Sixty-one thousand, five hundred and eleven COVID-19 tests have been conducted as of today. Eleven thousand, one hundred and fifty-two cases have been confirmed with two hundred and sixty-seven deaths, this includes the additional seven deaths which were reported today. Five hundred and forty-one cases remain active. The Ministry of Health and Wellness has ramped […]
The Cante Family in San Felipe Village is advised to request financial compensation after the family’s patriarch was mistakenly buried as a John Doe in another village without the family. Late Wednesday evening, the Ministry of Health and Wellness issued a statement clarifying the mishandling and erroneous release of Fernando Cante’s corpse at the Northern […]
Did thirty-nine-year-old Gregory Bowen kill himself inside a holding cell at the Queen Street Police Station on Monday morning? That’s what police say happened, but his family doesn’t believe that’s what happened. As we told you on Wednesday night, Catherine Bowen says her brother suffered from depression and that the police were aware of his […]
The final statistics for 2020 showed that last year murders were down overall in Belize. The Belize Crime Observatory compiled and analyzed the 2020 crime statistics. The agency says that Belize’s murder rate is below what is considered civil war levels for the first time in seven years. Overall, major crimes have decreased with murders […]
The Belize Police Department has a new board. On Wednesday, an election was held to elect the new representatives. Two slates contested the election – one was led by the former president Corporal Eldon Arzu, and Sergeant Jermaine Hyde led the other. Following the elections, Hyde’s slate was victorious. He trumped Arzu by almost double […]
Today, News Five’s reporter Duane Moody and cameraman Kenroy Michael headed north to the sugar belt to highlight an issue that has cost the government millions of dollars annually. While it is expected that the sugar roads are in poor condition at this time of year due to the yearly rains, this year, it is […]
Today our news team found acres of sugar cane still underwater, and with a forecast for more rain to come on Friday, conditions are not favourable for harvesting. The problem is that typically drenched cane fields equate to high mud content. Industrial Operations Superintendent for the Milling Plant at A.S.R./B.S.I., Nolberto Avilez, breaks it down. […]
On Monday, sugar industry stakeholders will meet to discuss when burning and delivery of cane will resume. The decision to temporarily pause the harvesting and delivery of cane was taken on January fourth after cane deliveries to the factory hit an all-time low. The factory at Tower Hill needs an average of five thousand tons […]
There isn’t an exact figure to indicate how much cane is in the fields, even though there is a tool that could do this very calculation. It is called the Sugar Industry Management Information System or SIMIS. But the issue here is that farmers are resisting implementing the software, and so is the Minister of […]
But A.S.R’s Mac McLachlan strongly disagrees with the Minister. McLachlan says that SIMIS is a hugely important tool that can be used to develop and modernize the industry. He says if the system had been effectively implemented by this time around, the struggles that farmers are facing would have probably been non-existent. Mac McLachlan, […]
Municipal elections are just under two months away and slowly, the major political parties are announcing members of their slates in different municipalities. Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner has already indicated that he will be seeking re-election; the United Democratic Party is yet to reveal its slate for Belize City. One councilor hopeful who on […]
The appointment of several close relatives of elected P.U.P. officials to statutory bodies, including the Social Security Board, has raised many eyebrows, as concerns about nepotism have arisen. Jose ‘Pepe’ Garcia, the husband of Human Development Minister Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, sits as a member of the newly constituted board of directors for Belize Water Services Limited. […]
Before taking office late last year, the People’s United Party pledged that it would curtail expenditure related to the purchase of new vehicles for elected officials amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But not all ministers and C.E.O.s seem to be in line with that initiative, as reports indicate that several of them have gone ahead with […]
For many of us, we are happy to put behind us the memories of 2020. But the year of the onset of the global pandemic wasn’t all bad for everyone. Tonight, we’ll share one young man’s inspirational journey of transformation. Here’s more in tonight’s Healthy Living. Marleni Cuellar, Reporting It started with the scare […]
Former Minister of Works Rene Montero may be facing criminal charges in the days ahead. The three-time U.D.P. Cayo Central Area Representative is the subject of an ongoing investigation being carried out by the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing. It is alleged that under his tenure as head of that government department, equipment, fuel […]
In investigating Montero’s dealings during his term of office, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development has turned to the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police, and the Integrity Commission to determine whether any legal action can be taken against him for misconduct. According to Minister Espat, no stone is being left unturned. Julius […]
If that wasn’t bad enough, Montero has found himself in yet another outrage, this one involving a starting gate used in horse racing activities. This morning, personnel from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, accompanied by a team of police officers, retrieved the gate from a property which was said to be Montero’s farm. In a […]
Tonight, the family of Gregory Bowen is speaking out. Bowen is the thirty-nine-year-old man found dead in a cell block at the Queen Street Police Station on Monday morning. The police allege that Bowen hung himself with his pants, but tonight, his sister says that she doesn’t believe that is what happened. Catherine Bowen tells […]
While the Bowen family is questioning the police’s account of his death, they are angry that the police department denies knowing of his mental state. Catherine Bowen says that her brother has interfaced with the cops on multiple occasions over the years because of his mental condition. She says the cops had responded and provided […]
Police are still investigating Myron Itza’s death, the fourteen-year-old minor from San Jose Succotz who was discovered dead inside a bedroom on New Year’s Day. A post-mortem confirmed that the child died as a result of acute respiratory distress. When we reached out to the family today, they were understandably distraught. They are perplexed by […]
Police are also investigating another suspicious case in the west. In this case, it is the mysterious disappearance of an older man. It has been six days since Miguel Caceros has gone missing. Despite evidence to suggest that he was injured during an altercation with three other persons on his farm, the family is still […]
Belize Water Services Limited is the last of three government-owned utility companies to have named a new board of directors under the new People‘s United Party administration. The appointment of Cornelio Acosta, as chairman, and eight other members succeed the selections of former senator Mark Lizarraga and attorney Andrew Marshalleck as the presiding officers of […]
The COVID-19 outbreak at the Palm View Center has been contained. The Ministry of Health and Wellness confirmed on Tuesday that twenty-one residents and seven staff tested positive for the deadly virus. But according to acting Director of Health Services Doctor Melissa Diaz, the index patient has not been identified. She says that none of […]
On Tuesday, the country recorded eighty-one new COVID-19 cases, putting the total to eleven thousand and eighteen confirmed cases. Out of that number, five hundred and thirty cases remain active. Two hundred and fifty-eight deaths have been reported, and at the moment, twenty-two patients are hospitalized. The overall positivity rate is now at twenty-one point […]
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Orange Walk and Corozal districts has been decreasing. The spread of the virus is slowly controlled. Travel to and within these two districts remain restricted, and it seems that it has helped in controlling the spread of the virus. But the same cannot be said for the […]
