The membership of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association is scheduled to convene a special meeting on Sunday in Orange Walk where a vote on the start of the crop season will be taken. Once the result of the exercise is favorable work can get underway at Tower Hill by next week. That, however, depends […]
The choices, according to Carballo, are rather straightforward. In essence, the committee of management for B.S.C.F.A. can be instructed to move ahead with the finalization of the agreement which can be ratified as early as Monday. The C.F.O. also reiterated that the crop cannot be opened without first having a commercial agreement in place. […]
Carballo says the consequence of a delayed crop, as well as the indefinite timeframe the process of litigation may take can certainly jeopardize the potential harvest which is estimated to be roughly one point three-five million tons of cane. Via Phone: Belizario Carballo, Chief Financial Officer, B.S.I. “In terms of the impact that it […]
On Sunday cane-farmers will meet in Corozal to decide the fate of the 2014-2015 sugar-cane crop. Well actually, it’ll be the 2015 crop since 2014 is pretty much done. We’ve heard from the B.S.C.F.A….both factions…and regardless of what happens on Sunday, not everyone in that Association is going to be pleased. But where Government is […]
Despite all the complications besieging the industry at this point, all parties can agree on one thing – they need the crop to get started. But they disagree on how that should happen. The more militant faction of the B.S.C.F.A., supported by the N.T.U.C.B., says that the government, through the SICB, can declare a start […]
And so, as we end off the year, that is where we are in the sugar industry. Throughout the latter months of the year we’ve brought you every aspect of the tangled story from ASR/B.S.I., the B.S.C.F.A. and the government. And we end our coverage of this issue for 2014 with an interview done with […]
On Tuesday night, we aired New Year’s messages from Prime Minister Dean Barrow and Leader of the Opposition, Francis Fonseca. Both leaders spoke of positive strides and looked to a successful future for the country. According to P.M. Barrow, the economy grew in the first three-quarters by four point two percent exceeding the forecast of […]
But the PM also said that millions more will be invested in infrastructural developments across the country. Now the works of some contractors have been rather shoddy because within months, there have been cracks in the cemented streets and portions along the highways are already sinking. Aside from the construction of a cruise port for […]
Four days before Christmas popular San Ignacio resident Jermaine Padgett was shot and killed as he socialized with friends. It is not believed that he was the target, but was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and with the wrong persons. Police immediately launched an investigation and determined that the murder was […]
An arrest is yet to be made in the weekend murder of seventy-two-year-old Felix Castillo Carranza who was massacred inside his Lakeland abode in Dangriga on December twenty-seventh. Even with the detention of three men, following the horrific incident, charges are yet to be brought. Meanwhile, an autopsy certifies the cause of Carranza’s death as […]
Thirty-seven-year-old Aura Beatrice Moro, a resident of Santa Elena Town, has been arrested and charged with drug trafficking, following the discovery of individual quantities of illegal substances on her person. On Tuesday, officers on a routine stop and search escorted Moro to the Caye Caulker Police Station where they rummaged through a bag she was […]
Forty-five-year-old Vanzie Lamb was arraigned this morning before Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser on a single charge of rape. The indictment succeeds an allegation by a twenty-two-year-old woman that she was sexually assaulted by Lamb in the early hours of Boxing Day. According to the victim, she was walking along Antelope Street Extension sometime after twelve […]
A fifty-two year old cop is tonight out on bail after he was charged for allegedly attacking his common law wife and harming her with a knife at their Ladyville home. PC Ezzart Anthony was arraigned this morning before Magistrate Dale Cayetano for Aggravated Assault Harm upon his common-law wife, Vilma Pech. The incident occurred […]
If you didn’t know there was a very significant election planned in Cayo North, you’d be hard-pressed to guess from the amount of political activity. Maybe it’s the timing, maybe it’s the Christmas and New Year lethargy…but whatever it is, there doesn’t seem to be the passion, fire, energy or urgency we generally associate with […]
Popular around this time of the year are people making resolutions for the New Year. Here in Belize, last minute reservations and parties are being planned to say goodbye to 2014 and welcome 2015. But often times the resolutions are to challenge individuals—either to lose weight or to become better persons. So today, we went […]
Sunday will be a pivotal day in the future of this year’s sugar-cane crop. This morning the B.S.C.F.A. met in heated session, and agreed to go back to cane-farmers on that day. The plan is to break down the proposed agreement to farmers in detail, and there are two possible outcomes – one, a majority […]
And if you thought the situation in the sugar cane industry was complicated, an announcement late this evening makes that an understatement. At around five today Audrey Matura Shepherd, flanked by cane farmer Lucilo Teck and Finance committee chairman Javier Keme, broke the news that they had filed an application for mandamus in the court. […]
And while the application for the order of mandamus is one thing, there’s also the matter of the application for an interim injunction to prevent the B.S.C.F.A. from signing any agreement with ASR/B.S.I. The court has set Friday as the date for a hearing on that injunction. But the B.S.C.F.A. has agreed to go to […]
On Monday, firebrand attorney Audrey Matura-Shepherd filed an injunction to stop the signing of an agreement between the two parties. But tonight, where does she fit into the equation? As you’ve noted, there are two distinct factions in the B.S.C.F.A. – one which wants to sign now, and one which doesn’t. The group which wants […]
And our question for tonight is: Do you believe farmers should start sugar crop without an agreement with ASR/B.S.I.? Send your comments and responses using your SMART phones to 8686 or post your vote on our e-poll at channel5belize.com. You can also send an email with your comments to questions@channel5belize.com.
The 2015 Cayo North bye-election is less than a week away and candidates for both major parties are hitting the pavement during the final days of a rather brief political campaign. The six thousand plus voters will vote at Sacred Heart School and in Bullet Tree on January fifth immediately after the New Year’s celebrations. […]
P.U.P. Secretary General and former Chief Elections Officer, Myrtle Palacio, says Bruce’s untimely transfer is questionable since it precedes very closely the upcoming bye-election. The move, she says, is contrary to good governance and only serves to further politicize the election process. Myrtle Palacio, Former Chief Elections Officer “We find it very suspicious, as […]
A huge part of the argument is an allegation that U.D.P. Chairman Alberto August was reportedly seen inside the elections office in Cayo North over the weekend. It is suspected that he may have visited the office to retrieve binders containing voter information. Henry Charles Usher, Chairman, P.U.P. “When we got the information about […]
The People’s United Party says it is still awaiting confirmation on the whereabouts of U.D.P. Chairman Alberto August who they claim was seen inside the elections office in Cayo North on Saturday. It is a bold claim, one in which August is being accused of political interference in the process leading up to Monday’s bye-elections. […]
The trial for two Bahamian men, Kelvin Errol Leach and Rohn Michael Knowles continued today before Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser after a month-long adjournment. Leach and Knowles are accused of failing to declare more than ten thousand dollars in cash before they attempted to board a private plane. The prosecution is now headed by lead […]
