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The long-awaited first and second reading of the General Revenue and Appropriation Bill dominated today’s proceedings at the House of Representatives. The budget for the 2018-2019 financial year is for one point one eight three billion dollars in revenue, which is slightly less than last year. The Government’s total spending comes up to slightly more […]
Written on March 9, 2018 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Budget Addresses National Stability; Belize Still Short of National Fiscal Targets
In the last few weeks, Financial Secretary Joseph Waight, in a memo to C.E.O.’s of government ministries, suggested that national debt had reached one hundred percent of GDP. The official figure is lower, but not by much. Belize is completing its first year of the re-structured Superbond. Interest payments on that astronomic figure are expected […]
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Comments Off on Debt Nears 100% of GDP
Outside the House, the Prime Minister referred to the proposed budget as being a case of ‘steady as she goes.’ But in the case of the new taxes, did he seem to be going back on his announcement on Thursday that there would be no new taxes in the Budget? Barrow doesn’t seem to think […]
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Comments Off on New Measures, Including Tax on Data Services, ‘Extremely Mild’
If the Prime Minister sounded somewhat lukewarm concerning the new Budget, Leader of the Opposition John Briceño is downright cold. Offering his first impressions ahead of the debate in two weeks time, he called it lifeless. And he added, playing on an old sobriquet of his opposite number, that it was no glitter and no […]
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Comments Off on Opposition on Budget: ‘Lifeless, Bogus…No Glitter and No Substance’
The Government of Belize’s acquisition of Belize Telemedia Limited was also a feature of the Budget speech. A figure of more than half a billion dollars was widely quoted, but the final figure of four hundred and forty-eight million dollars is all fully paid to Dunkeld and B.T.L. Employees Trust. It was broken down into […]
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Comments Off on The Final Price for B.T.L.
For those worried about imminent increases at the pump, the Prime Minister quickly said that lesser used fuel oils, including kerosene, are the products affected by the G.S.T. re-balance. But with the recent troubles with Petrocaribe shipments, P.M. Barrow is still uneasy about the fuel situation, though he is still willing to work with Venezuela. […]
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Comments Off on P.M. Hopes Venezuela Gets It Together on Fuel
Another child has been sexually abused in a disturbing incident involving a four-year-old little girl in the south. On Thursday, a fifty-two-year-old mother reported to police in Bella Vista, Toledo, that her daughter had fallen ill. When she was taken to a doctor for medical attention, it was found that the infant had been raped. […]
Written on March 9, 2018 | Posted in
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Comments Off on The Rape of a 4-Year-Old Girl Reported in the South
In another case of sexual abuse, but in the north, a sixty-six-year-old man has been charged for the sexual assault of a seven year old girl, who she knew as her grandfather. The incident occurred back on February eighteenth, but the man was only just arrested over the weekend. On Tuesday, he appeared in the […]
Written on March 9, 2018 | Posted in
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Comments Off on O.W. Grandfather Charged for Assault of 7-Year-Old, Gets Out on Bail
Guatemalan trucker Marcus Fernando Zabaleto lost his life at the western border earlier today when an eighteen-wheeler ran him over. According to police, they were called out to the cargo area of the Belize Western Border where they saw the lifeless body of the thirty-eight-year-old resident of Melchor de Mencos. An investigation into the incident […]
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Comments Off on Melchor Trucker Gets Crushed under 18-wheeler at Border
The People’s United Party has won three of nine municipalities during Wednesday’s elections, including Belize City which is considered the most valuable asset of the ruling United Democratic Party, and from where six ministers sit in cabinet. Despite losing a majority of the sixty-seven seats that were vacant, the Opposition has made significant gains in […]
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Comments Off on P.U.P. Going the Right Way, Says Leader John Briceño after Elections
As for the situation in San Pedro, Briceño says that contrary to what the prime minister said on Thursday, that the P.U.P. had signed off on the reconciliation sheet, as well as the final statement of poll, that is not the case. In fact, lawyers are reviewing the outcome in an effort to determine whether […]
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Comments Off on Briceño: We Have Not Given Up on San Pedro
Following the interview with Briceño in Belmopan, the P.U.P.’s legal advisor, Eamon Courtenay, in an interview with Ambergris Today this afternoon, confirmed that the party will take court action on the San Pedro results because of the discrepancy in the number of ballots. Courtenay further says that the P.U.P. is calling for a new election […]
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Comments Off on Eamon Courtenay Confirms Court Challenge
The taking back of the Old Capital by the Blue Tsunami is compared to a repossession of the most valuable timepiece in the prime minister’s prized collection. He is still left with many watches, but none as cherished as that vintage Rolex that gleams on his wrist. That’s because, according to P.U.P. leader John Briceño, […]
Port Loyola area representative Anthony “Boots” Martinez swears he has no hard feelings after Wednesday’s municipal elections victory for the People’s United Party in Belize City. He kept insisting to reporters this afternoon that the election, which the U.D.P. lost in his division, was not a referendum on him, despite the pre-election scandals. Martinez now […]
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Comments Off on “Boots” is Really Happy for City Residents. No, really.
As he alluded to, Martinez is headed to retirement as a four-time area representative and will not seek a fifth term. Whether he goes right away or serves out his term, he says he has not yet decided. But as he prepares to head for the exit, he maintains that he has done the best […]
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Comments Off on Port Loyola Rep Confirms He Will Not Seek Fifth Term, but When Will He Go?
The Budget was not the only major news coming out of today’s meeting in Belmopan. Three amendments to substantive legislation and a new bill were introduced which had to do with crime issues. The Firearms Act is being amended to, among other things, increase and update fines and fees relating to firearm misuse. The Police […]
Written on March 9, 2018 | Posted in
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Comments Off on New Bills Tackle Gangs and Protecting Witnesses of Crime
Going back to Wednesday’s election, Prime Minister Barrow has announced time and again that he is stepping down as party leader and head of government in advance of the 2020 general elections. The municipal vote was the last election he spearheaded for the United Democratic Party. Despite the unexpected outcome in Belize City, the PM […]
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Comments Off on U.D.P. to Make Plans in Wake of Municipal Result
The People’s United Party previously held five seats and following Wednesday’s election, now claims a total of twenty-six, including eleven in Belize City. The United Democratic Party’s shocking loss here in the Old Capital may not so much an indictment of the previous Darrell Bradley city council, as it is perhaps a failure to maintain […]
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Comments Off on Party Leader Admits Downfall Due to Lack of Presence in Key Constituencies
Fifty-three teams paddled away at the start of the annual Belikin La Ruta Maya Canoe River Challenge in the Macal River in San Ignacio this morning. Over the next four days, the fittest teams will cover about one hundred and forty miles ending in Belize City on Monday. The first leg concluded at Banana Bank […]
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Comments Off on First Day of La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge
Reef Week started back in 2013 as an initiative to celebrate Belize’s Barrier Reef through a week of events across Belize. Today, the conservation community launched the fifth staging of Reef Week under the theme “Our Reef Rocks: Protect It; Don’t Neglect It.” The Belizean conservation community spoke of the significant economic and cultural benefits […]
Written on March 9, 2018 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Our Reef Rocks! Celebrate with Reef Week
