The Senate Special Select Committee sought to call three witnesses to today’s public hearing at the National Assembly in Belmopan. But only one made it – the former Office in Charge of the Nationality Section of the Department, Gordon Wade. We’ll tell you why the others – Ady Pacheco and Edgar Cano – were not […]
Won Hong Kim, the South Korean fugitive, who started the entire current Immigration saga, is hardly forgotten though his ultimate fate after a desperate bid to dodge extradition by claiming the nationality of the Jewel is not known. Kim was granted both passport and Belizean nationality through the machinations of former Minister of State for […]
Senior Immigration Officer Gordon Wade, who has been working with the department for twenty-seven years, also added layers to established testimony that Ministers of Government were in and out of the Immigration Department’s offices doing “business” on behalf of their constituents and favorites. While Prime Minister Dean Barrow has said that these appearances so far […]
Last week, ex-Director of Immigration Ruth Meighan sidestepped questions of whether she was a “rubber stamp” for final approval of applications for visas, passports, and nationality certificates. But she repeatedly made clear over her two appearances for testimony that she trusted her senior officials to ensure that what landed on her desk represented the complete […]
But what did Wade really see in those many files passing over his desk during those two years he was in charge? He said that a completed file with the relevant documents was presented, with the certifications from the accepting officers that the documents they received were true and correct. But something went wrong, somewhere. […]
Auditor General Dorothy Bradley made one major correction to her audit report of the Immigration Department – that former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael Peyrefitte, was allowed under the law to make a recommendation as an official for a passport. Other than that, she has said on the record, she stands by her […]
Turning to the courts….a sixteen year old has been charged for the most recent shooting incident in Conch Shell Bay area of Belize City. On Monday night, sometime after eight o’clock, twenty-one year old Jaheel Goodger was shot to the right leg as he rode his bicycle on West Collet Canal. He reported that one […]
Two cops were charged with grievous harm when they appeared in court today. Brothers twenty-eight-year-old Kenrick Gamboa and twenty-four-year-old Akeem Gamboa were jointly for grievous harm upon nineteen year old Michael Crawford. Kenrick was also slapped with an additional charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. On Saturday evening, the Gamboa brothers and another […]
The decision by the Elections and Boundaries Commission to embark on countrywide re-registration and redistricting exercises after municipal elections are held in 2018 has raised the ire of the People’s United Party. On Tuesday, the P.U.P. issued a firm release calling for those activities to be conducted no later than July first, in accordance with […]
While Elrington is often up to speed on events, he says he has not been keeping up with developments in the ongoing senate inquiry. Last Wednesday, while under oath, former Director of Immigration Ruth Meighan conceded that there was a move by the Barrow administration to naturalize hundreds of immigrants ahead of the 2012 General […]
Is Guatemala ready to go to referendum on whether its age-old claim over Belize should go before the ICJ? Earlier today, an official from the Guatemalan electoral commission told the Guatemalan press that the government has raised as much as forty million dollars to fund the exercise in September. So where does Belize stand in […]
As reported at the top of our newscast, two of the three witnesses scheduled to appear before today’s panel were absent to due to medical and legal issues respectively. Because the Committee’s hearings are mandated to be in public and broadcast live on local media, there is little wiggle room for any recalcitrant witnesses. But […]
A total of four witnesses have been called by the Committee so far: Auditor General Dorothy Bradley; former deputy director Maria Marin; former Director Ruth Meighan; and former Officer in Charge of Nationality Section Gordon Wade. Chairman Salazar says their list is being made up as they go along, but generally speaking that list will […]
Two fishermen appeared in the Independence Magistrate Court for possession of unprocessed and undersized conch. Sanasermo Torres was busted with forty-nine conch and Earl Lamb with eighty-six by rangers of the Southern Environmental Association in the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve. Both pleaded guilty and were fined accordingly. The SEA notes that the […]
Late last week, the K.H.M.H. announced that ongoing renovations have caused a limitation in service delivery. The national referral hospital says that the specific area to be impacted is the operating theatres and sterilization units. It is being done in phases resulting in a delay of elective surgeries, but urgent and emergency cases will proceed […]
There is an outbreak of Bovine rabies in three districts. BAHA announced today that the disease has been detected in the Corozal, Orange Walk, Cayo and Toledo Districts. As such livestock farmers are advised to vaccinate their livestock as well as sheep, cattle, sheep and horses. BAHA advises that the rabies can be transmitted to […]
The Museum of Belize is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this Friday. As a part of its celebration, it’s hosting a Mexican exhibition entitled “El Cimmaron y Su Fandango,” among other activities. The exhibition is a photographic depiction on the little known world of the Afro-Mexican as captured by photographer, Mara Sanchez Renero. Today, Duane Moody […]
A job preparedness training certificate ceremony was held today at the Belize Training and Employment Center on the ITVET Compound. A team of six persons manage a network of partnerships with several training institutions and have providing training in areas of home health care, business processing outsourcing among others. Today, sixty-six persons graduated from its […]
