The Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Belize Business Bureau have proposed a raft of ideas to help fix Belize’s economy, including emphasizing economic growth, reducing leakages and holes in tax collection, and righting the Government ship. But despite Government’s noises about change, are they really serious? We asked Senator Mark Lizarraga for his […]
As we told you earlier, the trade unions and civil society took their turn with the Government’s budget team today at the Belize Biltmore Plaza hotel. At its end, the interim president of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, Jacqueline Willoughby, discussed the union’s stance on planned tax increases and where the Government can […]
In making arguments against the Central Bank (International Immunities) Act, Senator Eamon Courtenay said on January thirtieth in the Senate that Belize did a similar thing to the Accommodation Agreement and Settlement Deed in waiving immunity in court proceedings to the New York County or Manhattan courts. But while conceding that that was standard for […]
Daniele Pistolesi, a former investor in the failed Puerto Azul project, has been speaking exclusively to News Five about his role in exposing it as a massive scam and Ponzi scheme. In January, after a two-year investigation that is still ongoing, twenty arrests were made and millions of dollars in assets recovered. As many as […]
She travelled to the Philippines to compete in the most prestigious Miss Universe pageant, within months of becoming Miss Belize. It has been a journey of immeasurable experiences for the beauty ambassador who returned to the country today and was placed in the pan of a pickup truck for a parade through the city. Rath […]
Attorney-at-Law, Dolores Balderamos Garcia has been appointed Senior Counsel. The appointment came today before the Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin who highlighted her stellar contribution through her years of practice and also through her public service in the legislature where she led major changes in the law that positively affected Women, Children and Family Law. The […]
On Saturday, the eighteenth of February, the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts will come alive as bodybuilding athletes from across the country will converge to compete in the Spiez Muscle Mania 2017 Competition. The athletes will partake in several divisions including welterweight and heavyweight bodybuilding; as well as men’s physique better known as beach […]
There is an activity to look forward to this weekend. Jamaican artist Da’ville touched down in Belize on Thursday as the featured artist for a concert this Saturday at the B.T.L. Park to mark the three-year anniversary since the public space was renovated by the Belize City Council. The event will also feature a lineup […]
The People’s United Party today issued a statement strongly supporting its lead Senator, Eamon Courtenay in the wake of a full-fledged U.D.P. campaign to remove Courtenay from the senate. The P.U.P. says that with the revelation that the Central Bank (International Immunities) Act has no teeth for enforcement in the U.S. and that Belize’s foreign […]
The crusade by the U.D.P. started with their call on Wednesday for his removal from the Senate. It has to do with the ongoing fight over arbitration awards granted to BCB Holdings and other companies. BCB, now known as Caribbean Investment Holdings Limited, is challenging the Central Bank of Belize (International Immunities) Act in the […]
As we said, a constitutional challenge has been filed in the Supreme Court by principals of Eamon Courtenay’s law firm against the Central Bank (International Immunities) Act and Crown Proceedings (Amendment) Act. The latter legislation is, as he explained to us, a personal matter, as he and fellow attorneys risk jail simply for advising their […]
Former Immigration Director Ruth Meighan has admitted that thousands of persons who did not qualify were granted nationality in the mad rush to get them on the voters list for the 2012 elections. The effect is that the fraudulent exercise would have tipped the elections in favor of the U.D.P. Today, the Belize National Teachers […]
The B.N.T.U., through Elena Smith as the Senator for Trade Unions and Civil Society, has representation in the Senate Select Inquiry where the details of the rot in the system are being exposed. We asked National President Luke Palacio if there is any hope that someone will be held responsible for the illegalities in the […]
Tonight, News Five has further details of an exclusive interview with former investor in the failed Puerto Azul project, Italian national Daniele Pistolesi. News Five has learned that the local face of the luxury resort project Fabio de la Rosa was arrested three days after the first announcement of arrests in January. A total of […]
Turning to the senate hearings…Did former Minister of State for Immigration and Nationality, Elvin Penner, act alone in granting both passport and Belizean nationality to South Korean businessman turned fugitive Won Hong Kim, to help him escape a Taiwanese jail? While the full answer to that may not be known until Penner appears before the […]
As a result of the Won Hong Kim passport and Belizean nationality scandal, the Immigration Department was nearly turned upside down as both Police and internal probes took place. In the end, the blame for the granting of nationality was placed on three officers: Sharon Neal, Omar Phillips and Erwin Robinson. They were tried before […]
In Wednesday’s coverage of the Senate Special Select Committee, we highlighted the comments of former head of Services for the Immigration Department, Edgar Cano, who also served for a brief time as chief officer at the Western Border. Most of his questions had to do with the eight missing visa foils that somehow moved from […]
Perhaps the most depressing bit of information coming out of the Senate’s public hearings is how easily the Immigration Department’s plans and schemes were broken by just about anyone with a shred of a connection. Former C.E.O. of the Ministry of Immigration, Candelaria Saldivar-Morter, says that she and Minister Godwin Hulse were very much aware […]
In January, the Social Security Board announced that they would be going on a country-wide public consultation to discuss increase in benefits; for those making contributions, it means that those will increase. The reasoning behind this proposed increase is that when those who earn more than three hundred and twenty dollars weekly retire, they will […]
Just after seven on Wednesday night, a fire broke inside a wooden house on Victoria Street in north side Belize City. Inside at the time of the blaze was an elderly woman; she was pulled out of the house by relatives who were alerted by the smoke that spread through the small house. Police officers […]
Today, eight feeding programs received cheques from the Social Security Board under its annual Ride Across Belize program. The funds collected during the 2016 Ride will be used to feed underprivileged children across the country. A little over fifty thousand dollars was handed over today among the recipients – those monies represent funds collected and […]
The Department of Environment is executing the project called Belize Chemicals and Waste Management (BCWM) Project. One of goals of this project is the management and disposal of existing stockpiles of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), obsolete pesticides and other chemicals. So, in order to do this the DOE is holding a two day session with […]
It’s common knowledge that too much stress is bad for your health. Just last month scientists were able to identify the biological link between specifically the heart and stress. They revealed that heightened activity in the amygdala, a region of the brain involved in stress, is associated with a greater risk of heart disease and […]
The ruling United Democratic Party has issued a call for the Opposition People’s United Party to remove its lead Senator, Eamon Courtenay, for what it calls an “outright betrayal of Belize’s national interests, and extreme conflict of interest.” According to the U.D.P., Courtenay as Senior Counsel filed a constitutional challenge to strike down the Central […]
The Senate Special Select Committee met with three witnesses today at its public hearings in Belmopan. These were senior Immigration Officer Edgar Cano; Finance Officer Teresita Castellanos, and the now-retired, former C.E.O. in the Ministry of Immigration, Candelaria Saldivar-Morter. The sister of Belmopan area representative and Minister John Saldivar was sent on paid leave for […]
