On Wednesday, Minister Rene Montero strongly denied involvement with the Harmouche family in terms of assisting to get their nationality. According to him, he only intervened once in the documented case in the Nationality Report. But confronted with the notice in an Appendix to the Report, Montero stuck to his claim. However, with a different […]
Two more Ministers of Government appeared today before the Senate Special Select Committee on Immigration. From opposite ends of the country, Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia Junior and Works Minister Rene Montero both make appearances in the Auditor General’s Special Report on Immigration and Nationality 2011-2013. They were found to have made multiple recommendations for persons […]
The Auditor General highlighted multiple cases where members of the Harmouch family applied for nationality but did not meet the residency requirement. The common denominator is that they were recommended by Heredia Junior and then by clerk in the Nationality Section, Gertrude Armstrong. It has repeatedly been pointed out by immigration officers testifying at the […]
Now back to the senate hearings….This afternoon, Minister Rene Montero was questioned about his letter asking the Department to facilitate persons who wished to be sworn in as Belizeans by January tenth of 2012, mere weeks before the general elections held that year. Earlier, then-Director of Immigration Ruth Meighan admitted that the Department rushed thousands […]
But what exactly was the Minister asking for, and did it have an impact in the elections? According to Montero, he felt the call from Immigration was genuine and concerned residents in his constituency, but he denied knowing or doing business with any member of the Harmouch family, as opposed to a later request which […]
Montero said he could not say for certain whether the appearance of Saad Harmouch in his list was a genuine mistake or someone trying to pull a fast one. But why was it that the Ministry called on Montero in the first place to have his people ready for a January thirteenth swearing-in ceremony? Montero […]
A fifty-two-year-old man is accused of having sex with a fifteen-year old inside his vehicle on Sunday on the Phillip Goldson Highway. This afternoon, Jose Lino Ardon, a resident of Lord’s Bank Village, Ladyville was arraigned and remanded into custody at the Belize Central Prison until September twenty-six, 2017 for the crime of unlawful sexual intercourse. […]
The sensational case of forcible abduction, sexual assault and harm against Bert Vasquez, involving a sixteen-year-old minor back in May 2011 came to an end just before news time. At about four-twenty this afternoon, the jury retired to deliberate after more than six hours of summing up of the evidence of the case presented by […]
Erwin Santos, briefly the most wanted man in the West after police linked him to two murders in Unitedville and Teakettle villages, was captured earlier this week in Unitedville, Cayo. Today Belmopan police took him to court on a charge of possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, specifically a point-two-two rifle for which other […]
Today, another bail application was heard on behalf of convicted prisoner, Orlando Vera, who was convicted and sent to prison on June first, 2017 on a single count of abetment to pervert the course of justice. Vera was jailed for two years after he was recorded telling Belmopan businessman Michael Modiri that he could help […]
Late on Thursday afternoon, Chief Justice, Kenneth A. Benjamin, dismissed a constitutional motion filed by three prisoners convicted of different murders but later saw the charge reduced to manslaughter. The CJ dismissed the motion in a thirty-seven page ruling and affirmed their convictions and sentence. The three convicted prisoners are Kenneth Garcia, along with former […]
Earlier in this newscast, you heard from one of the two witnesses at Wednesday’s Senate hearings, Minister Anthony “Boots” Martinez, attempting to justify his behaviour. And while raising strong objection to the tone of questioning as we will show you later on, he mostly answered the questions put to him. The same cannot be said […]
Castro also bristled when the matter of his court case in 2013 against nemesis Alvarine Burgess was brought up by Senator Michel Chebat. Castro sued Burgess and this television station concerning interviews she granted about his role in the visa hustle. The minister refused to answer multiple questions concerning that case, including about how it […]
The recalcitrant Ministers were also pressed on their public commentary about the inquiry, its purposes and intentions, and the Prime Minister’s famous dictum that all Ministers should stop making visa recommendations – “procurement” as he put it – as that would cause the Government to fall. It was said at a press conference around the […]
As expected, today’s public hearing of the Senate Special Select Committee was a spectacle, though not of the best kind. For the first time since the Committee convened in November, Ministers of Government began making appearances. It has been established in extensive testimony of both Immigration officers and others that a word from the Minister […]
Minister Martinez poured out his troubles to the press last Wednesday, including an extensive discussion about the need for recommending persons to obtain visas, passports and nationality and whether a Minister’s recommendation made the person more likely to obtain what they wanted. While various Immigration officers have suggested that they trembled before the might of […]
Anthony “Boots” Martinez’s sole appearance in the Auditor General’s Report is in Appendix Four of the Visa section as a recommender for Wen Zhan Yu, which he says was done as a favour to Wen’s sponsor and his former constituent, one Zian Li. He states that he took the word of the sponsor that Wen […]
In the case of Edmond Castro, there is a trail in the Auditor General’s Reports as well as in documentation provided by previous witnesses in the inquiry. Castro’s name appears multiple times as recommender for various nationals who did not otherwise meet requirements. And there is an example of a letter of recommendation Castro wrote […]
In today’s appearances before the Senate Special Select Committee, both Ministers Martinez and Castro took strong objection to answering questions that they felt appeared outside of the scope of the inquiry, which they narrowly interpreted to be only the times their names appeared in the report. They especially recoiled, in Martinez’s case, from the mention […]
Senator for Trade Unions and Civil Society Elena Smith took the chair for the first time as pro-tem chair, replacing the absent Aldo Salazar who returns next week after being elected by her peers. She humorously denied being the cause of the Ministers’ behaviour but did not hold back in criticizing them as disrespectful and […]
The Committee has usually been reticent in outlining where the inquiry is going in terms of calling witnesses, for fear of giving too much of the game plan away. It has now been several months since the Committee was convened and there are reports that it may be another few months yet before a stop […]
A conviction appeal brought by condemned murderer Gregory August, who has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, resumed before the Caribbean Court of Justice earlier today. Senior Counsel Eamon Courtney and attorney Iliana Swift, both representing August, as well as Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lyn Vidal, are in Port of […]
D.P.P. Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, in her presentation, argued that the court should be able to determine whether an inmate should be eligible for parole and granted such release based on rehabilitation. Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, Director of Public Prosecutions “The sentence remains a sentence of life imprisonment but the court would be in a position, looking at […]
Guatemalan national, Erick Rene Salazar Guzman, a driver of Burrell Boom, Belize District was committed to stand trial for manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, failure to report a traffic accident, failure to stop and render aid and driving without due care and attention. Salazar Guzman will be tried in the October session of […]
Back in May, journalist and owner of Plus TV Louis Wade was taken before the Magistrate Court in San Ignacio and arraigned for common assault and use of insulting words. Those charges were levied on Wade months after a purported incident at the Santa Elena Sporting Complex with the son of Minister Rene Montero. There […]
