The Special Audit on Immigration has exposed rampant corruption within the Department of Immigration. Thirteen ministers, past and present, as well as senior officers and politically connected persons have been fingered in the investigation that covered a two year period, 2011-2013. Today, the Prime Minister in one of his lengthiest press conferences discussed one of […]
The audit was triggered by the scandalous Won Hong Kim fiasco involving then Minister of State Elvin Penner and has unearthed the rampant sale of Belizean nationality to persons who had not even been to Belize and in other cases who got their nationality having arrived in Belize for a day. Now, having apologized and […]
At the Senate Meeting on Wednesday, the People’s United Party proposed a motion for a senate select investigation into the immigration irregularities. This is the second time that that motion has been put to the floor and the second time that it has been defeated. Prematurely, as it turns out, lead senate for government, Godwin […]
The composition of the Joint Special Select Committee also came into question during this afternoon’s press conference. Among the concerns raised is the fact that the combined task force will be made up of a majority of representatives from the Barrow administration. While the working group will be chaired by a senator from among the […]
Another issue of national importance which has deeply divided the people is the decision not to appeal the recent ruling on Section Fifty-three of the Criminal Code. The decision from Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin decriminalizes sexual acts between adults in private. But there appears to be some room to maneuver, because the PM is meeting […]
As we told you earlier, there was a meeting on Wednesday morning between the Prime Minister and the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Chamber called on the government to accede the UN Convention on Anti-Corruption. Barrow had resisted signing the convention, but reeling from scandal to scandal, the PM has agreed with the […]
A hundred and forty countries, members of the United Nations, have already signed on to the UNCAC. Barrow believes that the stringent requirements of the convention can further complicate matters for Belize at the international level. Citing the ongoing correspondent banking crisis, PM Barrow notes that failure to live up to the obligations of the […]
There is a pronounced rift in the Council of Churches tonight following a vote on Wednesday by Senator Ashley Rocke. Rocke first spoke in support of a Senate Select investigation on the special audit and would then vote against it. Ashley Rocke, Senator for Churches “I also rise to give support to the inquiry. […]
The unprecedented release from Bishop Wright was followed by one from the Executive Team of the National Evangelical Association of Belize, known as the NEAB. The grouping says its national chapters comprising two hundred and fifty churches are disappointed with Senator Rocke’s “No” vote and find it completely unacceptable. NEAB is also calling for the […]
Pastor Louis Wade, I Want My Country Back Movement “It is very clear to us that there is a process for that; but he should do the honourable thing and resign. We cannot have a Senator who committed to other Senators, who claims to be committed to anti-corruption – we say ‘a bird in […]
Pastor Rocke heads the Lake Independence Baptist Church and is a member of the Belize Association of Evangelical Churches, which suffered a big split around the time of the November general election. Rocke had reached accommodation with the National Evangelical Association of Belize which saw its majority of pastors tossed out. But today, Wade says […]
With mounting pressure for his removal, Senator Rocke issued a statement this afternoon to say that his actions at Wednesday’s Senate sitting, though unpopular, are for the greater good of Belize and that he did not go against the Church, but that he sided with the country. Rocke says that he found more comfort in […]
Who will the former employees of Belize Emergency Response Team (BERT) work for, apart from the residents of the Belize District? That is the question tonight after the ambulance emergency service established seventeen years ago seemed to shut its doors on Wednesday claiming that it was unable to further fund its service without additional finance […]
This afternoon, Director of Health Services, Doctor Marvin Manzanero, told us the Government has reached an accommodation with the much-needed emergency service to take on the management as well as the personnel. In effect BERT has folded. Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services “We have reached an agreement; BERT was basically interested in […]
There is a report that the B.D.F. came under fire on Wednesday in the Chiquibul National Park approximately two hundred and fifty-nine meters east of the border. The shooting at the patrol occurred at about eleven-thirty in the morning when the soldiers were heading to Retero Camp to follow-up on a previous order to leave […]
Back in June, a minor, Kian Chuc was severely wounded in a chopping incident in Yo Creek, Orange Walk District. Within four days of the incident, on July twenty-eighth, he succumbed to the injuries. Chuc was a member of a family who was chopped at their house. Leroy Banner, another resident of the village, was […]
Rape in itself is repugnant act, but sexual violence against a person living with a mental disability is hideous. Tonight, there is one such allegation from a family in the Orange Walk District. A seventy-seven-year-old mother claims that her mentally challenged daughter of San Lazaro Village, Orange Walk District was raped in their kitchen located […]
Former Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega has kept quite a low profile since being stripped of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the second largest portfolio in government, and losing the post as DPM. His colleague, former Minister of National Security John Saldivar has also been under the radar after responsibility for the Belize Police Department […]
One more report on the special audit…at least for tonight…Attorney General Senator Vanessa Retreage did not support the need for a Senate inquiry into the Audit Reports on Nationality, Passports and Visas. But that does not mean that any guilty persons named in the report should escape punishment. As the nation’s top legal adviser, she […]
It is no secret. Belize – like many other countries across the world – has a problem with obesity. According to the country’s health statistics, two out of every three adults are either overweight or obese. That is over sixty percent of the population. Why should it matter? Well, obesity – a disease in itself […]
