Day-two of the budget debate started promptly at nine this morning. All eyes have been on the representative for Orange Walk North, Gaspar Vega. In the biggest political news of this time, Vega resigned abruptly as first Deputy Leader on March eighth. He wrote to the Party Chairman and copied his resignation to the Prime […]
There has been rampant speculation that Vega’s resignation is a result of the Ministry of Lands being removed from him after general elections of November fourth, 2015. One very popular trend of thought is that frustrated by the loss of stature within the Party, Vega wanted to send a very strong message to the Prime […]
Today’s session in the House of Representatives, the second day of the new budget for the fiscal year beginning April first, was led by Area Representative for Pickstock Wilfred Elrington. But for him, as for his colleagues before, issues took precedence over any actual debate in the figures in the budget book. For Elrington, the […]
The head of this country, Prime Minister Dean Barrow, has condemned the aggressive actions of the Guatemalans at the Sarstoon, not only in the wake of this last incident but on a previous occasion when Guatemalan military attempted to stop a BTV expedition from entering the river. In separate press conferences, the Prime Minister has […]
Still on the issue of the Sarstoon, Guatemala’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responded fast and furious to a release from the CARICOM Secretariat in which the region expresses support for Belize in the backdrop of the recent incursions in the Sarstoon by the Guatemalan Armed Forces. The GAF blocked the Belize Territorial Volunteers and […]
There is more bloodshed in the Old Capital and there appears to be a pattern. In today’s murder, as in three recent homicides, the suspected gunmen are all minors. This afternoon, a well-known street figure was shot and killed as he sat in his vehicle in a hotspot of south side Belize City. Victor Garnett […]
The post mortem results are in and all indications are that forty-one-year-old Salvadoran national Oscar Gomez did not take his own life. The Ladyville resident bled to death after being stabbed multiple times in the throat. Gomez was in the company of another individual at the time of the incident last Thursday; that person has […]
Who murdered ‘Fat Cat’ in Ladyville last Friday? That’s what investigators want to know. Despite an open inquiry into the weekend murder of Rene Chavarria, police are no closer to making an arrest since they do not have sufficient proof of guilt. The deadly shooting on Marage Road also left a minor injured with a […]
Well-known street figure Roger Anthony is back in the news tonight, following a scuffle with security personnel at the Phillip Goldson International Airport on Tuesday. Anthony accompanied his wife to Panama over the weekend, but was denied entry and could not disembark the aircraft upon arriving at his destination. So, he was shipped back to […]
Representative for Caribbean Shores Kareem Musa had one of the longest and one of the most passionate presentations of day-two of the budget debate. In his first budget presentation, Musa turned his attention on the legal fees contained in this document, and budgets past, claiming that tens of millions have gone to three select lawyers […]
Musa also turned up the heat on Belize Telemedia Limited, nationalized by the government in 2009. While the government touts this acquisition in consecutive budgets as one of the stellar achievements of its time, Musa claimed in his presentation that perhaps the company should be renamed BPL, or Barrow Pinata Limited. Kareem Musa, Area […]
During the first day of the budget debate, which broke Tuesday evening at around six o’clock, Opposition members in the gallery condemned the budget as pure rhetoric, and claimed that it is a not so clever attempt to mask the fact that Belize is in the midst of a recession. One of the last to […]
According to Fonseca, while our debt continues to grow, the economy is stagnant, and that is a recipe for disaster. He toed the Opposition line and assertion that whether it is a matter of public knowledge or not, the country is in recession. Francis Fonseca, Area Representative, Freetown “Debt is manageable in the context […]
Julius Espat, Area Representative of Cayo South and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, joined his colleagues in rejecting the budget presented by the Prime Minister. His focus was on supplementary appropriations. He explained that the figures in the budget presented by the Prime Minister means nothing in real terms. Julius Espat, Area Representative, […]
Espat concluded his presentation by taking a swipe at the Prime Minister, who in a prior session has used the privilege granted by the House to refer to Espat as a pig. The Cayo South Area Representative told the House that Barrow calling him a pig is indeed the greatest of ironies. Julius Espat, […]
And after complaining that Belizeans travelling to the Sarstoon as stalkers, and suggesting that those Belizeans are provoking Guatemalans, Elrington turned his attention to the media. He announced that he will no longer be granting interviews on his own, since the media apparently has an ulterior motive. Fortunately, as we found out, the views of […]
This Tuesday was celebrated across the globe as World Water Day. In Belize, the activities since last week with a two-day water symposium held at the Biltmore Plaza. The symposium linked water to jobs and major companies spoke of the importance of protecting the natural resource, which is under threat. News Five’s Duane Moody reports. […]
A group of women, a majority of whom are stakeholders in the local maritime industry, met this evening at a forum organized by the Belize Ports Authority and Women in Maritime Association of the Caribbean. WiMAC is a regional organization that was founded a year ago to bring women in the sector together. The establishment […]
Eastern Division South police officers were back on the beat today in the south side of Belize City for its weekly meet and greet with residents. Faber’s Road Extension has been relatively crime free, and the police believe that their presence in the area has contributed to the peace. ACP Chester Williams, Regional Commander, […]
