The opening ceremony of the Twenty-Seventh Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM is about to start in Placencia at the Placencia Hotel. Late arrivals by some heads of government have delayed the launch of the three-day summit. As far as we can tell, the Prime Ministers of Jamaica, St. Vincent […]
While Ysaguirre refrained from divulging specific outcomes from the meeting, respective heads of government will be briefed of a collective position that will be taken in the days ahead. The loss of correspondent banking at the moment is deemed more urgent within the Caribbean than climate change since it has the potential for serious consequences […]
During today’s finance meeting, the committee discussed a number of options, including the possibility of establishing a regional correspondent bank by pooling together resources. While that idea may serve as a long-term solution, the practicality of it is being called to question. Glen Ysaguirre, Governor, Central Bank of Belize “There is also other recommendations […]
The opening of the CARICOM Intersessional started a few minutes ago at the Placencia Hotel. In the next two days, the heads of government of Caribbean states will be meeting in closed sessions at the Ocean Club to discuss the pressing issues affecting the region. Speaking at the ceremony was outgoing Chair of CARICOM, the […]
Climate change experts from around the Caribbean region continued a two-day conference in Belize City today. At the heart of the discussions was the COP 21 Agreement reached in Paris in 2015 signed by one hundred and ninety-five countries. The agreement sets out a global action plan to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global […]
A high-level technical delegation from the region is currently in Belize. The group is finalizing a climate change framework in the wake of the Paris Agreement coming out of the Conference of Parties Twenty-One. The delegates are tightening the nuts and bolts of that agreement with specific focus on its impact on the region. On […]
The governments of Belize and Taiwan today penned an agreement to make way for cooperation in the public health sector. The agreement was signed by the Minister of Health, Pablo Marin and Taiwanese Ambassador Benjamin Ho. Taiwan will make available expertise in health education, disease screening and clinical services as well as training for medical […]
Belize is preparing to host the CARICOM Heads of Government Intercessional next week. At least nine heads have already confirmed their attendance and will look at many issues including the loss of correspondent bank, climate change as well as the ZIKA virus. Today, stakeholders from the Immigration and Labour Departments, the unions, and private and […]
As it relates to Belize, there has not been a swift movement of persons so the CSME Focal Point, Tricia Gideon spoke of what is being done to engage Belizeans. Tricia Gideon, CSME Focal Point, Belize “We’ve seen a slow pace however the last two years we have been embarking on a huge campaign […]
There have been numerous incidents of violence against visitors which do not augur well for the tourism industry and serve to discourage potential visitors to Belize. As recent as this weekend, two Canadian visitors were robbed and assaulted at the Tropical Education Center on the George Price Highway. Then, there is the recent murder of […]
World Cancer Day was celebrated on Thursday; the news in Belize is that a staggering number of persons are affected with cancer and that figure is on an upward trend. The World Health Organization has released a video in which it shows the plight of a woman from Belize, who has been afflicted with the […]
A Belizean was arrested in Melchor de Mencos over the weekend and was scheduled to be processed in court today, but we cannot confirm that that has occurred. Twenty-five year old Kayla Adriana Sanchez is accused of stealing a cellular phone from a store in Melchor and detained by the Guatemalan authorities on Sunday. She […]
There is global concern tonight about the ZIKA virus which is spreading quickly throughout the region. Last week, we spoke with Doctor Marvin Manzanero of the Ministry of Health about the virus which has the same symptoms as dengue or chikungunya and for which there is no particular treatment or vaccine. The effect of the […]
A Belizean law student is clinging to life tonight after being shot to the chest and arm in Georgetown, Guyana on Thursday night. Thirty-one-year-old Glenfield Dennison, a resident of Cummings Lodge at the University of Guyana, was injured sometime around nine o’clock Guyanese time, while standing on the roadside near his home. A newspaper report […]
Belize has been in the news for all sorts of wrong reasons lately – from murder to fraud. The Las Vegas Review Journal is today reporting the conviction of four Belizeans in Las Vegas for their roles in stealing money from the US Government. According to the Journal, Frederick Vernon Williams and his sister Jacqueline […]
The country of Belize is dotted with Mayan monuments, but historians are yet to conclude on the number of ancient cities that existed during the Maya civilization. Today, there is an interesting story from Honduras where archaeologists have begun excavations at a new site in the jungles, which they believe to be the lost city […]
After an announcement made in August 2014, a pair of UH1H Huey helicopters, to complement the B.D.F.’s existing fleet of aircrafts, has arrived in Belize. The generous donation is from the Republic of China (Taiwan). Since the withdrawal of British troops several years ago, the Belize Defense Force has been without air support. But in […]
Fugitive David Nanes Schnitzer slipped through the cracks immediately after he was granted a ten thousand dollar bail by the Supreme Court on November twentieth, 2015. Nanes, who was caught in San Pedro on November sixth, where he was living for some years, was arrested with a slew of illegal Belize documents—from a social security […]
Carrot farmers in the Orange Walk District have reported that seventy percent of their produce has been rotting in the fields because government has been issuing licenses to select persons for the importation of the vegetable from Mexico. The Government has countered that claim saying that it allows carrots to be brought in only when […]
The contraband of goods into Mexico from Belize and from Belize into Mexico is a thriving trade. The Commercial Free Zone is an area of particular concern. It is known that cigarettes and other goods enter the zone and eventually make it into the Mexican market. Contrabandistas are also known to use the Rio Hondo […]
There is also the issue of the transshipment of illicit drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana that get into Mexico from Belize. Just two weeks ago, on January third, Orange Walk’s Quick Response Team came up on a very large quantity of drugs that was suspected of being a drug cartel shipment. The compressed […]
As it relates to arrivals from across the Mexican border, the numbers are not on our side. The Mexican ambassador says he wants to close the gap by encouraging Mexican nationals to visit Belize. Though a figure is not available, Belizeans are known to flock across the border in droves and the Ambassador wants to […]
Turning to the Marion Jones Stadium…there was a soft launch just before the November elections. It is a project that dates back to 2008 and seven years later it has not been fully completed, depriving athletes and the public use of the facility. The Mexican government pledged financial support and came through with it, but […]
Back in July of 2015, Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington visited Mexico in an official capacity where he signed on to nine bilateral agreements with his Mexican counterparts. While functional cooperation has been taking place with our northern neighbor for decades, the agreements put in place a legal framework for the execution of a number […]
Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington recently attended the thirty-seventh meeting of the Community Council of Ministers in Georgetown, Guyana. Plans for the upcoming gathering of regional heads of state, to be held in Belize in February, were being discussed. As of the first of January, Prime Minister Dean Barrow assumed pro tem chairmanship of the Caribbean […]
