Members of the Caye Caulker tourism industry are up in arms tonight following the documentation of a shark slaughtering near the village over the weekend. According to twenty-five-year-old Caye Caulker tour guide James Rosado, on Saturday, February 28, he and his girlfriend were fishing when they came upon the gory sight of a sailboat covered with blood as several men on board cleaned and gutted approximately twenty nurse sharks near Bajo Caye, located northwest of Caye Caulker.
The matter of Belize City Council’s $9 million debt and whether it was accrued in legitimate, above-the-board transactions continues to be the topic of debate even in the last days before voters go to the poll to decide whether they will re-elect a United Democratic Party (UDP) Council or replace them with a People’s United Party (PUP) Council.
Effective yesterday, former development consultant, university lecturer and member of the Executive Council of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Mrs. Celene Cleland-Gomez, was named Chief Executive Officer of the BCCI. Cleland-Gomez takes over from Kevin Herrera, who left the post after 11 years last October.
Almost 90,000 electors registered to go to the polls.... By the time this edition of our newspaper hits the streets, the 2009 municipal elections will be only a day away, and the political soldiers will be lining up for the great battle to capture the 67 seats available across 9 municipalities. While this season’s political campaign is notably much less fierce than the last, many expect the races in municipalities such as Belize City and Punta Gorda, respectively the largest and smallest municipalities, to be hot.
“I voted [in 2006] for Zenaida,” says Reneau ... The municipal elections are only days away, and one of the most hotly contested races will be the battle for the mayoral seat in Belize City – the municipality which has been the center of a political maelstrom, with what seems like never-ending allegations about unscrupulous spending from the public purse, while critical bills fail to be met. These are the salient issues being kept on the front burner as electors prepare to cast their votes on Wednesday, March 4.
Both parties headed for arbitration... Is the Belize City Council bankrupt? Is the Council managing the public’s resources in a prudent manner? What will the auditors report say about the Council’s management of its finances? The questions are relevant, elections or no elections.
PUC chairman: BEL owed consumers $19.9 million in rebates at the end of January... Supreme Court Justice Minnet Hafiz on Wednesday afternoon approved a second application by the Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) to stop the implementation of a new schedule of electricity rates approved by Public Utilities Commissioner (PUC), in line with falling world oil prices.
City Hall in the red 06/07, 07/08, 08/09... The United Democratic Party (UDP) is nearing the end of its three-year term at the City Hall in Belize City, and will next Wednesday be seeking re-election for another. There is no outgoing independent audit of the Belize City Council, but on Wednesday, in light of a resurgence of allegations over financial mismanagement at City Hall and its failure to pay in Social Security deductions and contributions (and also income tax deductions withheld from its over 300 workers), Amandala sought an interview with Mayor Zenaida Moya to get some answers on some of the more global questions about City Hall finances.
Adding to his legal trouble which began in January when he was brought before the court on a charge of handling stolen goods, youth worker Raymond “Footie” Gongora, 40, lost his home in mysterious circumstances Wednesday morning. Gongora spoke with our newspaper by telephone Wednesday evening. He told us that he had moved out of the community after being charged in January with handling stolen goods and appearing in court (that case is scheduled for hearing on March 13) along with two teenagers, one a minor and his nephew, who had been accused of burglary.
The controversy over City Hall’s failure to meet payments of Social Security contributions for its over 300 workers has deepened since we first reported on the story four days ago. Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya told us, on record, on Wednesday afternoon that she was not informed that the old debt, dating back to May 2008, had not been cleared. But her former city administrator, Englebert Perera, visited our newspaper today and challenged the veracity of Moya’s claims.
“This land is your land, this land is my land. From the Sarstoon River...” Those of us Belizeans who traveled abroad when Belize was not yet a major tourist attraction often got this response when talking about our beloved homeland: “Where the hell is Belize?” Our answer has always been something to the effect that we are a beautiful, peaceful, pristine tropical country, bounded to the north by Mexico and south and west by Guatemala, and that we sit on the east coast of Central America. In our minds, the territory of Belize has always been unambiguously defined – all 8,867 square miles of it. We’ve always asserted our sovereignty, even in the face of claims by Guatemala that our territory belongs to it.
Cane farmer Atanacio Felix Gutierrez, 44, died, reportedly at the hands of national security forces during the confrontation on Monday afternoon, February 2, between cane farmers and members of the Belize Defence Force and Police Department.
The compromis signed by Belize and Guatemalan officials back on December 8, 2008, agreeing to submit the century-old territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice at the Hague, has been moved a stage up the ratification process, as latest reports to our newspaper are that the document is now before the Guatemalan Congress – a critical and very powerful arm of that country’s government.
PM Barrow: “I can live with it.” In the last full week of campaigning for the municipal elections next Wednesday, March 4, the two camps in Belize City are scrambling to cement their positions on a variety of issues. One of those issues is the alleged corruption and mismanagement of funds by the Belize City Council, and particularly by Mayor Zenaida Moya.
