Honduran fishermen. The patrol near the spawning and aggregation site in the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve on Sunday night led to the capture of Henry Castro, Joel […]
The Ministry of Health indicates it will launch another investigation into a British health practitioner reportedly based in Belize. The Daily Mirror in the U.K. has printed an expose naming forty-nine year old Amanda Mary Jewell, who goes by Mary, as a “quack,” giving victims of cancer false hope with bogus treatments using dangerous and banned products. […]
Just before news time a small protest was held in front of the Queen Street Police Station by persons to condemn the rape of an infant. Police have just now charged for dangerous harm, the stepfather of the child, a twenty- one year old resident from Maskall who was left to care for the child […]
The rape of the seventeen-month-old baby girl has sparked outrage across the country and the National Committee for Families and Children (N.C.F.C.) joined the UNICEF AND B.F.L.A. in condemning this brutal attack on the toddler. The N.C.F.C. says that it, “condemns all sexual explicit acts, especially of this atrocious nature, which continue to breakdown our […]
Tonight, Minister of Human Development Anthony “Boots” Martinez remains in boiling hot water as scandals continue to erupt around him. New information shows that this week he personally approved almost fifty thousand dollars, processed through the Government’s SmartStream system, as payment for seven individuals. The largest payment was of eight thousand, three hundred dollars. The […]
With a permanent injunction now in force on the P.U.C. from collecting, might it decide to withdraw the approval and potentially cripple Speednet’s reach across Belize? The company has more than one hundred thousand customers, and Courtenay told us that no court would look favorably on such a mean-spirited move. Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for […]
The scarcity of fuel is plaguing motorists, tonight. This is despite the arrival of a sizeable shipment of oil from Guatemala overland earlier this week. Seventy-two thousand gallons were trucked in but it appears that it is not enough to satisfy demand. At this time the shortage of premium and regular fuel are being reported […]
The visit of the Mexican Vice Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean also include the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation and Development and the Ministry of Education. The MOU is for twenty-five half-scholarships to be awarded to students of Escuela Secundaria Technica Mexico. On behalf of […]
As of December of last year fifteen thousand youths have graduated from the Gang Resistance and Education Training programme of the Police Department. Today another five hundred and eight students received their certificates at the Bliss Institute for Creative Arts. Last year the students participated in a number of activities to help them to make […]
Following a case management conference last Wednesday, the case of attorney Sharon Pitts concerning compensation of four hundred thousand dollars for land at the Haulover Bridge is headed to mediation in the Supreme Court. Mediation is a closed-door session in which the mediator sits with both parties to work out a satisfactory solution which is […]
Last week, we showed you the houses that were destroyed by fire on Frederick Street in Belize City. Well, those torched structures have been taken down and the rubble cleared out. Today we found CEMO’s point man Philip Willoughby on site and he tells us that the work fits in with CEMO’s bigger plan to […]
Operators of the Fort George Tourism Zone are uniting to fight plans by the Belize City Council, Tourism Board and Belize Tourism Village to move occupants of the area to the Memorial Park and their vehicles to the area of the Marion Jones Sporting Complex. The actual implementation has been delayed, but President Albert Alvarez […]
The urban violence and abuse of children has prompted UNICEF to speak out. The U.N. organization issued a release this afternoon highlighting the responsibility of adults to protect children and encourage them to grow. Children, says UNICEF, have been tragically hurt and some have lost their lives due to gun violence, physical abuse and sexual […]
There is more scandalous information tonight about the hustle in the Ministry of Natural Resources known as the hot bed of corruption. A past P.U.P. administration in 1998 repossessed eighty-one acres of land in separate parcels in the Privassion Enclave area of the Mountain Pine Ridge and on North Ambergris Caye. The land was acquired […]
Briceño, himself a former Lands Minister, says the seventy-one million figure paid out for land compensation is more than three times the amount paid out under his Ministry in eight years in charge. As for why the land was taken back, Briceño says there were separate issues at play. But he notes that none of […]
The murder of Jermaine Carr on Neal’s Pen Road was preceded by two other shooting incidents in Belize City on Wednesday evening. The first incident involved well-known George Street figure Nicholi Rhys, who was grazed in the head by a bullet when a lone assailant fired on him. Rhys was lucky to have escaped with […]
The attempt on Rhys’ life prompted swift retribution by his affiliates across town shortly afterwards. Twenty-one-year-old Aaron Avilez was leaving from a barbershop on North Front Street around seven-thirty when he was assailed by a gunman on foot. The shooter reportedly walked up to him and let loose a volley of shots, injuring him to […]
The open debate on the taking of photographs by officers conducting stop and search exercises continue in the public domain, as well as within government. The issue has been raised on several occasions with senior members of the Belize Police Department and, despite a roundabout response; the matter has not been addressed formally. That was […]
On Wednesday, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, N.T.U.C.B., issued a terse release soundly criticizing the Government of Belize for the delay in the visit of an UNCAC team of experts. The umbrella organization disparages the island nation of Tuvalu, one of two countries, including Haiti, providing specialists to conduct an evaluation and assessment […]
A fire in Belize City has left a family of nine without a roof over their heads. The homeowner and her baby were asleep when the fire broke out inside an unoccupied bedroom. The pair narrowly escaped the inferno that completely destroyed their home. Single-mother Monique Dennison says that a man was spotted in her […]
