Police making a routine traffic stop in Belize City on Saturday encountered twenty-seven-year-old Shayanne Castro, a Port Authority clerk, and her husband Wasani, found no evidence of firearms or ammunition in their vehicle. But, spurred on by the suspicious behavior of the occupants, police were convinced that they were on to something, and that something, […]
After introducing for a first reading the bill to decriminalize possession of ten grams or less of marijuana in the House of Representatives in August, Prime Minister Dean Barrow indicated that a public education campaign would be needed to address certain beliefs and concerns floating around during the long-standing debate about marijuana in the last […]
That proposed marijuana amendment came up in court today when Errol Garbutt, a heavy equipment operator living on Racoon Street, Belize City who is planning to relocate to the US, was arraigned and convicted for drug possession before Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser. Garbutt was convicted for three grams of marijuana which he had in his […]
Francisco Mejia of Santana village, Belize District, is lucky to avoid a criminal charge after his wife elected to withdraw charges of harm and threatening words. The charges arise from a complaint made after Mejia beat his thirteen-year-old daughter for disobeying him, then turned on her mother when she tried to intervene. Mejia said he […]
Tonight, another member of the Castro family is in the news, this time for drug trafficking. Twenty-seven-year-old Shayanne Castro nee Rosado, wife of Wasani Castro, was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to possession of more than twenty-five pounds of marijuana in the Magistrate’s Court. She retained attorneys Marcel Cardona of Orange Walk and Richard “Dickie” […]
There is a disturbing report of rape of a minor by a man three times her senior. Thirty-nine-year-old Charles Alexander Brown of Madam Liz Avenue, Belize City is remanded to Central Prison tonight after being charged with the rape of a child. On September eighteenth, a thirteen-year-old female minor told police that while at home […]
It’s a rare occasion for an accused murderer to be granted bail by the Supreme Court; in fact, it has only happened three times before. But tonight, twenty-eight-year-old Nelson Henry is on temporary release from custody. After six years in pretrial detention, Henry, accused of the sensational killing of well-known street figure Edward Lord Junior […]
Eighteen-year-old Moses Anthony Babb has been remanded to the Belize Central Prison after being arraigned earlier today on a slew of charges resulting from a near fatal shooting on Sunday. Babb was indicted in the courtroom of Magistrate Aretha Ford for attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm and kept unlicensed firearm, following an […]
Justice Shona Griffith has set a date for trial in October in the long-running case of businessmen Michael Modiri and Bradley Paumen over access to land in the Franks Eddy Village, Cayo since 2012. Paumen is set to face a separate court trial over a charge of conspiracy to commit murder. According to Modiri he […]
Tonight, we have more from the Senate Special Select Committee’s public hearings with Director of Immigration Diana Locke on Wednesday. The Auditor General’s Report cited multiple instances where fees for visas were waived or not collected at all. But unlike passport or nationality fees which are legislated, visa fees are subject to the Department’s decisions. […]
The Immigration Department has a backlog of files for persons seeking renewal of their immigration documents, mostly passports. But in the case where the files are missing, or the source documents appear suspicious, the applications have been on hold. This is despite separate Cabinet directives issued in 2014 to predecessor Maria Marin and again in […]
On Wednesday, Director of Immigration Diana Locke gave an example of how the humble birth certificate is the gateway to all things Belizean. If parents of foreign nationalities can claim to be Belizean, almost anyone can – witness David Nanes Schnitzer, Rafic Labboun or those scammed in Caye Caulker by Marleny Castellanos a few years […]
The Senate Special Select Committee on Immigration hosted Director of Immigration Diana Locke for the second consecutive week and we will have highlights of her testimony shortly. But the bigger concern is the announcement made by the Prime Minister last week that the current allocation for the functioning of the Committee will not be continued […]
As for further witnesses to be called, the Committee’s schedule is known for at least its next meeting on September twenty-seventh, when Director of Immigration Diana Locke continues her testimony and the C.E.O. of the Ministry, Edmund Zuniga, may make an appearance. As far as Chairman Aldo Salazar is concerned, Minister Godwin Hulse and Auditor […]
While there has been no public comment from the business and private sector despite being apprised of the Prime Minister’s letter, the Senator representing them on the Committee, Mark Lizarraga today criticized the decision as a matter of priorities. Citing testimony from director Diana Locke, the Senator pointed out that Government seems to value politics […]
The final report of the Senate Special Select Committee will be highly anticipated. It has already been guaranteed that it will not likely lead to criminal charges unless there is further investigation by police and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. But how exactly will the report be written – and might there […]
Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse has been on record commending the high number of Chinese seeking visas to “visit” Belize. Of course, these persons pay as much as two thousand per visa in addition to whatever is paid to agents and so on. But flying under the radar are visitors from neighboring Central America, particularly […]
The Committee has expressed interest in bringing in the top person at the Vital Statistics Unit; a division of the Attorney General’s Ministry that is responsible for recording and registering all births, deaths and marriages in Belize and is often the first stop for those recording these milestones. In her testimony this morning, Immigration Director […]
This afternoon, with Senator Mark Lizarraga in the chair on behalf of Aldo Salazar, there was further probing into the processes of the Department and in particular the Visa Vetting Committee established in the aftermath of the Penner/Won Hong Kim scandal. Last week, Senator Eamon Courtenay questioned at length the validity of the Committee’s actions […]
After four years and six months on remand for the murder of Ardon Belgrave in March 2013, Akeem Augustine, is freed of murder. Belgrave was shot and executed while on a job site on Caesar Ridge Road, Belize City. His acquittal came this morning before Justice Adolph Lucas where the evidence presented by the crown […]
The Senate Special Select Committee on Immigration resumes on Wednesday after a month-long break. However, the public hearing will not be held at its usual morning time slot, but in the afternoon. The reason for that is according to our sources, the Committee’s members will be meeting in private in the morning with a witness. […]
Well-known attorney and former D.P.P. Prosecutor, Leeroy Banner is the victim of an assault. Banner claims he was assaulted by two men on August twenty-sixth, 2017 at the Cricket Field in Double Head Cabbage. Today, one of the alleged attackers, Calbert Reynolds, a former ex-prison officer was taken to the Belize City Magistrate’s Court and […]
The fatal shooting of thirty-year-old Dwayne Almendarez on August fifteenth, in Yo Creek Village, has resulted in a single charge of manslaughter being brought against a customs officer earlier today. Almendarez was among several passengers on a commuter bus who were involved in an altercation with B.D.F. and customs officers at a checkpoint along the […]
Nineteen-year-old Kadeem Augustine was remanded to the Belize Central Prison on Friday, after pleading guilty to harming his girlfriend. The teenager, who claims to be in love with his girlfriend, reportedly beat her up when he found out that she was not at a house where she said she would have been visiting. According to […]
Twenty-one-year-old Maximiliano Morey, a security guard of Milpa Area, Ladyville, is in hot water after making off with a vehicle from Belize Electricity Limited’s Magazine Road compound on Saturday. It is alleged that Morey took his supervisor’s D-Max pickup without permission. According to the watchman, he was under the impression that it was assigned to […]
