If at first you don’t succeed, send in the big guns. And if they don’t succeed, just change the law. And they have. Via release issued today, the government informs that a new law passed under Section Two of the Public Safety Act will, “prohibit persons and vessels, without lawful authority, from entering into Belize’s […]
Those immediately affected by the law, and in whose honor the law was drafted are the Belize Territorial Volunteers. The group had planned an expedition to the Sarstoon on Saturday. Public entreaties by Prime Minister Dean Barrow failed to sway BTV head Wil Maheia, so on Thursday the PM dispatched military and foreign affairs leaders […]
Maheia isn’t the only one disappointed by the new law. The P.U.P. has been engaged in the Guatemala discussion, and committed to a bi-partisan approach to resolution, but today the party came out swinging. Representatives declined comment, but the release makes it clear that the new law under the Public Safety Act is considered retrograde […]
The grassroots activist organization known as COLA, Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action, has been quiet lately. But today it re-emerged with a fiery release condemning G.O.B.’s new law, which we could probably dub Wil’s Law. The release blasts G.O.B., claiming that the, quote, latest action proves the government’s lack of priority as it relates […]
Brackett says COLA is prepared to go a couple steps further than condemnation by calling for a national shutdown. He told News Five that “For far too long Belize has lacked true leadership as it relates to this issue and it is time for the citizens of Belize to rise up and demand better.” […]
On Thursday, we aired the first of a two-part series of amateur footage provided exclusively to News Five showing what transpired on the Sarstoon River between the BDF and the Guatemalan military. The confrontation was the most recent between the two armed forces, taking place on March twelfth when a detail of BDF soldiers arrived […]
Three men were killed in two separate incidents within hours of each other in the west. The first, a double murder, occurred on Thursday afternoon, in the San Francisco area of San Ignacio Town. Two Guatemalan nationals, believed to be drug peddlers from neighboring Melchor De Mencos, Peten were executed off a feeder road between […]
There was also a murder in the wee hours of this morning in the village of Camalote. A father of four was killed near a farm off the George Price Highway, about a mile away from where he lived in the village. Gelion De Leon had a large cut wound to the neck and gunshot […]
As we’ve mentioned in our previous newscast, the immediate effects of the present situation at the Sarstoon are being felt by the indigenous communities within the vicinity. The Garifuna village of Barranco, as well as several Maya communities along the southern border have expressed serious concerns about the existing state of affairs. Frankly, there is […]
Of equal concern is that the SATIIM rangers were recently stopped by the Guatemalan military from traveling upstream to conduct routine checks within the Sarstoon Temash National Park. The area is the second largest under conservation in Belize and if left unsupervised could result in Guatemalans pillaging the natural resources within the protected area. […]
Baroness Patricia Scotland, Secretary General of the Commonwealth, held a brief session with the media this afternoon where questions pertaining to her visit to Belize were fielded. Baroness Scotland is on her first visit to Belize which is also the first leg of an official tour of the Caribbean countries. During the press conference she […]
During her stay, the Secretary General will also be visiting the Office of the O.A.S. in the Adjacency Zone, where she will be received by the Chief of the O.A.S. Fund for Peace. Today, Baroness Scotland also spoke about Belize’s role as a CARICOM member state. Baroness Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary General “As you […]
True Belizean, it is a U.S. corporation from Los Angeles, California that produces movies, music videos, music and the like. They were featured last year in the Belize International Film Festival for the movie, “States”. This weekend, the latest venture, a movie called “Bank,” will be released at Chinatown in L.A. It’s an action film […]
There was a double murder today in the west and we will come to that shortly, but events of national importance in the Sarstoon continue to dominate the news. Tonight, we bring you exclusive and explosive footage of an aggression against local law enforcement by the Guatemalan military. The incident happened back on March twelfth, […]
Following that dangerous encounter, nine Belize Defense Force soldiers, including Sergeant Kib and Lance Corporal Zuniga, who were assigned to the construction site where the Sarstoon Forward Operating Base was being erected, are tonight facing disciplinary charges. While the men bravely stood their ground in the face of military aggression by the Guatemalan Armed Forces, […]
This afternoon, Ministry of Foreign Affairs C.E.O. Lawrence Sylvestre, with military leaders General David Jones and Admiral John Borland attempted to dissuade representatives of the Belize Territorial Volunteers from going to the Sarstoon on Saturday. The meeting took place in Punta Gorda, hometown of the BTV, and first indications are that the G.O.B. and military […]
Today at the meeting the BTV was joined by representatives of the Northern Territorial Volunteers, headquartered in Orange Walk. The mandate of the NTV is to increase awareness of our border points, from north to south, and the group has taken over fifteen hundred Belizeans on various expeditions to those areas. ON Saturday the NTV […]
De la Fuente says that where the trip to the Sarstoon is concerned, any aggression from the Guatemalans will be a result of the weakness of government’s position now and in the past. As to the suggestion from official quarters that the BTV is provoking Guatemalans, he says that’s just ridiculous, an assertion with no […]
There was a double murder today in the west off the cutoff to the garbage dump near Misty Meadow Farms. Two Guatemalan nationals were found murdered off a feeder road between mile sixty-nine and seventy leading to the Mopan River. The bodies of the two men were lying side by side with multiple gunshots. At […]
The attempt by Guatemala to inspire international outrage against Belize following last Wednesday incident in the Chiquibul continues unabated. In an interview we aired on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales claimed that he had lobbied support from Foreign Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean in condemning Belize. He also claimed that he wants […]
Today at the meeting the BTV was joined by representatives of the Northern Territorial Volunteers, headquartered in Orange Walk. The mandate of the NTV is to increase awareness of our border points, from north to south, and the group has taken over fifteen hundred Belizeans on various expeditions to those areas. ON Saturday the NTV […]
We also asked De la Fuente to weigh in on Guatemala’s obvious intent to wage a PR war against Belize. The incident in which Guatemalan minor Julio Alvarado Ruano was killed has received what seems to unprecedented attention from the highest levels of Guatemalan government and military. Guatemala has continued to pursue the vilification of […]
The abrupt decision by Guatemala to exercise sovereignty over the Sarstoon River is an infraction which contravenes the rights of the indigenous communities of southern Belize. Barranco, the southernmost village in the country, is a coastal Garifuna community that relies on the nearby sea space, as well as adjacent waterway. So are several Maya communities […]
Following the shooting death of thirteen-year-old Julio Alvarado Ruano last Wednesday, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced that the western and southern borders with Belize would be militarized. As tensions built up over the sudden movement of troops to communities near the Adjacency Zone and the Sarstoon River, someone from the Guatemalan press forwarded an electronic […]
The murder trial of Ervin Reneau, accused of the November, 2010 murder of two Belize City men, Security Guard Edgar Ayala and David Longsworth is nearing an end. Both were fatally shot and killed during a robbery that turned murder. Ayala was robbed of his firearm, and it is alleged that because Longsworth witnessed the […]
