The cause of death of an elderly food vendor whose body was found inside a latrine has been released though the motive for her murder has not been confirmed. A post-mortem examination conducted on the body of sixty-eight-year-old Martha Gonzalez on Tuesday revealed that she was fatally stabbed. According to the results, Gonzalez was stabbed […]
There were fireworks in Senate today on two matters that required ratification to pass. First, last week in the House, the Government passed a motion to borrow fourteen million dollars more from the International Development Bank for the George Price Rehabilitation project. That loan is to top off another fifty-four million dollars borrowed back in […]
Even so, the loan was approved by a majority of senators this afternoon. Most of the road is still under repair and the Roaring Creek Bridge is incomplete. The new loan brings the total cost of the road rehabilitation project to over eighty million Belize dollars. Private sector Senator Mark Lizarraga says that there is […]
Last Friday, the House also passed an amendment to the GST Act which affects tour operators. It came on the heels of a ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice in October ordering G.O.B. to repay more than half a million dollars to Cruise Solutions Limited and Discovery Expeditions Limited. The C.C.J. ruling set aside […]
Senator Lizarraga points out that the business community is nervous about this move by government because it goes beyond tour operators since it blurs the line between the separation of powers of the judiciary and the executive. He also notes investor confidence is shaken when the government resorts to parliament to bypass a court ruling. […]
Minister Omar Figueroa was among a group of cabinet members who made a request to Prime Minister Dean Barrow to postpone his planned retirement and remain as party leader. Now that the PM has agreed to stay on until closer to the next general elections, the move has put a wrench in the leadership ambitions […]
Convicted criminal, thirty-five-year-old Bert Vasquez was in court today for his sentencing hearing in the courtroom of Justice Colin Williams. It took hours as the court heard a very lengthy mitigation plea from Vasquez, who represented himself. He told the court that he has not been afforded his constitutional right to a fair trial within […]
Orel Leslie’s civil case against the Kolbe Foundation and government continued today in the courtroom of Justice Courtney Abel. Leslie spent some time behind bars after being arrested and charged for the 2012 murder of B.D.F. soldier James Noralez. He beat the murder rap twice as he was never convicted. But according to Leslie, his […]
Leslie claims he was mistreated and suffered by the harsh conditions at the Belize Central Prison. His attorney, Audrey Matura, says Leslie suffered a grave illness that he had to be placed on a hypertension diet. Audrey Matura, Attorney for Orel Leslie “He got ill several times. He was dehydrated. There were basic things […]
Reports emerging from Orange Walk are that a body was fished out of the New River this afternoon along the Orange Walk Bypass road. The official identity of the man has not been shared with the press but we understand that foul play is not suspected. There is also the suspicion that the body is […]
Figures were released today in respect of the performance of the economy; they show that the gross domestic product grew by more than three percent and that the cost of living also inched up slightly when compared to the same period last year. Agriculture and the fishing industries contributed to the economic growth while prices […]
Over the past several months, the S.I.B. has also been busy working with the Department of the Environment to produce what will be known as environmental statistics, which will be included in future publications. The study is one of several activities that the autonomous body has been engaged with in 2018, aside from embarking upon […]
Today in The Hague, Netherlands, the Belizean media got the opportunity to have an extensive conversation with Dylan Vernon, Ambassador of Belize to Belgium and Mission of Belize to the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Ambassador Vernon is also the Belize’s diplomatic contact for the I.C.J. In almost an […]
The National Anti-doping Organization, NADO, has a new director, following the Brandon Cattouse fiasco earlier this year which resulted in Belize’s suspension from the Regional Anti-doping Organization. The incoming director is well-known sports enthusiast and former footballer Carlos ‘Charlie’ Slusher. In a letter from the regional body dated November twenty-seventh, RADO informs that after evaluating […]
Belize is one of three countries participating in a three-year pilot project which aims to contribute towards developing an enabling national policy and regulatory frameworks for the sustainable management of the oceans and strengthening capacities of coastal developing countries. The first phase of the project began today in Belize City where stakeholder met to review […]
A report and receipt surfaced on social media recently claiming that Minister Omar Figueroa had received a donation from the Hol Chan Marine Reserve to be used in his constituency. Figueroa is responsible for matters relating to the reserves and it seemed that he was piggy-backing his office for political contributions from a fund that […]
As it stands, the Department of Transport and the nine cities and towns across the country all work independently of each other. They also operate on separate electronic databases and manual systems which end up in poorly organized and inaccessible record management and data sharing. The Belize Motor Vehicle Registration and License System is a […]
As many as two hundred primary school students from across Belize City, many of them between the ages of five and ten years old, attended the first Christmas party to kick off the 2018 Yuletide. They all gathered at the Fort Street Tourism Village for lunch and bellyfuls of laughter from Ozzie the Clown. The […]
