The cane farmers’ strike is over… it took eleven days for a resolution to finally be reached between government, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, and Belize Sugar Industries, but that is what happened this afternoon in Orange Walk. According to association C.E.O. Carlos Magana, they have been in talks since Monday and the breakthrough […]
Police are investigating to determine whether a prisoner found hanging inside a cellblock committed suicide. Placencia police say that on Thursday they discovered thirty-four year old Martin Ayala hanging by the neck from a shoestring tied to an iron bar on the cell window. Ayala, originally from Orange Walk Town, was a resident of Seine […]
Financial losses to the sugar industry continue to grow and today, four days after violence erupted and one man was killed near its compound, the Belize Sugar Industries finally broke its silence. Their response came in the form of a three-page press release issued to media houses and appearing in the printed press. The company […]
But the core sampler is not the only issue that the cane farmers have… the other is Chairman of the Sugar Industry Control Board, Nemencio Acosta. Since Friday, the caneros have been asking for Acosta’s removal, saying that he does not have their interests at heart. Today we caught up with the Corozal North area […]
The post mortem on the body of cane farmer Anatacio Gutierrez was performed this afternoon at the K.H.M.H. The result has not yet been released, but what is known is that the body made a stop in Orange Walk for an hour and was transported to his family in San Victor Village in the Corozal […]
Also in respect of the strike, the Belize Workers Union, representing hourly paid workers at BSI, today issued a release expressing regret on the death of Atanacio Gutierrez, the cane farmer who was shot during Monday’s protest in Orange Walk. According to the union, work stoppage at the cane industry can potentially result in a […]
Tension has cooled down and things were quiet in Orange Walk today even though the thousands of cane farmers continue to strike. Belize Sugar Industries have remained mum and we have not been able to contact Financial Director Belizario Carballo to get a comment on the demand that the core sampler be removed… but we […]
And we go now to Orange Walk town where we can report tonight that while the mood is considerably somber following Monday’s killing of Anastacio Felix Gutierrez, farmers are insisting that they want to see the removal, and not the suspension, of the core sampler. Kendra Griffith has a report on the general meeting called […]
The P.M.’s lengthy press conference covered various issues including the relevance of the core sampler and the way negotiations went leading up to yesterday’s with the Cane Farmers Association. When questioned by the press of why he did not meet the cane farmers in Orange Walk, the Prime Minister said he had no regrets and […]
The strike in the north continues and there’s an impasse between the farmers and the Belize Sugar Industries. In our newscast tonight, we will have various reports on the unfolding events in the past twenty-four hours, but we go first to a press conference held by the prime minister in which he was flanked by […]
The deadly shooting and the strike at the Tower Hill have presented the greatest challenge by far to the present government. And while the PM today expressed regret for what unfolded, the opposition leader has also voiced his share of remorse over the tragedy and the situation that the sugar industry is currently facing. John […]
The unfortunate shooting death of Anastacio Felix Gutierrez, a farmer of the village of San Victor in the Corozal District, has stunned the north and the nation, unnecessary as it was when security forces opened live fire on the striking farmers. Duane Moody looks back at the worst strike to be recorded in recent memory. […]
If the images of Monday’s protest at BSI and the Tower Hill Bridge look eerily familiar, that is because there was another protest staged at the Tower Hill Bridge back on July thirtieth two thousand and one. Jose Sanchez takes a look at the protests and puts them in perspective. Jose Sanchez, Reporting Monday’s protest […]
We begin tonight’s newscast with a decision from the office of the Prime Minister just before five this evening announcing the suspension of the core sampler for the rest of this year’s sugar crop season. But that came after one person, identified as Antonio Felix Gutierrez from the village of San Victor, was killed and […]
We go now to Orange Walk where this morning, riled cane farmers were out in the hundreds and tempers were running high. The Deputy Prime Minister, Gaspar Vega who was deployed to broker a deal was roughed up by the angry farmers. C.E.O. for the Cane Farmers Association, Carlos Magana, predicted then that if a […]
Attorneys Hubert Elrington and Michael Peyrefitte, representing the farmers were at the scene earlier in the thick and thin of things. Hubert Elrington, Attorney, Cane Farmers Association “Myself and Mr. Peyrefitte, we are both lawyers and we are here to assist the cane farmers and see how we can resolve this matter and see what […]
And while in the north the situation is explosive, there is also trouble brewing in the south. The Maya Leader’s Alliance and the Toledo Alcalde Association are in a dispute with the Attorney General’s Ministry and Toledo West Minister Juan Coy. With Coy’s blessings a statutory instrument was signed by the attorney general, which removed […]
Marleni Cuellar “Alright, we’re being joined here in the studios by Kendra Griffith, who is freshly back from Orange Walk where you were in the middle of the action at the Tower Hill Bridge. Kendra, bring us up to speed. We saw Prime Minister Dean give his press conference, we saw the interview with Carlos […]
Christine Perriott is out of City Hall, but not necessarily out of Mayor Zenaida Moya’s hair. The former Human Resources Director confirmed today that she has received her termination letter and she went in to clear out her desk this morning. But it is not over as Perriott says that she is reviewing the letter […]
Round one of the controversy between Christine Perriott and Zenaida Moya has gone the mayor’s way… at least for now. And Perriott is no longer an employee of the Belize City Council; that’s the word tonight according to Mayor Moya. The two had locked horns over the weekend and last Friday the mayor asked Perriott […]
City Hall and Tower Hill aren’t the only places where controversy is brewing. Word reaching News Five is that, in an unprecedented move, a student’s family has taken the administration of the all-girls Pallotti High School to court. The matter began in December when a fourth form student was expelled from the school for breaking […]
But that is not the end of things between Pallotti and Matura-Shepherd’s client since today it appeared that the school’s administration decided to keep the students indoors all day but not in regular class. Matura-Shepherd visited our newsroom late this evening to say what transpired during the course of the day and what she intends […]
One day after the U.D.P. City Council kicked off its municipal elections campaign attempting to show some semblance of unity, Mayor Zenaida Moya finds herself once again at the epicenter of another controversy. This time there is plenty more drama and it surrounds the adversarial Human Resources Director, Christine Perriott who was asked by the […]
We tried to get the Mayor to comment on camera… and were initially told to be at City Hall for three-thirty for the interview. When the press got there, the Mayor was meeting with her councillors and about half hour afterwards, Perriott was called in. When she left, Perriott would not comment as to what […]
At the opening of the 2009 Supreme Court session on Monday, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh lamented on the high number of cases that are thrown out of court for lack of evidence. In 2008 alone there were eighty-three “nolle prosequi” a term which the C.J. said, even though is a combination of Latin and French, […]
