When we report on court cases involving fisheries violations, it usually ends with a guilty plea and heavy fines. But two fishermen today chose to challenge the department on their alleged violations. Thirty-six-year-old Robert de la Cruz of Copper Bank, Corozal and twenty-nine-year-old Gilbert Perez of Belize City pleaded not guilty to breach of fishing […]
About a hundred at-risk youths were recognized today for staying the course despite their exposure to crime and other societal ills. Many had been caught up in the cycle of violence but chose to reform and follow a productive path. At a ceremony, held by the Community Rehabilitation Department, they were lauded for having the […]
A Southside family of four received a brand new home from the Hand in Hand Ministries this afternoon. The mother of three children was approved for her new home on her second application to the Building for Change Program. The house was funded by the Vincentian Academy and Charity of Nazareth of the U.S.A Andrea […]
Belize now has some eighty million dollars to work with from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) for the Caracol Road Upgrading Project. Following approval from both chambers of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Dean Barrow and OFID’s Director General Dr. Suleiman Al-Herbish put pen to paper in Belmopan today. The first phase of […]
It stands alone as Belize’s all-purpose center for special education. But sixty years on from its humble beginnings, Stella Maris School still has many struggles and challenges. While it has produced its share of upstanding citizens, the school has much more it would like to do for its current and future enrollment, but it cannot […]
Blue is a color in Belize mostly associated with the People’s United Party. But it also represents children living with the development condition known as autism. It affects how a person relates to their environment and people. In young people, it is characterized by tantrums, hitting and biting but also in brilliant minds and high […]
Today, visitors at the ITVET, Belize City, got the opportunity to experience the products and services made by students enrolled in the vocational and technical programs. Over four hundred students are studying to become mechanics, cosmetologists, carpenters, front-desk personnel, among other trades, and they took the day hold an open house to show just how […]
It’s an organ that we don’t typically think about. In fact, we only know something is wrong with it when it is severely damaged and usually it’s at its last bit of capacity to function you may begin to experience symptoms. This is why we must know which habits and practices may be affecting its […]
It has been thirty-six hours since the latest alleged drug plane landed in the north of Belize, on the San Estevan-Progresso Road. Late this evening, the Ministry of National Security issued a statement on the sixth suspected drug plane in recent months. The ministry states that aviation authorities in Belize rely on information from a […]
This evening, National Security top brass, from northern area representative, former senior cop and Minister of State Elodio Aragon Junior to Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie issued statements on the troubling state of affairs. In the case of Aragon, the Orange Walk East representative, he acknowledged that with every plane landing, Belize’s reputation takes a […]
The Commissioner of Police was also asked this afternoon about the suspected drug plane. While Minister of State Aragon was more forthcoming, ComPol Allen Whylie would only confirm that it was an illegal landing and that an investigation is ongoing. Allen Whylie, Commissioner of Police “All I can say is that we receive information […]
The suspected drug plane left abandoned on the Progresso/San Estevan Road on Tuesday morning, remained there up until this afternoon. A team from the Belize Defence Force was on the ground today inspecting and attempting to repair the scorched wings damaged during an attempt to set it on fire. The jet will be taken to […]
Investigators in Dangriga are still probing the shocking, mid-morning execution of Jamaican national Patrick Crossdale. The fifty-five-year-old was shot and killed on Tuesday as he rode his motorcycle from his home in the vicinity of Gulisi Community Primary School. As many as five shots were fired, two of them mortally wounding him. The frightening ordeal […]
A meeting was held this morning in Belize City between P.U.P. leader John Briceño and Prime Minister Dean Barrow. The rare encounter was at the invitation of the P.M. Though no official statement has been issued, it is known that the two discussed major national issues involving the referendum, re-registration exercise and the general relations […]
Belizean fisherman Iginio Canto Bacab remains behind bars in a detention facility in Livingston, Guatemala, awaiting monies to pay his fines for illegal possessions of lobster and conch out of season. The Caledonia, Corozal native was picked up by Guatemalan authorities a week ago, along with two Guatemalan nationals with product that Guatemalan authorities say […]
The Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Authority remains in emergency mode according to the hospital’s board. Since mid-March, the national referral hospital had to limit services due to structural damage to the ceiling. A team of visiting Mexican experts evaluated the damages and deemed that the hospital could operate in the areas not affected. Today, the […]
There has been an interesting turn of events within the cycling community, ahead of what would have been elections for a new executive of the Cycling Federation of Belize this weekend. News Five understands that the date for those elections has been moved to May twelfth, to allow for an open process which will see […]
Lionel Arzu from Punta Gorda starts his fourth term as Ombudsman today. Having renewed his contract with the government, Arzu took the oath this morning at Belize House in Belmopan. But there is still no Contractor General since Godwin Arzu’s contract was not renewed. Late last year, his re-appointment was withdrawn from the Senate on […]
In the past five years, with funding from UNICEF and other U.N. agencies, the Taiwanese and U.S. Embassies and others, the RESTORE Belize program has undertaken a long-term project called “Metamorphosis.” As the name suggests, the idea is to transform lives, building resiliency in ninety-two male children at high risk through targeted interventions at the […]
A key part of today’s discussion was the seeming lack of coordination between public and private sector in addressing the crime and youth issues in Belize City and elsewhere. Many hands have pitched in with assistance, but as RESTORE Belize director Mary Vasquez notes, their motives and outcomes are murkier to discern. Nonetheless, the organization […]
A primary finding of the Metamorphosis Project is that it is important to understand how childhood experiences have a long-term impact on child development, even into adulthood. The trauma of losing loved ones to either gun or domestic violence, or run-ins with the police or other issues lead to poorer educational performance and reduced ability […]
Four men were charged but one, twenty-eight-year-old Adam Estell of Sittee Street, pleaded guilty to possession of half a pound of marijuana. A police search of Estell’s residence on Wednesday night uncovered a black plastic bag on top of an old washing machine which contained four plastic bags with the suspected drugs. Also charged with […]
External trade has contracted in the first quarter of 2018, according to the Statistical Institute of Belize. Belize sold nearly twenty-five million dollars less goods for January to March of 2018 than the same period in 2017, and all major exports saw decreased earnings. Sugar recorded a net loss of seventeen percent despite a four […]
The third payment for sugar is looking lower than anticipated, according to industry sources. But today millers up north are finding ways to boost efficiency. American Sugar Refinery and the Belize Sugar Industries Limited, in collaboration with the Sugar Cane Production Committee and participating farmers hosted the media today to a Pre-Harvest Cane Quality Testing […]
Today the Belize Police Department held an award ceremony to recognize the top performing officers and civilian staff of the Eastern Police Division. The event is used to reward those individuals who performed well last year and also to motivate other officers to follow the examples of those doing good work. The Commissioner of Police […]
