According to Pacheco, it was not uncommon during her time in the visa section for her officer in charge there, George Reynolds, to receive applications for visas from ministers of government or their respective agents. She says it was, quote, normal practice, for these applications to be handed to her for processing, despite being junior […]
Brothers Wasani and Jafari Castro made headlines on Monday when it was reported that the siblings were arrested last Friday in connection with several traffic offenses, as well as a sizeable haul of contraband beer. The brothers, both sons of Transport Minister Edmond ‘Clear the Land’ Castro, who is also the Belize Rural North Area […]
Press Office Director Dorian Pakeman is back on the job, after being suspended in the wake of a fatal traffic accident that claimed the life of Gardenia resident Dean Dawson in 2016. The deadly mishap took place on the Philip Goldson Highway while the mechanic was riding his bicycle along the stretch of road near […]
The Barracks area has been the site of many outdoor concerts featuring local and international artists and music accompanies many events in the area. But following concerns raised by residents about noise at a public meeting on Wednesday, select bars and night clubs face new restrictions from the Belize City Council. An internal memo leaked […]
The Annual General Meeting of Belize Electricity Limited took place on Wednesday night and the news is that the company continues to perform well for shareholders. With electricity rates largely steady, the company earned twenty-seven point three million dollars, of which twenty-point-three million was diverted to dividends. B.E.L. says fifty-six percent of all its electricity […]
A female manatee that was mating was killed over the weekend. It appears that a number of manatees are at the peak of their mating in the summer time and lately have been spotted in the river mouth area. But this area is heavily trafficked and boats present a real threat to the herd. Jamal […]
Over the past few months, we have shown you the massive silt build up in the Yabra Canal. The City Council and other partners have been doing the ground work to chart a way forward to clear the canal. Today, CitCo started with the extraction of the silt, but this preparatory work is a second […]
With the 2018 municipal elections only several months away, the UDP Belize City Council slate is already shaping out. On Wednesday, eight councilor candidates submitted their names ahead of the upcoming deadline. While that ticket does not as yet include incumbent Mayor Darrell Bradley, or councilors Phillip Willoughby and Alifa Elrington-Hyde, the party is moving […]
Is Belize City Council’s Superman Willoughby in or is he out of the U.D.P. Municipal? Last night, you heard Councilor Dion Leslie say that the current U.D.P. city councilors are united to offer themselves as a team on the U.D.P. ticket for the 2018 municipal elections. That united effort was seen on Wednesday when eight […]
Nineteen women today graduated from a certificate course in the basics of care giving, an important job as the population of Belize ages. The Belize Training and Employment Center collaborated with parent BELTRAIDE, the National Council on Ageing, the Belize Natural Energy Charitable Trust and Sister Cecilia Home for the Elderly, where participants took part […]
The Museum of Belize is leading an initiative that will see small museums enter into an association. Today, they officially signed the article of association that will see them better supported with training and other opportunities in order to better support in areas of preservation of culture and heritage. News Five’s Andrea Polanco reports. […]
Last week, a group of roving caregivers attended two training workshops to learn how to use puppetry in childhood simulation, as well as educational and therapy work. Mexican Puppeteer Raquel Robles Pacheco trained the care givers how to use the puppets to communicate in the counseling of children. The initiative was sponsored by ICA via […]
A long-term relationship between the Government of Belize and Microsoft Service has been struck, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding earlier today. The partnership with the leading technology behemoth aims to assist in meeting government’s National Digital Transformation Goals. Microsoft will help the Central Information and Technology Office, CITO, to develop and deliver […]
Starting on Saturday, a group of Belizeans will once again participate in one of the prestigious poker tournaments at the Annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas Nevada. The players, who hail Belmopan, San Pedro and Belize City, have earned their spot on Team Belize by winning smaller tournaments organized over the past year […]
In Breaking News, police have confirmed that there was a murder a short while ago on King Street in downtown Belize City, in front of Teddy’s Music Shop. The name of the victim is unknown at this time. Southside Police Commander Chester Williams has said that police are looking for one suspect. Further details will […]
The senate hearings got underway in Belmopan; the sole witness at the Senate Special Select Committee was Immigration Officer Ady Pacheco whose name appears frequently in the Auditor General’s report. The junior officer is named as a key player in the Won Hong Kim affair as, she admitted today, she was directly handed the file […]
Pacheco also fingered her boss, Officer in Charge of the Nationality and Services Section of the Department Gordon Wade, saying he was in regular contact with Ministers, secretaries and drivers to accept files to process for nationality. It was often the case that these files were incomplete, and the Department did not always follow up […]
At the hearing, Pacheco denied outright that she was ever paid for her role in reviewing the nationality documents by Minister Penner or Gordon Wade, and had nothing to do with the permanent residency or passport applications for Won Hong Kim. But since he never came to Belize (the double showing up with Penner at […]
A few weeks ago we told you of the confidential report of the Immigration Department and former acting Director Maria Marin on the David Nanes Schnitzer affair. The Mexican-American faces fraud charges in the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme. Nanes had been living in Belize for some time with various false documents until he was caught […]
It had not been discussed at all at prior hearings, but Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s name does appear in the Auditor General’s Special Audit Report on Nationality as a referee for Swedish national Peter Dahlstrom, who was married since 1994 to his wife Kim Simplis-Barrow’s sister. Despite Dahlstrom being married for more than twenty years […]
Pacheco says the application went to Gordon Wade who made the notation that Dohlstrom was fit for Belizean nationality. It was settled policy – verbal, not written – that the legality of applicants for nationality by marriage was set from the date of their marriage and not date of settlement. So Pacheco respectfully took issue […]
He remains Sergeant-At-Arms or Mace Bearer of the House of Representatives. But while the Senate Committee is meeting, Clerk of the National Assembly Eddie Webster announced today, Brian “Yellow Man” Audinett is disallowed from attending its sessions. Writing to the various chiefs of news media houses attending and broadcasting the hearings, Webster stated that the […]
The brightest students in the P.S.E were recognized today for academic excellence. Over seven thousand students sat the exam earlier this year, but hundreds of them failed the annual test. The average test scores for this year largely remained the same, but Math was very dismal with about half of the students failing, while Social […]
A Belize City businesswoman was convicted this morning in the court room of Chief Magistrate, Anne Marie Smith for the drug trafficking of fourteen point six grams of crack cocaine and for possession of a small quantity of weed. Michelle Gotoy, a resident of Belize City was busted on December sixth, 2016, at the corner […]
The recent fracture within the self-styled “Morality Commission” has seen the departure of Bishop Phillip Wright and Reverend Roosevelt Papouloute, two relatively powerful church leaders who sat on the government-helmed working group. That task force was formed in the wake of a Supreme Court decision on the controversial Section Fifty-three challenge which was filed and […]
