Over the past few weeks, we’ve reported on several armed robberies on businesses in the downtown area. In less than a week, two businesses on Albert Street, including Hofius, were robbed. And just this week, Spoonaz Café on North Front Street was robbed as well as another establishment on Albert Street. Today, we caught up […]
As we showed you earlier, Area Representative for Albert Division Tracy Panton was out and about today in the downtown area, accompanied by the Belize Police Department. Panton says that she has received a number of reports and calls from businesses and residents who are concerned about the crime. She says that while the police […]
So, what are Police doing about the growing number of robberies on businesses in the downtown area? Deputy Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says that they will enact “Operation Safe Zone.” There will be increased police presence in the downtown area to discourage robberies and burglaries – but according to Williams, that is only a […]
A Hopkins’ resident is tonight out on a five thousand-dollar bail having been accused of raping a seventeen-year-old student at the Mango Fest held over the weekend in that southern village. On Saturday evening, the minor reported to Hopkins Police that around three-thirty p.m., she was raped in a bathroom by a man she knew […]
San Pedro resident Jermaine Moody awaits his fate after Supreme Court Justice Adolph Lucas reserved his judgment in a judge-only trial on a murder charge. The twenty-nine-year-old from San Pedrito area is accused of killing thirty-one-year-old Moses Coc on September thirteenth, 2014. Coc was beaten to death, hit several times in the head with a […]
Child abuse comes in many forms; it can be limited to one incident or it can be a series of events that occur many times. In Belize, many organizations have been doing their part putting in place strategies to create safe environments for children who are exposed to abuse. Over the past two years, four […]
The Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE) was awarded the National Energy Globe Award for its Community Researchers’ Programme and has qualified to compete in World Energy Globe Award. The programme, which started in 2012, has empowered twenty-five young community members to acquire skills in marine and terrestrial research, while it encourages sustainable awareness, […]
They may be occasionally irascible neighbors, but they are neighbors nonetheless. And in the aftermath of the devastation caused by the volcano “El Fuego” in the municipality of Antigua, Guatemala, on Sunday, the nations of the region and the world have come together in empathy. Belize’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington, during this week’s […]
Ambassador Alexis Rosado, Belize’s diplomatic representative in Guatemala, also extended sympathies to families who have suffered losses in the wake of the volcanic disaster in the central highlands of Guatemala. Fortunately, the few Belizeans living in and around the city of Antigua are all accounted for. Alexis Rosado, Ambassador to Guatemala “It’s such a […]
A topic of intense discussion at the general assembly of the Organization of American States was the U.S. government’s call to suspend Venezuela. The Americans are supported by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Peru in resolving to reject the result of the recent presidential election, which handed Nicolas Maduro a second term by a […]
The Social Security Board continues to seek support for an increase in voluntary contributions by employees, which may potentially allow for an increase in benefits as well. Thirty-seven years after it was first established, the board is worried about a serious financial crisis if the primary base of funds is not replenished. Representatives from the […]
Businesses along Albert Street have become the target of thieves in recent days, despite a noticeable police presence in the downtown area of Belize City. Last Thursday, we reported on a pair of armed robberies during which the culprits made off with cash from the proceeds of the day’s sales. The thieves struck at Hofius […]
While the robbery at M and L Collections failed, on Monday night, well-known businessman Jeremy Spooner, better known as ‘Spoonaz,’ was the victim of an armed robbery. He was inside his business Spoonaz Photo Café on North Front Street in Belize City just before eleven when a gunman, dressed in a brown security guard uniform, […]
Leader of the Opposition People’s United Party, John Briceño, today hosted a press briefing at Independence Hall covering a multitude of national issues. But the party is presently experiencing some internal turmoil over its ongoing vetting process for candidates to contest the upcoming general elections. In Belmopan, three candidates are vying, but two more well-known […]
Another flashpoint for the P.U.P. is the June seventeenth contested convention in the Albert division. Current standard bearer Senator Paul Thompson is being challenged by his Upper House colleague Valerie Woods. Both lay claim to support from inside the division and long ties to it and the competition has been fierce. On Friday night, police […]
The party has faced questions about its level of participation in the convention season by women, after defeated candidate in Corozal Bay, Thea Garcia Ramirez, suggested the party would not make its thirty percent threshold for female candidates. There has also been a suggestion that former U.D.P. mayor of Belize City Zenaida Moya might switch […]
Ahead of the July first start of the long overdue re-registration exercise, the People’s United Party has shared many of its concerns about the preparation of the Elections and Boundaries Commission and Election and Boundaries Department for re-registering as many as two hundred thousand persons countrywide to vote. A few thousand of those are previous […]
Ahead of the start of the process, the P.U.P. has called on Prime Minister Dean Barrow to invite, as the Manuel Esquivel government did in 1997, the Organization of American States to an electoral observer mission. The P.U.P. leader shared the party’s concerns including a lack of recognition for the five members on the Elections […]
On Monday afternoon, the sixty-one-year-old driver of Dangriga’s Mayor Francis Humphrey ended his own life in front of his house as he was being pursued by the police. Maurice Serrano died instantly from the blast of a single shot as police, along with a social worker as well as two underage girls, approached him. The […]
A decision is pending on whether the export processing zone status of Santander Sugar Limited will be amended to allow it to put part of its plantation sugar on the local market, where seven percent of the sales of A.S.R./B.S.I. is reserved. The northern cane farmers’ associations oppose the decision because of Santander’s status, which […]
The Corozal Sugar Cane Producers Association issued a three-page response to the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Commerce, as well as Santander Limited on the sale of sugar on the local market. According to the association, the decision taken by Santander to put sugar for sale on the local market without permit will, “undoubtedly lead […]
Minister for Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington has told us that the work to establish the Sarstoon protocol continues with our western neighbour and the Organization of American States, but that it will take some time. The protocol would articulate how to minimize conflicts on the river and the wider Caribbean Sea. Today, Opposition Leader John […]
As we told you on Monday, police constable Braiden Robateau and three siblings were arrested and charged by Orange Walk Police after they were nabbed in a marijuana smuggling operation in the north. On Saturday, the group of four men, including brothers: Harvey, Windell and David Trapp were busted red-handed in Santa Cruz Village, Corozal […]
Thirteen-year-old Elwin Pitter remains in recovery at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital under police guard. It is expected that upon his release, charges stemming from several firearms offences will be preferred on him. The teenage boy was shot in the lower legs by a team of GSU officers who responded to information that Pitter was […]
It has become almost a fixture recently in the newscast: persons charged with murder years ago, languishing at the Belize Central Prison, attaching legal representation to seek bail. The law makes no distinction in offenses regarding the right to bail. Nevertheless, it has been the practice by the Crown to oppose bail on very serious […]
