Belize’s Under-eighteen Boys Basketball team left the country today to compete in a tournament in Akron, Ohio. The Dru Joyce Classic runs from the twenty-seventh to the twenty-ninth of April and the all-star team is hoping to be scouted by college coaches so that they can get athletic scholarships. The last time Belize participated in […]
The U.S. State Department has issued the 2017 report on human rights issues worldwide, including Belize. Belize is faulted for several alleged unlawful killings by security officers, corruption by government agents; killings motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity, trafficking in persons, dealt with more extensively in a separate report released last year; and child […]
The popular magazine The Economist has weighed in on the results of Guatemala’s referendum on Sunday. Nearly ninety-six percent of participating voters agreed to filing a case at the International Court of Justice concerning the country’s claim to over half of Belize. It gently mocked Belize’s congratulatory response to the result, which it described as […]
The Organization of American States has had a central role in finding a solution to the territorial dispute. As we have been reporting, Guatemala held its referendum on Sunday and even though the voter turnout was at a low twenty-seven percent, the Guatemalans voted overwhelmingly saying YES to take the claim before the International Court […]
Last week a Belizean contingent attended the Eighth Summit of the Americas in Peru. Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington, Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte and Belize’s Ambassador to the U.S. and O.A.S. Daniel Gutierrez represented Belize. Today, the A.G. told us about the discussions at the summit and the focus on democratic governance against corruption. […]
Miguel Diaz-Canel was officially named as the new President of Cuba today, one day after a secret vote in that country’s National Assembly. Diaz-Canel, who turns fifty-eight on Friday, has been in the government for thirty years and was selected by a vote of six hundred and three to one to replace Fidel Castro’s younger […]
Their welcome home was not a big deal, but the Under-fifteen Boys National Basketball Team has every reason to be proud. Beating the odds, the team came back with bronze medals from the COCABA Championship held in El Salvador from the eleventh to fifteenth April. The team placed third and two players got special recognition for […]
Guatemala’s Minister of Foreign Affairs on Monday further discussed her country’s participation in Sunday’s referendum. As has been widely noted, about twenty-seven percent of the population voted in the referendum of which a super-majority said yes. But with Belize’s referendum act requiring a simple majority turnout – something Guatemala is said to have pushed for […]
Senior attorney Lisa Shoman, who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Said Musa’s administration and has been an ambassador to the United States and permanent representative to the Organization of American States, as well as put in valuable time on Belize’s diplomatic team attending to the Guatemalan claim, has a different view to […]
Exactly what does Guatemala claim of Belize? We’ve all heard the differing stories – the whole of Belize’s eight thousand plus square miles of territory; or only that portion south of the Sibun River which includes most of Cayo, Stann Creek and Toledo Districts, covering twelve thousand square kilometers. The figures alone sound scary, but […]
With Belize’s referendum date not set, and a potential trip to The Hague still a few years away, Belize and Guatemala must continue to co-exist as neighbors and tackle important issues together. We asked Foreign Minister Jovel to outline her priorities, and she said the most important is untangling the issue of the dispute from […]
On Monday, Opposition Leader John Briceño told News Five that government has fallen short of meaningfully consulting with the People’s United Party on what has long been a national issue. This evening, Deputy Prime Minister Faber responded by saying that the P.U.P. are in fact the ones that are using the referendum as a political […]
News Five, in an interview with Guatemala’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, touched on two topics of special interest to Belizeans in the wake of Sunday’s referendum. The first concerns relations between the countries. At the highest level, says Sandra Jovel Polanco, things could not be better. Polanco cites that she has met cordially with her […]
But could relations be soured or broken irretrievably if the International Court of Justice, assuming assent from both populations, rules in Belize’s favor? It’s a question that makes both sides uncomfortable considering Guatemala’s prior reputation and the scale of how much Belize has to lose. But Minister Jovel Polanco insists that Guatemala will respect the […]
While there were bouquets across the border between Belize and Guatemala following Sunday’s referendum result, color the Belize Progressive Party unsurprised and unimpressed. They said as much in a press statement issued Monday evening, reminding that the Guatemalan leadership was taking advantage of what it called local “facilitation” that puts Belize at severe risk to […]
Guatemala has spoken and its citizens have done so decisively, those who came out on Sunday to participate in the referendum. Following a somewhat abbreviated education campaign which commenced in that country in mid-January, voters took to polling stations across twenty-two departments, including neighboring Peten. When the results began coming in sometime after ten p.m., […]
In the absence of Prime Minister Barrow and Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington, we sought a reaction to Sunday’s outcome from Opposition Leader John Briceño. The head of the People’s United Party, like the Government of Belize, congratulates Guatemala on the successful results of its referendum, despite a poor voter turnout. On the home front, Briceño […]
Guatemalan Vice President Jafeth Cabrera recently met with Belize’s Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington in Lima, Peru while attending the Eighth Summit of the Americas. Cabrera reportedly told the Guatemalan media, following the gathering of heads of state and government of the Western Hemisphere, that he had been informed by Foreign Minister Elrington of a similar […]
Vice President of Guatemala Jafeth Cabrera voted in Sunday’s referendum in Guatemala City. According to Prensa Libre, he told reporters that he understands Belize will go to vote in its referendum in May of 2018, though he possibly meant 2019. Either way, he maintained that Belize has already committed to the path and now it […]
With Guatemalans giving the nod to take the territorial claim to the I.C.J., does the result put added pressure on the Belizean government and populace to have the same? On this side of the border, residents were tuned in to coverage of the referendum. Today, a News Five team took to the streets of the […]
We have heard from Belizeans as to what they are thinking now that the results in Guatemala are a reality. But how, really, did we get here? It started ten years ago when the countries signed a special agreement in Washington, but there have been quite a few bumps in the road since. News Five’s […]
The fallout over the designation by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control of banana businessman John Zabaneh as an alleged drug trafficking kingpin continues. While he is no longer under that designation, he had to publicly withdraw from the industry, sending the Mayan King and other banana farms into freefall. Farm managers Meridian […]
Most of Belize’s delegation to the Commonwealth Games concluded on Sunday in Gold Coast, Australia, returned to Belize this afternoon. There were no medals to show off, but the athletes who participated in cycling, table tennis, triathlon and athletics say they enjoyed testing their limits against some of the best in the world. The cycling […]
The table tennis team of Devesh Hukmani, Terry Su and Rohit Pagarani were also participating in the Commonwealths for the first time and faced some of the very best in their field. The results went as expected but the boys say they want another shot. Rohit Pagarani, Table Tennis, Commonwealth Games “This was my […]
All of Central America including Belize has been listed in the 2018 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report of the U.S. State Department, published this week. These and other countries have been identified as major sources and in Belize’s case, transshipment points for illicit drugs including marijuana and cocaine, most of which end up in the […]
