Following Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s presentation and spin of the Arbitration Award for B.T.L. on Wednesday, the Opposition issued a release entitled the Cost of Barrow’s Arrogance. Government will be coughing up close to half of a billion dollars when all is paid to Dunkeld International and Sunshine Holdings. As you can well imagine, the […]
And while he claims things are going downhill at the utility company, Briceño says it’s going to get much worse since apparently B.T.L. will be made to take on the ninety-seven million dollar BCB Holdings settlement, or at least a significant portion of it. On Wednesday, P.M. Barrow admitted that the liability is for the […]
In our previous newscast, we brought you the basics of the Arbitration Award presented by Government – as a victory and as vindication. To recap – the total award, including share value and interest, was a little over four hundred and fifty million dollars. Subtract the sixty-five million paid by G.O.B. in 2015 when the […]
The assertion by government that payment of at least the first two hundred million due in days will be pretty much a piece of cake is no consolation to P.U.P. Deputy Leader Julius Espat – far from it. Julius Espat, P.U.P. Deputy Leader, West “I was doing some calculations this morning and if the […]
B.T.L. was appropriated in 2009, and the approximately two hundred million dollars in interest alone is the result of there being no settlement of the matter until the arbitration panel’s decision days ago. But was it really necessary for the matter to be dragged out seven years? Could there have been some sort of settlement […]
Briceño disagrees, vehemently, stating that only the previous owners and the Barrows have benefitted from the appropriation of B.T.L. and from the PM dragging the matter out for seven long years. John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader “I can vividly recall these words that the Prime Minister so eloquently spoke at his press conference of September […]
Another youth has lost his life in the urban gang warfare that has erupted once more in the Old Capital. At about eight-thirty on Wednesday night, Kieran Morrison and his friend, eighteen year old Kent Brooks Junior were targeted on La Croix Boulevard where they were hanging out. Morrison was shot multiple times and died […]
But according to Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, police intervention is not expected to deter murders, but minimize the occurrences of these bloody crimes. Strategies are now being put in place to prevent any retaliation in the area, but Williams says parents must take an active role in solving the problem. ACP Chester […]
Back to the issue of the arbitration award for the nationalization of B.T.L….During his presentation on Wednesday, the P.M. claimed victory, particularly because of his own remixed accommodation agreement with Lord Michael Ashcroft last August in Miami in which he was able to come to agreeable terms on the original Accommodation Agreement of the past […]
But is it a cross between an outright lie and a crude attempt to put lipstick on the proverbial muddy pig? P.U.P. Leader John Briceño says the PM is speaking nonsense and misleading Belizeans. John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader “What the Prime Minister is saying is once again completely misleading and untrue. Sixty percent of […]
Does P.U.P. Leader John Briceño have the moral authority to speak about the arbitration award? That was the question put to him by a reporter today at the press conference. So does he? Reporter “SpeedNet – it’s a company your family owns and it’s a company that’s mentioned also in the accommodation agreement. I […]
The 2016 sugar crop closed on Sunday and the numbers show that the crop was a healthy one and even though there was a small reduction in sugar production, the crop held its own. Today, ASR/B.S.I. and stakeholders acknowledged that a number of factors contributed to the reduction. But all be told, both sides welcome […]
The deplorable conditions of sugar roads remain an issue for caneros in the north. Every season they experience major setbacks during the course of extracting cane from their farms. Despite government’s promise to assist with grading and drainage, the economic impact of poorly kept roads is felt across the industry. At the end of the […]
The Annual S.S.B. Ride Across Belize got underway on Wednesday as cyclists made their way from Corozal to Belize City to complete the first leg. It’s not just a race – it’s an initiative which raises funds for needy causes across the country – the brainchild and work of the staff at the Social Security […]
Thirty-four year old stevedore Tylon Gladden has been missing for almost a week. His mother Geraldine Brown came to News Five’s Studios on Coney Drive making a public plea for information on the whereabouts of her son who was last seen on Friday morning as he left his home on Cemetery Road to a nearby […]
Last Wednesday evening, nineteen proud students donned their gold caps and gowns; they eagerly strut across the stage to collect their hard earned diplomas. Their excitement and that of their parents was palpable. They were the most recent graduates of Stella Maris School in Belize City. It was a momentous occasion for the school since […]
As we told you Tuesday night, after years of legal battles, the long anticipated figures for the 2009 nationalization of Belize Telemedia Limited are in and they are staggering. According to our quick tally when we looked at the hundred and thirty-nine page judgment from the Permanent Court of Arbitration, we’d thrown out an estimate […]
In case you missed it, Government, for the acquisition of B.T.L., must pay approximately four hundred million to the previous owners of B.T.L., give or take a million or two. That means that by the eighth of July, a two hundred million payment will be due. Within a year, another payment of two hundred million […]
It’s not quite as simple as that. The settlement agreement, agreed to in 2015 between Prime Minister Barrow and Lord Michael Ashcroft, does indeed stipulate that the Accommodation Agreement portion of the award, sixty percent, is to be paid in Belize dollars. But our understanding is that the money will still be under the control […]
To round off his sales pitch, the P.M. then launched into a costs-benefits analysis which he maintains is complete vindication of G.O.B.’s seven years of effort and fighting the good fight. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “Under Costs to G.O.B.: shares, one hundred and twenty-eight million U.S. dollars; interest, U.S. ninety-nine million dollars; arbitration costs […]
Two hundred million in ten days, now actually nine, sounds like a big deal. But it’s not, apparently. In fact, Government says they will have absolutely no difficulty raising the money in the time given. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “Under the arrangement we made, half of the totality of the Award is payable within […]
The Prime Minister appears to be deeply impressed with the four hundred million dollar arbitration award, but the P.U.P. is not. In a release issued late this evening the Party claimed that it is appalled by the final figures released which they say are worse than even they expected. According to the release, “Including the […]
A gruesome discovery was made this morning in Mahogany Heights. The body of a young woman stabbed multiple times was found in a ditch behind the village, a short distance from her house. The seventeen year old minor was apparently killed somewhere else and dumped in the ditch and no one knows by whom or […]
The police have made a significant bust of a suspected smuggling ring of illegal Central American nationals. Two Cayo residents, twenty-two year old Anival Alvarenga and twenty-four year old Victor Garcia, are in big trouble with the law tonight after they were caught transporting almost a score of illegal immigrants from somewhere along the Benque […]
ACP Broaster says that the rural corridor is used by coyotes to transport illegal immigrants into the country as they make their way to Mexico with their final destination the United States. The department has developed a strategy to intercept the coyotes as well as how to deal with the human cargo. ACP Edward […]
