Last week, there were complaints by the Maya Leaders Alliance and Toledo Alcaldes Association that government or its agents tried to coerce and intimidate Maya leaders and residents of Toledo to support their taking the Guatemalan claim to the International Court of Justice. The Belize Progressive Party today issued a statement objecting to these tactics. […]
There is some good news coming out of the Ministry of Health that is having an impact in the region. A team from Guyana is currently in the country studying the Belize Health Information System, which is a database of health statistics. The system has been working up to par and the Pan American Health […]
It’s that time of the year again. The Kidney Association of Belize is officially announcing its upcoming annual kidney walk and health fair, set for the third and ninth of March, respectively. High blood pressure and diabetes are the main causes of chronic kidney disease and with a population that is generally overweight; there are […]
According to Itch, over the years, Belizeans have failed to recognize that there is an increased number of persons being diagnosed with renal failure; majority, when the disease is already at an advanced stage. As a result, the Kidney Association of Belize, through its empowerment campaign, will also put off its annual health fair with […]
Residents in the Bradley’s Bank area of Santa Elena say that one of their public streets is being converted into a double lot and it will cut them off from much needed access. The residents allege that a government minister is behind the move and they go as far as to say that one of […]
Villagers of San Benito Poite in the Toledo District are staring disaster in the face after floods hit the community over the weekend. It has been an unusually rainy few weeks in the area and in addition to being inaccessible by road; their primary crops – corn for subsistence farming and beans for commercial sale […]
Speaking of the long-term effects, Salas posited that the change in weather patterns is attributable to climate change. He called for a strategy by authorities to help farmers plant more effectively to survive these occasional catastrophes. On the Phone: Osmany Salas, Senator for Non-Governmental Organizations “In the medium to long-term, since they are recognizing […]
Former president of Guatemala, sixty-six-year-old Alvaro Colom, was detained in Guatemala City along with several of his former cabinet ministers earlier today on charges of fraud and embezzlement dating back to his time in office between 2008 and 2012. Also among those arrested was Juan Alberto Fuentes, Colom’s former finance minister and currently chairman of […]
Alvaro Colom visited Belize in 2010 during the SICA summit in North Ambergris Caye, where he took over the six-month rotating presidency from Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Colom is not the first Guatemalan leader to face corruption accusations. In fact, he is the fourth in the last decade and a half, starting with Alfonso Portillo, […]
Just twenty-three days from a municipal election, supporters of the People’s United Party descended in the city seven years after its last national convention. The Opposition, on Sunday, took full advantage of the opportunity to galvanize its base and give the Old Capital a show. They came by the thousands, men, women and youths from […]
The National Convention’s primary business aside, the P.U.P. also has a lot to say about the major issues of the day. From crime to Guatemala, the party produced a number of resolutions outlining its plans and pleas to the government. Reporter Aaron Humes has more on this facet of the convention. Aaron Humes, Reporting […]
The P.U.P. is counting on the surge of energy presented on Sunday to prevail less than a month from now. But with the U.D.P. already boasting of sweeping all sixty-seven seats including Party leader John Briceño’s native Orange Walk Town, where does the Opposition think they have a chance? Briceño was not cowed, placing great […]
Lake Independence area rep Cordel Hyde is the acknowledged field general of the P.U.P. in Belize City. It will be his task to shepherd voters to the polls for Bernard Wagner and the P.U.P. slate of municipal candidates, but as he acknowledged on Sunday, it won’t be easy. Wagner and his team face twelve years […]
A new Guatemalan ambassador has taken up residence in Belize, almost two years after his predecessor Manuel Estuardo Roldan Barillas was abruptly recalled. Roldan returned to a new post as Guatemala’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs amid heightened tension between both countries, following the shooting death of Guatemalan teenager Julio Alvarado Ruano in the Chiquibul […]
As you heard earlier the P.U.P. is demanding a greater say in the education campaign on the Belize-Guatemala issue. But as to taking a formal position on the coming referendum on taking the dispute to the International Court of Justice, party leader John Briceño is less concerned. As he himself admits, the party is squarely […]
And while the P.U.P. effectively countered the suggestion of disunity on Sunday, another elephant in the room is financing. The party has consistently maintained that it will not accept campaign monies as quid pro quo for political favors for when, especially and including Lord Michael Ashcroft. But the United Democratic Party has once again raised […]
The Fire Department’s quick action on Sunday night averted a major disaster on Sixth Street in Belize City. An electrical fire broke on an ice cream truck just as its driver was concluding the day’s work and parking the van. Fortunately, the driver was not injured, but the blaze threatened another van and house nearby. […]
Meanwhile a family of four from the Bainesville community, just outside of Hattieville, is tonight without a roof over their heads following an early morning fire last Thursday that swept through their wooden house. Twenty-seven-year-old Erica Belisle, her twenty-two-year-old common-law husband Scott Usher Senior and their two children, ages four and one, were not at […]
The Belize Defence Force and the Belize Coast Guard received more than eight hundred and fifty-thousand dollars in drug fighting equipment and training packages. The US Embassy handed over the donation gifted by the US Southern Command’s ‘Counter Narcotics Program Office.’ While the U.S. and Central America have cooperated on defense and security, there have […]
There’s an article online that’s been attracting attention in the area of tourism. Naughty Island. It’s off the coast of Belize, and according to a U.K. newspaper, later this year; visitors on a special vacation package get to live out their fantasies there. The private island in question is eight miles off the coast or […]
Guatemalans head to the polls on April fifteenth to decide on the following question: Do you agree that any legal claim by Guatemala against Belize on continental inland territories and any maritime areas corresponding to those territories be submitted to the International Court of Justice for final determination and that it determines the boundaries of […]
Twelve bikers set off on a six-day adventure across Belize and into the Chiquibul Forest Reserve last week in support of Friends for Conservation and Development. It was organized by the European Nature Trust, which creates unique wild experiences to connect people with nature while raising funds for selected conservation organizations. According to the Trust, […]
The flow of contraband items from across the northern border is brisk. It’s big business, though risky, for contrabandistas to illegally bring in tons of items via various transshipment points. Two items which Belizeans have a huge appetite for are cigarettes and beers. Today, the Customs Department destroyed a stock of these items, among other […]
In April of 2016, the Central Bank of Belize announced plans to liquidate four credit unions across the country. These were the Citrus Growers and Workers’ Credit Union; Mount Carmel Credit Union; Police Credit Union; and Civil Service Credit Union. Mount Carmel grabbed the most headlines at the time because of its history of embezzlement […]
Earlier this week Prime Minister Dean Barrow left the country with his family on personal business in the United States. As has become common practice, the local media camped out this afternoon at the Philip Goldson International Airport in Ladyville awaiting his return. We had several questions for him, including when budget consultations with the […]
