Day-one of the budget debate started this morning in Belmopan and up to news time it continues in an energized National Assembly, that had been downgraded from cold to near-Arctic. The 2018-2019 General Revenue and Appropriation Bill was tabled two weeks ago. The P.U.P. leader, John Briceño, assailed the vision of Prime Minister Dean Barrow […]
Is the Government running a game with the share price of Belize Telemedia Limited and what the company is really worth? That’s the thinking in some sectors since G.O.B. is considering selling more shares of B.T.L. to the Social Security Board. In 2017, S.S.B. bought seven million shares at five dollars a share, despite the […]
Lake Independence area representative Cordel Hyde, speaking after Belmopan representative John Saldivar, called the budget a “slap in the face” after the recent municipal election results. According to Hyde, despite the people’s decision on March seventh, the government has insisted it will not alter course, and that may prove to be a fateful decision. […]
Later, former Prime Minister Said Musa went after the Government’s estimation of the economy. Scorning the charge that the economy was “on the rebound,” he noted that Government hoped to cover up the holes in the budget by applying the pressure of more taxes, including the addition of the General Sales Tax to data services […]
Turning to crime…thirty-one-year-old Kearny Thompson lost his fight to survive injuries received during an armed attack on March third in Belize City. He succumbed to gunshot wounds on Wednesday at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after two and a half weeks of treatment. The shooting, now upgraded to murder, has not yielded any fruit for […]
A father and his two sons are recovering from gunshot wounds after being fired upon by a farmer in the Stann Creek District on Sunday night. Forty-four-year-old Raphael Choj, along with fourteen-year-old Ernesto Choj and his younger brother Raphael Junior, received multiple injuries when they were shot at inside a cornfield. According to Santo Cucul, […]
American businessman Chad Eckert has responded to a recent claim made against him by former partner Gustavo Cardenas. The cotton farmer alleges that he has been frozen out of his own agriculture venture; following a falling out with Eckert over twelve thousand pounds of West Indian Sea Island Cotton that was harvested in 2016. In […]
As the budget debate took place inside the National Assembly, across Independence Hill at the civic centre, teachers were also having their say. Their call was for an end to the violence against women and children. Among the thick crowd of educators, were victims and families of persons living with the pain of abuse. Powerful […]
At the start of his presentation on the Budget, Minister of Education Patrick Faber issued a response to the teachers. While Faber has had his issues with the union in the past and recently accused their leadership of having lost their way, today he offered somewhat of an olive branch, suggesting that the union could […]
Today’s Budget Debate was especially spicy as the main speakers went head to head. Belmopan’s John Saldivar answered Leader of the Opposition John Briceño and was in turn answered by Cordel Hyde, who was then answered by Patrick Faber. It got especially heated during Faber’s presentation as he went after Hyde on past scandals in […]
The once and current Minister of National Security, John Saldivar, reviewed the performance of his Ministry of Defense before the merger announced earlier this week and also spent some time on what his Police portfolio will be doing to address the burgeoning crime situation. In addition to the new legislation that will be debated in […]
The Deputy P.M.’s spiel was not only expelled on the P.U.P. Even a former colleague, who just also happens to have been a former area representative from Lake Independence, got his name called. Mark King has expressed interest in running to succeed Anthony “Boots” Martinez in the Port Loyola division, but Faber rubbished that idea […]
A fifty-eight-year-old woman from Las Flores, Belmopan, was killed in a road traffic accident on Wednesday night on the Stann Creek Valley Road. Police say that just before eight-thirty, they were called out to miles eleven and twelve where they saw a van with extensive damage to the front and a motionless woman with massive […]
Investigators are probing yet another murder in Roaring Creek Village where the decomposing body of Alvin Montero surfaced in the nearby river on Tuesday morning. The corpse was fished out of the waterway after residents alerted police that they had discovered what appeared to be human remains floating downstream. It was later found that the […]
The predawn shooting that saw twenty-six-year-old street figure Kendis Flowers being cut down on Mahogany Street, is a step closer to being solved. That is if police are able to track down a suspect whom they believe is involved in the murder of the Ghost Town underboss. Notwithstanding the questionable circumstances surrounding Flowers’ death, C.I.B. […]
Minister of John Saldivar, took to social media on Tuesday and launched an attack on B.N.T.U. National President, Elena Smith following her comments against his appointment as Minister of National Security. Saldivar posted that Senator Smith is using her position to bully pulpit for her self-serving agenda. He also warned to be “careful of your […]
Saldivar’s Facebook post is seen as a form of cyber bullying, for which there are no laws to protect victims. Of equal concern is that Saldivar appears to be using the power of his office as minister of the security forces to threaten the senator. Attorney-at-law and former parliamentarian Lisa Shoman, in her address at […]
Since the beginning of the week, stakeholders in the insurance sector have been meeting at the Biltmore to participate in a series of workshops on a range of issues, including anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. Today, compliance officers received specialized training in detecting new trends such as trade-based money laundering and human […]
Two weeks after the municipal elections and the new and returning municipal government leaders are getting a two-day crash course in governance. Following every municipal election, the Ministry of Local Government holds orientation training for all elected officials. The forum is also used to facilitate an exchange of information and networking with agencies that can […]
World Tuberculosis Day is observed every year on March twenty-fourth. The disease, while preventable and curable, is still a major concern in developing countries, as it is associated with high mortality rates in HIV positive persons. In Belize, one hundred and seventeen new cases were diagnosed last year. According to the Ministry of Health, of the new cases diagnosed, twenty-eight […]
Today is World Water Day, and it’s good time to think about our abundance of access to water – especially clean safe drinking water. Tonight in Healthy Living, we find out more about the work that goes into ensuring that we have safe water throughout our country. Marleni Cuellar “Over half the households in […]
