belize times june 3, 2012

Sunday, June 3, 2012 THE BELIZE TIMES 1

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Issue No. 4798SUNDAY June 3, 2012

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Reconnectedwww.facebook/Belize Times

PUP Town Council brings development

to Dangriga

Opposition calls out GOB on measly

education subsidy

Guats attack Senior Police at Western Border

See p

age 9

SCAN HERE

BSI SALE APPROVED

UDP WELcOmES thE DEAD

GODWIn hULSE cAn’t SERVE tWO mAStERS

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

061523

JURy fREES fOUR Of 2009 DOUBLE mURDER

NOt Guilty!

Ashcroft offers $40m for BTL sharesBelize City, May 30, 2012

Talks between Lord Mi-chael Aschroft and Prime Minister Dean Barrow con-tinued in Miami, U.S., last week while the PM was “of-ficially” there to accompany his ill wife. This time the ne-gotiations included a third wheel, a former PUP Min-ister who defected to the UDP for a diplomatic post

and twenty pieces of silver.The BELIZE TIMES un-

derstands that the main topic was what would be the Barrow Administration’s accommodation package for Ashcroft if he is to help them make the stalled su-perbond renegotiation a success.

This package, we are

Belize City, May 30, 2012Opposition Leader Hon. Francis Fonse-

ca told the BELIZE TIMES that he finds the education subsidy granted to Opposition representatives for their constituents unac-ceptable and he expects the Minister of Edu-cation Patrick Faber to reconsider.

A letter sent to Opposition members last month by the Minister’s Secretary informs that the Ministry has allotted funds for each Opposition member to submit the names of students who will get assistance. While the gesture seems nice, the number of students that will be accepted for assistance is a pit-

BELIZE CITY, Wed. May 30, 2012By Roy Davis

Four men charged with double murder were acquit-ted of the charges today in the Court of Justice Herbert Lord.

The jury of 9 women and 3 men deliberated for about 4

hours and 37 minutes before it arrived at its verdict which was unanimous.

The four are Brionnie Swift, 31; Victor Garnett, 25; Frank Ed-wards Jr. 25, and Gabriel Sala-zar, 25. They were charged with

Brionne Swift Victor GarnettGabriel SalazarFrank Edwards

Benque Viejo del Carmen, May 29, 2012It has been four days since a volatile sit-

uation at the Western Border almost ended in bloodshed between Guatemalan and Be-lizean law enforcement authorities and the public is yet to hear a Minister of Govern-

Dangriga Town, May 25, 2012Hope that soon Dangriga Town will once

more become a buoyant town has returned to the “culture capital”. Residents of Dangriga Town

Michael Ashcroft & Prime Minister Dean Barrow have commenced talks on BTL’s ownership

Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, Hon. Mike Espat, Hon. Oscar Requeña, PUP Leader Hon. Francis Fonseca, Hon. Ivan

Ramos & Mayor Gilbert Swazo

Guatemalan mob surrounds Sr. Sptd. Moody

2 THE BELIZE TIMES Sunday, June 3, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

EDITOR

Alberto Vellos

OFFICE MANAGER

Fay Castillo McKay

PRINTING/PERSONNEL SUPERVISOR

Doreth Bevans

LAYOUT/GRAPHIC ARTIST

Chris Williams

STAFF REPORTER

Alton Humes

TYPIST

Rachel Arana

OFFICE ASSISTANT

Roberto Peyrefitte

Printed & Published ByTHE BElIzE TIMEs lTD.

#3 Queen StreetP.O. BOX 506

Belize City, BelizeTel: 671-8385

Email: [email protected]@yahoo.com

More Questions than Answers

Oceana goes forward with legal challenge of oil exploration contracts

THE WORST STREET IN

BELIZE CITY

Dear Editor,We are supposed to op-

erate in a society of open-ness, but this is definitely not the case of our govern-ment. We live in a world where technology places knowledge and information at our finger tips for those of us who have access to the thing called computers, and televisions. Whilst these instruments have some very negatives programmes there are many educational programmes which if used properly can boost our edu-cational and development capabilities. Our current gov-ernment is as guilty as some of those programmes, of do-ing more harm than good.

Instead of using some of those mediums to educate they use them to continue misinformation instead of information, instead of find-ing solutions, they sow fear, suffering, passiveness and basically an attitude of wait and see. But whilst we wait and see, our human resourc-es are being destroyed, our natural resources raffled out to foreign companies who are protected by lawyers and cronies. Our social and spiritual way of life is no lon-ger respected. Don’t ask me, ask our church leaders. Why are our church leaders so silent about all the wrong facing our society? Are they afraid of King Dean cutting off their school subsidies or are they forgetting to follow the true example of Jesus Christ which was to speak out against any and all forms of oppression.

He spoke out for the poor and oppressed. He preached equality for all not for some. He blessed the children and loved them and saw them as the future generation of the world. He looked after the sick and lowly, the homeless and even forgave the great-est criminals upon His cruci-fixion. Whilst I do not want to appear to pick a fight with our church leaders, instead of focusing your efforts on UNIBAM, you also need to, like Bob Marley said, get up and stand up. Encourage your members that it is not wrong to speak out in order

to correct injustices which are plagu-ing this society. As a poor, southside born and grown up resident, we were taught to respect people, especially our older citizens but that respect was also taught to be shown to all. We were taught to love and share, not to grab-grab-grab which now has become the order of the day.

The time might be right for our leaders, be they political, spiritual, or business, to take some sort of col-lective action against all the many evils currently destroying us as a people. Suggested actions like the one carried out by the Bus opera-tors a while back, or a general strike countrywide. Actions of that nature will not go down lightly with our cur-rent government, but it’s time we the people use our powers, in our churches, our schools, our hospitals, our workplaces, our farmers and our workers.

Changes require our involve-ment, our action, togetherness, and sacrifice otherwise if we continue to go down the path we are going, we will continue to have more ques-tions than we can answer. Solutions needed not continuous problems.

Thanks for publishing,The Advocate

This week’s worst street in Belize City is Orange Street in the heart of downtown Belize City. The street is filled with cra-ters and floods easily because of bad drainage.

Just two years ago the UDP City Council spent $70,000.00 to pave this same stretch of street. Today the street is a total disaster.

If you want to suggest a worst street of the week email us the information or photos at [email protected]

BELIZE CITY, Tuesday, May 29th, 2012By Alton Humes

Oceana in Belize is continuing its fight against offshore oil exploration pur-sued by the Government of Belize under Prime Minister Dean Barrow.

Oceana has launched a lawsuit against the Ministry of Natural Resourc-es, challenging the validity of six Produc-tion Sharing Agreements (PSAs) covering Belize’s offshore areas. The present snag is now whether or not its planned co-claimants, Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action (COLA) and The Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage, will be added to the lawsuit.

Arguments for the co-claimants were originally scheduled to be heard on May 23rd at the Supreme Court, but it was decided by Oceana Vice-President Au-drey Matura-Shepherd and their attorney, Godfrey Smith, to file new papers nam-

ing the two grassroots organizations as potential co-claimants. And foreseeing the Government’s plans to discredit both potential co-claimants, the Court decided to adjourn the matter to June 7th in order to give all sides necessary time to file their papers and prepare ar-guments. June 7th is also the eve of World Oceans Day, June 8th.

As for the second legal proceed-ings against the Governor-General of Belize and the Chief Elections Officer for their rejection of 8,000 signatures which were part of Oceana’s petition calling for a referendum on offshore oil exploration, that remains scheduled before Justice Michelle Arana, also at the Supreme Court, for June 20th, 2012.

The BELIZE TIMES will continue to follow these cases whenever they go before the court.

Budget check: it’s been 86 days since the March 7th elections and 61 days since the end of the last financial year, April 1st, And still no budget!


PUP LEADER VISItS mOthER Of

DAnIEL mAtURA

Another weekend of bloodshed

Valentino Coc Eldon Lewis Anthony Mayen

Belize City, Tuesday, May 29, 2012Truce or no truce - call it what you

want, the harsh reality is that the murder rate continues unabated from week to week. The KHMH morgue is never free of mutilated and bullet-riddled bodies that are carted off at the hands of determined crim-inals who refuse to stop the bloodshed.

Over the weekend, there were three more murders across Belize, not to men-tion three more shootings. The first hap-pened sometime around 4:00 on Sunday morning as two brothers and a cousin, having gotten enough of a night of pub-bing to Old School music at the Tropicana Lounge at the Tourism Village proper made their way to their grey Mercedez Benz car parked a short distance from the night spot. As car dealer, Anthony Mayen, 42, his brother Kirk and cousin, Darrel Mayen, got inside the car, they were ambushed by two men who sprayed the vehicle with bul-lets, hitting Anthony eight times and Darrel once. Anthony died shortly after with bullet wounds to his chest, abdomen, armpit and arm. Darrel was struck in the right shoulder and his injury is not life-threatening.

The second Belize City homicide oc-curred shortly after seven on Sunday night on the south side of the old capital and claimed the life of Eldon “Cry Cry” Lewis, 37, originally of Dangriga Town, and a sani-tation worker with the Belize Waste Con-trol.

Lewis was shot as he sat on a bench at a house through an alley off Mayflower Street, commonly known as Ghost Town. Lewis is not known to be a gang member, but the area where he was is one of Belize City’s hot spots and gang communities. Reports are that he had gone to purchase marijuana when his killer walked up to him and shot him at close range. His mur-der bears similar resemblance to that of Mayen’s in that Lewis too was hit multiple times, 13 to be exact. He had eight bullets

alone in his abdomen, three in the chest and two in the head.

Lewis’ common-law wife had just had his fifth child three months ago. His practice was to go home in the evening and leave to hang out through Mayflower Street where he was shot. The motive of his killing has not yet been established, but police have not ruled out whether it is linked to the Mayen execution hours ear-

lier that same Sunday.The third murder happened in Belmo-

pan, specifically, Salvapan and claimed the life of an 18 year old youth. Valentino Coc left home to go play a game of football. He never returned because inside a yard on Suriname Street, someone attacked him with a machete and according to his relatives, it was premeditated. They say so because the youth was at home when

someone convinced him to go with them to play football. But what first started out to a friendly game ended in a bloodbath when one of the youths with whom Coc had had a dispute, hacked him in the face, head and arms. Belmopan police are look-ing for two suspects, who are believed to be from the group that Coc was with. One of them was reportedly his friend, the other he did not know.

Belize City, May 25, 2012On Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 11am,

PUP Leader Hon. Francis Fonseca visited Marva Mendoza, the mother of Daniel Ma-tura who is the latest child victim of the senseless gang violence which continues to grip Belize City.

At 11 years of age, Daniel was a stu-dent at the Sister Clara Mohammed Mus-lim Primary School, located only a few yards from his mother’s home. He was killed on Monday May 21st as he came home from a nearby store.

Hon. Francis expressed his deep sym-pathy on behalf of the PUP to the mother and her family and expressed to her his commitment to do everything possible to support all efforts to end the violence in our city. On behalf of the Party, he also offered the family a small contribution to assist the family during this difficult time. Ms. Mendo-za expressed her gratitude for the support on behalf of herself and her four remaining children.

Daniel Matura


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unpopulAr udpReconnectedtold, includes the sale of no less than 20% shares of Belize Teleme-dia Limited for $40 million and the settlement of all existing litigation between the Barrow Administra-tion and Ashcroft-related compa-nies.

There was no resistance to Ashcroft’s demands and just like that all indications are that the once great enemy of Belize who had Prime Minister Barrow foam-ing from the mouth as he threat-ened to move mountains to pre-vent the British billionaire from laying hands on another Belizean company, has danced his way back and is being reconnected to the Government-held telecom company.

Only seven months ago, the Prime Minister gambled political

support to amend the constitution in order for Ashcroft to once and for all lose any financial interest in BTL. This, said Barrow, would allow the Govern-ment of Belize to maintain majority control and bring about benefits for Be-lizeans such as lower phone rates and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

Today neither has Ashcroft disap-peared nor have customers seen a drop in rates and much less are they getting access to VOIP. It was all a gim-mick. What is the reality is that not only will Ashcroft soon hold significant in-terests in BTL, but he is being drawn in by Prime Minister Barrow himself. On the other hand, customers have been refused reduced internet and phone rates, and are being blocked from ac-cessing VOIP services.

It is inconceivable and inexplicable how this all came to past, and while Belizeans have many questions and

have every right to answers, the man who should be providing them, Prime Minister Dean Barrow, is avoiding the issue. For all we know, every time the PM flies to Miami, it is to resume secret deal making with his greatest benefactor.

Opposition calls out GOB on

measly education subsidy

tance.The letter states that Opposi-

tion members can only submit 25 students for the $300 subsidy and 25 students for the $75 subsidy. Stu-dents can only be 1st or 2nd formers.

“That is unacceptable,” re-marked Opposition Leader Hon. Fonseca, “apart from it being un-fair considering the large number of student constituents residing in the divisions with elected PUP representatives, the limited assis-tance given to students is an indi-cation of the Government’s meagre support for education in Belize”.

Hon. Fonseca, who was a former Minister of Education, said the num-ber of students is a drastic reduction to the number of students that Op-position members have aided in the past.

It is particularly much less when compared to the amount the United Democratic Party representatives, including Faber, were able to help when Hon. Fonseca was Education Minister.

This issue was discussed at length today, as the members of the People’s United Party Parliamentary Caucus, which includes members of the House of Representatives and Senate, met at the PUP’s headquar-ters, Independence Hall. It was seen by members of the Caucus as a way of “hurting” PUP representatives, but in reality it is the many students who will now not be able to access education assistance who will be negatively affected.

Hon. Fonseca also expressed shock that no assistance will be granted to tertiary school students. Statistics show that access to educa-tion is the lowest in the tertiary insti-tution bracket, with about 3%-4% of our youth population attending school at that level.

As an excuse for not being able to afford support for tertiary school students, the letter stated, “funds for tertiary are lacking at this time because of the burdensome pay-ment to the University of Belize of 4.5 Million dollars”.

Just weeks to the March 7th elec-tions, the UDP had allotted almost $3 million to its political representatives, both elected and unelected, so that they buy voters in a last minute at-tempt to win the elections. The Bar-row Administration has also spent over $1 million dollars to fund its fail-ing gang truce programme.


HARD HITTINGBig respect to the hundreds of Belizeans who supported this year’s Cancer walk held last Satur-day. Cancer is a serious health issue among our population and it needs urgent attention. While we hope its increased awareness would result in healthier lifestyle practices and most of all vigilance, another Cancer that is being grossly overlooked is the one affecting our Economy.

This economic cancer has been slowly eating away at Belizean homeowners and the private sec-tor to the extent that for the first time homeowners and businesses, whether small, medium or large, are in trouble and are facing a possible wipe out, with no kind of intervention from the government of the day.

This economic cancer has affected Belizeans from top to bottom, as the government turns a blind eye. Every week you can see the many newspaper pages and long lists of homes that are now for sale or being auctioned. And then if you take a drive throughout the country, you’ll notice the many FOR SALE signs that are put up in almost every neighborhood. The Barrow Administration’s policy over the past four and a half year seems to be to “let ‘em burn baby, let ‘em burn”.

During the last four years of the UDP, the economy came under assault from our very own Gov-ernment. The Land Ministry was shut down, private companies were attacked and their owners were literally kicked out of the country. When they went to the Court for help, the Barrow Admin-istration snubbed the Court and said they are bigger than the Court. This all chased away possible investors, which meant our economy began shrinking. On the local scene, Belizeans couldn’t do a thing about the downturn and home-owners and businesses could not organize to express their plight. In Belize under the UDP, if you get infected with the foreclosure sickness, you basically are on your own and you better tough it out as no Chamber or no Better Business Bureau will come to rescue you.

The only ones that make money during the economic cancer are the law-firms. The Prime Minis-ter’s law firm, for example, makes money as the lawyers are used by the banks to make sure they al-ways win whether you pay or can’t pay. A conspirator would say maybe that’s why the Prime Minis-ter chooses not to do anything about the economic cancer. We would say that’s not just a conspiracy, jack. The boys in Belmopan run the biggest business in town with oil and taxes upon taxes. Through the Central Bank they can fix these problems, if they really want to. They decide when interest rates are too steep, and when it must go down.

So the question must be: why hasn’t the Barrow Administration sat down and worked out better terms to rescue Belizean homeowners and business owners who are ailing from the economic can-cer? Why haven’t they done something about the mortgage holders who are in trouble and asking for help? You want to tell us nobody in Cabinet cares about this? Wasn’t that what Barrow said he was doing over at SSB and then promised to do at DFC or was it just election talk?

The Opposition People’s United Party believes that this is an urgent matter. The foreclosure crisis is affecting Belizeans every day, and the Government must do something about it. The rest of 2012 must be seen as a special period to help home owners, to wipe out compound interest and bring interest rates down. It is not a matter of our people not paying. They can’t afford to pay in the crisis we’re facing.

Belize is too small for our people to be deserted in the middle of a crisis. The real problem is our broker, Dean Barrow. His law firm works for the Banks and as long as there are foreclosures, the law firm benefits. Is everyone in the UDP Cabinet a wimp that no one can stand against this barefaced chanciness? What we need is a mutiny in the camp, a rebel with a cause…we are calling out Santino, Godwin, Sedi…anyone who can stop the madness.

stop the foreclosure Madness!


Armed duo terrify Columbia Village residents

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Continued on page 8

BSi workers approve transfer

of majority shares to American

CompanyBELIZE CITY, Wednesday, May 30th, 2012By Alton Humes

It is now official, or at least more public than before, American Sugar Refining (ASR), the multinational cor-poration that also owns refining and naming interests in the British refiners Tate and Lyle are now close to being the new owners of the Belize Sugar Industries Limited (BSI). A meeting held yesterday May 29th, 2012 by the BSI Employees Holdings Trust, yielded a near-unanimous vote of 99% set up a new share capital that will see ASR gain control of up to 80% to 85% of the company.

Although the original 44 million workers’ shares of the BSI Employ-ees Holdings Trust (BEHT) will be untouched, with the dilution of the shares, ASR will invest US$60 to $62 million, or between BZC$120 to BZC$124 million dollars in equity, for servicing of debt obligations to the ING Bank and First Caribbean Interna-tional Bank, amongst others, as well as infusing needed capital for addition-al improvements. In addition to all of that, ASR will pay long-owed dividends dating as far back as 2006, and valued at $5.2 million, to the workers over a stretch of 18 months.

With this deal relatively and firmly ensconced in place, or so it would ap-pear, the long-standing nightmare to find a buyer who would not only save the formerly embattled company from debt default and employee redundan-cy, but also remove the spectre of a corporation that seemed ‘unsellable’, seems to be almost over. But what will this international giant really be getting for their dollar, and more important to ask, how will Belizeans on a whole benefit from this deal, from farmers to factory workers?

According Belizario Carballo Jr., the Chief Financial Officer of the BSI Holdings Group, the workers made an “excellent choice” saying ‘yes’. As he put it, “it’s really a proposal that is not just good for employees and

good for BSI, but it’s also good for the industry because it’s good for cane farmers as well because it’s a proposal that includes, not just set-tling the debt of BSI and giving BSI a new beginning, a fresh beginning.”

Carballo explained to the BELIZE TIMES via phone that the initial invest-ment of US$60 to $62 million will be supplemented by another US$30 mil-lion (BZ$60 million) that will also in-fuse capital that will, as he put it to us, “grow the business”.

But even with the workers saying yes this time, it obviously wasn’t like that before. Deals were coming and going like downtown traffic, and even the cane farmers, through the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSC-FA) tried to get deals to buy in. But ASR got someone’s attention, and accord-ing to ASR Representative Jonathan Bamberger they sees more in Belize than could even be imagined, saying “We see good land for growing cane, a mill here which has good bones, has good potential and good ability to be expanded, has good management and its only constraint was the lack of finan-cial resources.”

Well before ASR was even consid-ered for a deal to buy into the company, BSI was selling sugar to interests that were linked to ASR, and were also re-ceiving some capital from them to get by in their darker days. Therefore, the whole deal (shareholder votes or not) was the proverbial no-brainer.

But while BSI and ASR are all too happy to begin anew in their relation-ship, we asked Carballo about what the cane farmers were told, and how things will be with the renewed com-pany going forward. He hastened to as-sure the BELIZE TIMES that the work-ing relationship will remain the same and that presentations were made to the BSCFA and other cane farmers a few weeks prior. In fact, he added that since ASR will be growing sugarcane here, they also plan to share their ex-pertise with cane farmers so that there will “be a healthy and growing busi-ness” all around.

All fine and good, to be sure, but it does seem that only time will really tell how this deal will come together, even as the ‘deal deadline’ of June 30th draws ever closer. This story continues to develop, and the BELIZE TIMES will continue to follow it.


Humor in UDP Politics!

The following matters were discussed in Cabinet- Faber introduced a plan called “The Takeover” and asked

Cabinet to consider it in case something would happen to the current Prime Minister. He explained that there would be a Prime Minister of the North, South, East and West. He would be PM of the East, Godwin Hulse would be PM of the West, Gapi of the North, and since no UDPs are from the South, he would be PM of the South too. Just then Gapi got up and said he almost didn’t agree, until he heard he would be a PM too. Faber whispered, “gotcha!”

- A proposal to ban Ministers from smoking in Office was sent to a Committee to study its cause and effects, its ad-vantages and disadvantages, and if it infringes on rights of the Minister(s) in question. This caused the CabSec to take out a bottle from his pocket and say to himself “that is why I choose to drink”.

- Boots introduced a proposal to make Ashcroft the “co-Prime Minister” in the absence of the Prime Minister, in the absence of Deputy PM Gapi and in the absence of the Acting PM Faber. When asked whether anyone had any questions, Sedi asked if he could be the “Artificial PM”.

- Santi was supposed to give a report on the ongoing negotiations with Ashcroft, but he hadn’t reached after his bi-cycle supposedly got a flat at Mile 11.

- Mark King was asked why is it he drives a heavily tinted vehicle with no license plates. In response, King removed his

dark shades and said if “I am to be the gang minister”, I might as well behave “gangsterous”.

In other related matters:The mayor of Belize City is proposing a new tax on dogs.

Pitbulls will be taxed $60 a year; Mixed breeds taxed $30 a year and all other dogs $15. Potlickers will be a whopping $100.

…………………At the Tropicana, one popular DJ was overheard saying

that he can’t wait for the ex-mayor to finish her restaurant in the sea. When asked why, he responded, “Well, I want to play there”.

…………………Vernon Cuthkelvin was seen going in and out of Michael

Young’s Law Firm. When asked to explain the purpose of his visits, Cuthkelvin replied, “anybody who could talk about brib-ery in the face of bribery when it was all about bribery is my kind of lawyer”.

…………………Cabinet has asked Erwin Contreras to investigate the mat-

ter of the missing red Mitsubishi at the border as it looks like a vehicle recently driven in Belize Rural North. Castro jumped up and said, “da noh me”

…………………During a recent inspection of hospitals, the dignitaries

noticed the strange behavior of the Health Minister Pablo Marin. At every stop, Marin walked to the electricity meters, inspected it and flipped on the fan and light switches. When at the last stop Marin put on a heavy suit and began climbing a light post on the hospital grounds, someone finally decided to ask him what was going on, he responded, “I’m just doing my real job”.


Thieving vandals cause mayhem at Sacred Heart Primary

Ladyville man accused of sexually assaulting sleeping neighbor

Anthony Carballo Jr.

18 yr. old charged for Jeremy McNab’s murder

BELIZE CITY, Wed., May 30, 2012By Roy Davis

A laborer of Perez Road, Lady-ville, who allegedly broke into the house of his 32 year old female neighbor to sexually assault her, was charged with burglary when he ap-peared today in the #2 Magistrate’s Court.

He is Winfield Mortis, 44.Mortis was also charged with

damage to property and aggravated assault of an indecent nature.

BELIZE CITY, Wednesday, May 30th, 2012By Alton Humes

There has been late word to the BELIZE TIMES via the Belize Police Department that the main suspect wanted in the murder of popular and well-known businessman Jer-emy McNab has been arrested and charged.

According to Police sources, 18-year-old Anthony Carballo Jr., a resident of #59 Tigris Street, has been arrested and charged for the murder of the 48-year-old business-man, which occurred on Thursday, May 17th, 2012.

On that tragic night, McNab

and two assistants were at his business, Mobile Hardware and Grocery, located at the corner of Cemetery Road and Curas-sow Street, when it is believed that Carballo and another youth entered the store unmasked and struck up a ‘conversation’ with McNab that ended when ei-ther Carballo or the other youth opened fire upon him, riddling him with several bullets to the chest. The pair then escaped with his personal firearm in tow.

Police are still seeking an-other suspect in connection to this incident, and their investiga-tions continue at this time.

NOt Guilty!Continued from page 1the murders of James Swan, 25, a.k.a James Edwards and Swan’s brother-in-law Elias Edwards Gutierrez, 26.

Only Salazar was not freed be-cause he is on remand for another charge of murder.

James Swan and Gutierrez were killed on Thursday evening, January 29, 2009 in the Bacalar Chico area of Am-bergris Caye. Their bodies were buried in a grave 4 feet deep and 4 feet wide and covered with coconut leaves.

Dr. Mario Estradabran, who did the post-mortem examination on the bod-ies, testified that Swan died from trau-matic shock due to gunshot injuries to his head while Gutierrez died from multiple organ failure due to injuries to his abdomen caused by a blunt instru-ment.

The evidence was purely circum-stantial. There was no direct evidence.

The chief witness for the prosecu-tion was Eric Swan, the brother-in-law of James Swan and the brother-in-law of Gutierrez.

Eric testified that at around 1pm on January 29, 2009, he, his brother and brother-in-law went fishing for conch and lobster in the Bacalar Chico area. He said they dived for about 3 hours then they went ashore to the beach for coconut water because they became thirsty and they had forgotten to bring water.

Eric said that when they arrived at the beach they were approached by 6 men and 3 of them were his cousins.

He testified that the men were armed with machine guns, shot guns and 9 millimetre pistols and they told him that they had been waiting for 14 days and they wanted their share.

Although it did not come out in Court as evidence, Police believed that the murders were drug related and it reportedly involved 6 to 8 bales of co-caine.

Eric said three of the men took his brother and brother-in-law to Rocky Point, an area a short distance from where he was, while the other three held him hostage. He said shortly af-terwards he heard what sounded like gunshots.

Eric said when he asked the trio, upon their return, about his brother, they told him that his brother was tied up and everything would be okay if he did the right thing. Eric testified that he was held hostage for about 24 hours then two of the men, Garnett and Sala-zar, accompanied him in his boat to San Pedro to get his mother.

But when they arrived at San Pe-dro someone said Police and Garnett and Salazar told him to drive off but he was unable to do so because he was in shallow waters, said Eric. He fur-ther testified that Garnett and Salazar jumped out of the boat and the Police began firing shots. Eric said he was shot in his buttocks and right foot.

But Ivan Tun, who testified for the defense, said that on January 29, 2009, he was the captain of the boat that took Eric Swan, James Swan and Elias Gutierrez to Bacalar Chico. He said James and Elias disembarked while he and Eric stayed in the boat for a while before they drove out to open sea and then they heard gunshots.

Tun is the person who reported to the Police how Swan and Gutier-rez were missing and gave the Police statements on 1st and 4th of January,

2009.Garnett gave a statement from the

dock in which he said that at the time of the incident he was in Belize City with his family and common-law wife.

But Assistant Superintendent of Police Dennis Arnold testified that on February 3, 2009, when he took Gar-nett to Bacalar Chico to search for the bodies, Garnett admitted in a state-ment that he was at the scene at the time of the incident but he did not take part in the murders.

Swift also gave an unsworn state-ment. He said that at the time of the incident he was at his mother’s house in San Pedro.

Salazar testified and said that at the time of the incident he was at the house of his mother and father in San Pedro. But his parents were not at home because they were at work, he said.

Edwards testified and said that at the time of the incident he was at home in San Pedro with his mother. His mother Esmeralda Edwards testi-fied and corroborated his alibi testi-mony.

Swift and Edwards were repre-sented by attorney Dickie Bradley.

Salazar, Edwards and Garnett were represented by attorney Simeon Sampson.

Senior Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez represented the prosecution.

Justice Lord presided over the trial which lasted almost three weeks.

Mortis, who pleaded not guilty to bur-glary and damage to property but guilty to aggravated assault, told Senior Magis-trate Sharon Fraser that he did not go into the house and that the screen wire was already damaged because there was a hole in it. He admitted however, that he touched the woman, but he said it was on her shoulder.

The prosecutor objected to bail on the grounds of a strong case because the accused was positively identified by the

the facts of the case are sorted out, Mortis asked her to give him prison time instead of remanding him to prison. She, however, explained to him that she has already en-tered pleas of not guilty for burglary and damage to property.

She remanded him into custody un-til July 2.

The incident occurred around 1:47 a.m. on May 7.

The complainant reported to the police that she was asleep in her bed when she was awakened by a strong breeze coming from her bedroom win-dow. She said when she looked she saw a hand through the window and the hand touched her in a private area of her body.

She told police that when she looked further she saw that the culprit was Mortis. She said she hollered at Mortis and he ran. The charge of dam-age to property was for the window’s screen wire valued at $25.

complainant who said she has known him for 5 years. The prosecutor also objected to bail on the grounds that if granted the accused might interfere with the complainant.

Mortis did not give the court a good reason why he should be grant-ed bail. He said he is a friend of the complainant and at the time of the in-cident he was working in the yard.

When Senior Magistrate Fraser told him she will deny him bail until


A group of vandals set their sights on eight classrooms com-prising the Standard 4 and 5 bloc of the Sacred Heart Primary School in the heart of the Cayo District. But instead of the usual brand of mayhem they tend to inflict – mostly stealing, ransacking the place and destroying various ma-terial parents and teachers spend their hard-earned dollars on – they went a step lower and left their ex-crement smeared all over the desks and chairs, as well as on the floors of the classrooms.

So, is it a bad old grudge, gen-eral mischief, or something even worse? That isn’t known at present, but according to the school’s Princi-pal, Bernadine Martinez, these same

vandals have been at it for over three months. Despite being able to recover each time, this particular instance forced the students, numbering around 200, to be sent home, and the teachers to clean up and bring in the Health Department to make sure no diseases would affect the school. What makes things even more disturbing is that the principal believes that, thanks to a standing shift change between two security guards who are supposed to protect the school, but in-stead, “[The vandals] study the move-ments of the security and I believe they come here in the evening, late evenings”.

But it won’t be just diseases that this school will have to worry about; in-stead, it will be a scarred psyche striking at the heart of this institution that may never seem to heal.

Police in Cayo continue to investi-gate who could be responsible for this barbaric assault.


This Week’sTOP MODEL

BELIZEtImES SUnDAy JUnE 3, 2012see full color at www.belizetimes.bz or Facebook/ Belize Times

Jessica• CareerPlan: Doctor• Sign:Leo• FavouriteFood:Ceviche• Likes:Sleeping, singing, cooking, texting• LivesinBelizeCity• Fav.Quote:“Life is what

happens to you while you are busy making other plans”

Make-Up

tipsBy Tania Tanesha (E-mail: [email protected], Cell: (501) 604-0736)

“Makeup Haul” is a term used to de-scribe buying a load of makeup. You makeup lovers should be familiar with this because if you didn’t know, makeup expires after a while. Some of my clients buy super expensive makeup that lasts for years; that favorite MAC lipstick or that juicy Sephora lipgloss; or that awesome eyeliner you’ve been saving. I hate to break it to you, but prolonging to replace your makeup can actually be harmful to you and your skin.

Harmful makeupEvery bit of makeup you own can, eventu-

ally, become a breeding ground for tons of bac-teria and germs. Bacteria can be transmitted from your skin and onto your makeup every time you use it. Eye makeup, especially, can be very harmful if not replaced often. Now, be-cause the dead skin cells end up in our make-up, re-using and saving these products cause more bacteria to grow, thus transferring the bacteria back onto your skin, eyes, and lips, causing breakouts and the spread of infec-tions, viruses and other serious ailments. This is why I also, and always, advise my friends and clients to NEVER SHARE MAKEUP! No matter how much you love your bestie, it’s not hygienic to share makeup.

Rules of replacementIf your makeup doesn’t have an expiration

date, then refer to the guide below:• Mascara: 3 to 6 months if used

daily. Special occasions only: about 12 months. Mascara easily gets con-taminated with bacteria.

• Foundation: 1 year. If liquid foun-dation starts to change color or if it starts to smell funny, trash it!

• Powder: 18 months - 2 years. This might finish before its time anyway.

• Eyeshadow: Pressed powered shadow can last 2-3 years; cream shadows only last about 1 year

• Eyeliner and lipliner: Up to two years. Make sure to keep sharpen-ing these products to discourage the growth of bacteria.

• Lipstick: 2 years max. If it has a smell; starts to discolor, or dry up, it’s time for a new one.

• Lipgloss: 18 months to 2 years.Be careful what you buyBe alert when shopping for makeup.

Some stores sell expired makeup at largely discounted prices. If the product doesn’t have an expiration date, examine the product be-fore buying. If you notice a liquid foundation that seems separated and discolored, do not buy. Dry lipsticks are past their time. Just fol-low the tips above.

I know it’s tough to throw your makeup out but do your skin that favor, it’ll love you back. Just like food, makeup expires and it’s important to follow my guide so you can al-ways be good to your skin and can totally put your best face forward.

CATWALK FASHIONSWhat’s hip...What’s hot...What’s now!

Phone: 203-2936 / 620-7481#148 Cor. Queen & North Front Streets

Belize City, Belize


Moen Stars vs. Lady

Jaguars in women

volleyball finals

Continued on page 11

Buttonwood Bay girls & boys enter

semifinals undefeated

National women’s football champs

Primary school softball competition

Women’s Volleyball Division 1

championships

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champsDangriga, Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Sugar City Girlz were crowned the 2012 national women’s football champions on Saturday after they won on goal aggre-gate against the Dangriga Pumas at the Carl Ramos Stadium.

The Pumas tried desperately to win Game 2, and while they did win with a score of 4-2, it wasn’t enough to overcome the 4-1 loss they had suffered in Game 1. This gave the Sugar City Girls the victory.

Nathalie Macias looked to put Sugar City

on the scoreboard early when she cen-tered the ball into the goal area and goalie Sherean Vasquez mishandled the ball, but she recovered before any damage was done. The visitors’ de-fense kept out Nykemah Kuylen’s first attempt at goal, but they could not contain her second try as she gave the Pumas a 1-zip lead in the 20th minute.

Seasoned striker Dorita Ramos made it look easy when she outran the Suga City defense to score the Pumas 2nd goal in the 30th minute of play. Dorita was having a blast as she broke free again in the right flank and her right foot shot escaped McCulloch and found the far corner of the net to make it a 3-zip ball game.

The Suga City Girls counterat-tacked with Nathalie Macias centering the ball to Noriely Terry, who just could not connect for the finish. The pressure of the visitors’ offensive paid off when they won a corner kick and Tamarah Baptist’s pass to center found Sheyla Pena whose right away kick sent the ball into the net for Pumas to lead 3-1 at the half time break.

The Pumas were ever conscious that they needed to win by 4 goals or more, and Ashanti Velasquez looked to reduce their goal aggregate deficit but missed. Nykemah Kuylen also looked to increase their score but Jessica Mc-Culloch intervened. Then Kuylen outran the defense and beat McCulloch to make it a 4-1 to tie the goal aggregate at 5 goals apiece.

Kuylen’s next try ended up hitting the crossbar while Sugar city’s star striker Gisel Baeza also unleashed a high riser. McCulloch stopped the Pu-mas’ next try, until finally Gisel Baeza got away for a one on one with Sher-ean Vasquez and won with a bullet of a shot into the net for the Pumas’ 4-2 final score.

Trophies will be presented at a later date after the third place series is concluded. In Game 1 of the 3rd place match, the Gentle Touch girls from Es-peranza blasted the Millennium Girls of Belize City 8-0. The series continues in Esperanza Village on Saturday, June 2.

Gisel Baeza scored Sugar City’s 2nd goal

Dangriga’s Pumas won Game 2, 4-2

Belize City, May 25, 2012The undefeated Buttonwood Bay Nazarene

School girls and boys won all their games in the Belize City softball regular competition to enter the semifinals undefeated.

The Buttonwood Bay girls secured their berth in the playoffs by a 5-4 win over the Muslim Com-munity School girls on Thursday. Muslim School’s Jadda Sacasa and Raeesa Ahmad came home in the top of the 1st inning but Buttonwood’s Almira Augustine, Kayla Flowers and Shenelle Magan-di came home in the bottom of the 1st to lead 3-2. D’Andra Mcfadzean’s pitching allowed Nicoly Shield and Nickesha Ramirez to score 2 runs for the Muslim girls in the top of the 2nd inning, but the Buttonwood girls led 5-4 after Almira and Kay-la came home in the bottom of the 2nd and Kiana Magandi added another run in the bottom of the 3rd.

The Buttonwood boys secured their berth in the playoffs by their 3rd win: 14-1 over the St Mary’s School boys last Thursday. Jorge Martinez scored St Mary’s only run in the 4th inning, but Buttonwood’s Brian Molina and Orlando Enriquez scored 3 runs each, Corry Anderson and Effran Augustine scored 2 each, while pitcher Brian Pa-von, Kenard White, David Ortiz, Erwin Lopez and Jawin Pnady each came home once.

Tariq Lamb scores

Adler Romero races to a safe base

Krystal Bevans serves

Other matches:Wesley Upper girls vs.

Holy Redeemer RC School – 11-4 St Martin De Porres boys vs. Calvary Temple School – 17-2St Martin’s boys vs. St Luke’s

Methodist – 14-4 St Luke’s boys vs. Calvary T

emple – 13-4Holy Redeemer boys vs.

Wesley Upper – 4-3Unity Presbyterian girls vs.

Salvation Army – 1-8

Belize City, May 25, 2012The Moen Stars will challenge the

defending national women’s champi-ons, Lady Jaguars, in the Belize Dis-trict Volleyball Association’s Division 1 championship finals.

The Moen Stars advanced by win-ning their playoffs series of the tourna-ment at the Belize Elementary School auditorium over the weekend.

The 16-time women’s champs, the Moen Stars, dominated the SQ Stars 3-0 in Game 1 on Thursday and Game 2 on Saturday. Moen Stars’ of-fensive hammered kills on plays set by Kayla Dawson and Emma Hoare, who also blocked and received to win the first set 25-8. The SQ Stars won many rallies, before the Moen Stars won



CYdp, telemedia & police win

interoffice games

Home Protector Rebels claw at

Jaguars in volleyball finals

Tuff E’Nuff wins back to

back Interoffice games

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Men’s Volleyball Division 1 championships

Interoffice basketball

25-18 in the 2nd set. Nayala Tun reinforced the SQ Star’s defense in the 3rd set, but the Moen women won 25-18.

Game 2 on Saturday was all Moen Stars, as they dominated the first set: 25-11. Karina Ber-nard and Xiomara Quan reinforced the SQ Stars in the second set, which they almost won, but Melissa Ramirez and Vivianni Avila took the court to help the Moen Stars win 25-21. Kayla Dawson replaced Kelsey Balderamos for the start of the third set, but Kelsey and Melissa soon entered the fray to relieve Emma and Precelia Hoare, and they dominated the 3rd set 25-6.

Moen Stars vs. Lady Jaguars in

women volleyball finals

Women’s Volleyball Division 1 championships

Belize City, May 25, 2012The Rebels men will challenge

the Jaguars men in the Belize Dis-trict Volleyball Association’s Divi-sion 1 championship finals.

The Rebels eliminated the defending national champions, the Scorpions, in four sets in both matches to advance to the finals.

Orel Leslie, Tariq Campbell, Elton Moore and Jason Cabral led the Rebels’ offensive hammering kills at the net on plays set by Kleon Coleman and Kahlid Enca-lada. Coleman got in his share of hits while Encalada sometimes tricked the ball over the net for the Rebels to take the first two sets 25-23 and 25-22.

Germaine Audinett, Arvid Ar-nold and Ean and Jamal Galvez

led the Scorpions’ counter-attacks hammering home points on plays set by Oscar Arnold and Anwar Zetina to win the third set 25-20, but Elton Anderson and Victor Hernandez had reinforced the Rebels as they won the fourth set 25-19.

The Scorpions tried for a comeback in Game 2 on Saturday and indeed with the help of Anthony Wagner hitting at the net, they won the first set 25-22. But the Rebels would have none of it, they had to go to extra points to win the second set 26-24 and they dominated the next two sets 25-14 and 25-23 to win their berth in the finals.

Rebels’ Orel Leslie spikes

Krystal Bevans & Leandra Betson go up for a block Lupito Acosta on the drive

Tuff E’nuff’s Jamal Kelly scored 15 points

Belize City, May 25, 2011The Tuff E’Nuff Tours bas-

ketballers posted back to back wins over last year’s semifinalists, Alamil-la’s Furniture, and defending sub-champi-ons, Conscious Youth Development Pro-gram, in the 2012 Belize City interoffice basketball competition at Bird’s Isle on Friday and Sunday.

In Game 1 on Friday night, Tuff e’Nuff outlasted Alamilla’s Furniture 53-51 in the opening game. Alamilla’s led 10-7 in the 1st quarter and 25-12 at the end of the 2nd quarter. They maintained their lead past the 3rd quarter, 38-32, Tuff e’Nuff’s Keith “Superman” Acosta, Tyrone “Jok-er” Edwards, Jamal Kelly and Stephen

“Muerte” Williams turned the game around to get the 53-51 game win.

In Game 6 on Sunday afternoon, Tuff e’Nuff went into overtime to upset CYDP 75-68. CYDP’s Bernard Felix scored and Marcel Orosco scored 40 points together, but it wasn’t enough to give CYDP a win, even after the led at the half.

Tuff e’Nuff took over the lead 51-50 in the third quarter and forced the game into overtime, where they slowed down CYDP to gain the 75-68 victory.

Belize City, May 26, 2011CYDP, Police, Youth for the Future, Police and

Belize Temedia enjoy wins in the 2012 Belize City interoffice basketball competition at Bird’s Isle on Friday and Sunday.

In Game 3 on Saturday, the defending sub-champs CYDP won 69-52 over the Police team. The Police led 14-12 in the 1st quarter and 26-25 lead at the half.

CYDP’s Bernard Felix and Matthew Young added 9 points each, and Marcel Orosco and Ernest Broaster added 6 points each to extend C.Y.D.P’s lead to 48-39 at the end of the 3rd quar-ter. Earl Johnson scored 8 points for the Police, and Orlando Bowen added 4 points, but Jermaine Tillett’s 5pts and 6 rebounds put CYDP over top 69-52 at the final buzzer.

In Game 4, Youth for the Future locked up Kolbe Foundation 64-50. YFF led 16-12 in the 1st quarter as Fenton Noralez led with 12 points and Kenroy Usher added 10 points. Juvencio Serano was knocking down treys as he led Kolbe with 16 points, but Jamir Enriquez’s 8 points kept the YFF ahead 41-31 in the 3rd quarter. Lester Cadle add-ed 14 points for Kolbe and Richard O’brien had 8 points in their loss.

In Game 2 on Friday night Maria Chang won 72-66 over Telemedia Digicell. Ronald Rivers hit 4 long treys as he led Maria Chang’s total scoring with 24 points, 4 rebounds but the game was a 14-14 tie in the 1st quarter. In the second quarter, Maria Chang pushed for the lead and got it at the whistle 39-32 at the half. Maria Chang remained on top in the 3rd quarter at 56-47, and kept their dominance all through the 4th quarter which end-ed 72-66.

Other games:Telemedia vs. Kolbe Foundation - 61-32Top scorer: Ashley Hemsley, 11 pointsPolice vs. Maria Chang - 53-49Top scorer: Chester Noralez, 14 points; Win-

ston “Air Jun” Pratt, 17 points


New Mayor says residents MUST benefit from local projects

PUP Town Council brings development to Dangriga

are more hopeful than ever because on March 7th they elected a hard working Council, and more importantly a strong Mayor who will work for them and de-fend them at all costs.

The residents were assured of this

Continued from page 1 just last week, Thursday, May 24th, when the newly elected PUP Dangriga Town Council in collaboration with the Social Investment Fund (SIF) broke ground for the construction of a new Municipal Market in Dangriga Town.

Mayor Major Gilbert Swazo, who was the keynote speaker, made it ab-solutely clear that he expected the res-idents of Dangriga to benefit fully from this important project particularly when it came to employment.

He stated that the Dangriga Town Council would be holding SIF and Con-tractor Kenard Smart to their commit-ment that at minimum, 60% of the workforce for the project would be resi-dents of Dangriga.

This issue has been a concern for Mayor Swazo and the PUP Council which inherited the agreement be-tween SIF and Smart. Residents are concerned that because Smart’s com-pany is based in Corozal, workers from northern Belize will benefit. Such was the case with a previous contract be-

tween Smart and the Government, and even though residents protested, the then UDP Council refused to defend them.

The Market project is estimated to cost some $1. 2M and will take some 18 months to complete.

Present for this important occasion were PUP leader Hon. Francis Fonseca, Dangriga Area Representative Hon.

Ivan Ramos, Stann Creek West Rep-resentative Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, Toledo East Representative, Hon. Mike Espat, and Toledo West Representative Hon. Oscar Requeña.

PUP supporters came out in full force to support their Mayor and town council, and to greet the Party Leader and the other Area Representatives present.

Hon. Fonseca & Mayor Swazo

Mayor Swazo addresses residents of Dangriga

Mayor Swazo joined by Minister Santiago Castillo & SIF representative to break ground for new market


ow town Council & vendors collaborate

to upgrade Central park

PUP Leader meets with Western Caucus in Belmopan

THE WORLD IS READING THE BELIZE TIMES

www.belizetimes.bz

City of Belmopan, May 24 2012On Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

People’s United Party Leader Hon. Fran-cis Fonseca at the invitation of Western Caucus Chairman Hon. Joseph Mahmud and DPL Hon. Julius Espat travelled to Belmopan to meet with the PUP West-ern Caucus to discuss current events, challenges, and the way forward.

Hon. Francis was also joined by Dep-uty Party Leader from the South, Hon. Mike Espat, as well as our two elected Belmopan City Councillors Valderiano Nal and Carlos Alas.

The PL thanked the members of the Caucus for their support and commend-ed them for the important progress they made in the last elections.

“Our responsibility and challenge is to now build on this progress. We

must move forward with a strong sense of unity and a clear sense of purpose and direction,” said the Par-ty leader.

DPL Hon. Julius Espat and Chairman Mahmud ex-pressed their full commit-ment to the work ahead and DPL Hon. Mike Espat shared his experience with the group and expressed his support for the work of the Caucus.

Following this there was an open, frank, and engaging discussion which ended with all expressing their commitment to the Caucus and the challenging work ahead.

Orange Walk Town, May 28, 2012For several years the Central Park

on Queen Victoria Avenue in Orange Walk Town has deteriorated in neglect even though it serves as the venue for many important occasions, including the official Independence Day ceremo-ny. The only attention the park received under the previous United Democratic Party town council was being splat-tered with red and white paint, as if it were a rundown political fort. The new-ly-elected People’s United Party Town Council under Mayor Kevin Bernard has different plans and in collaboration with the vendors in the area, the park will see the type of restoration which town residents deserve.

The Council and vendors have discussed how to restore the historic park. The thirteen vendors who occupy spaces adjacent to the park where they carry out trade daily have agreed to pay a monthly sum that will go toward the park’s rehabilitation, until a proper area is found for them to carry out their busi-ness.

The Council first proposed that sum to be $50, but reconsidered and proposed a lesser amount, a dollar a day or $30 monthly. Most vendors have in mind the Council’s goal and they are supportive of the plans. Some have ex-pressed concern, but Mayor Bernard reminded them that the Council seeks

cooperation and not to displace them. “I am aware that the vendors

may not have been paying before but we need to put order in our town and we cannot allow people to just come into our town to make business and then not contribute anything for the maintenance of the area because we need to maintain the area and it costs us money . So we have to make sure that we col-lect some type of stipend from these individuals utilizing prime space in our town and so we decide that all vehicle vendors that fall under the group will have to make that pay-ment. There is another space that will allocated to three or four other vendors that are already out there. In fact they have agreed without any hesitation to come in and make pay-ments and some has already made that payment they have no problem with that.

“There are over 17 thousand residents in Orange Walk that would really want to see us bring back Cen-tral Park for their kids for their family to have a good time, to have a peace-ful time. So I am sure that a few will be upset but many Orange Walkeños will be much more happier once we put order in this town and return the Central park to the place it once was a family area,” commented Mayor Ber-nard.

PUP Leader Hon. Fonseca and PUP Western Caucus held a fruitful meeting


Disband the Gangs Now

Visit Us Online at:

www.belizetimes.bz

Godwin Hulse can’t serve two masters

Belize City, May 28, 2012Prime Minister Dean Barrow did Be-

lizeans a huge favour when he labelled Godwin Hulse “a long time UDP” to ra-tionalise his appointment as UDP Sena-tor with Ministerial privilege. For many years Hulse pretended to be a politically impartial Senator representing the busi-ness community and appeared to be a true advocate of government reform. His political appointment exposed him however, and underneath his cloak was a devious man who simply aided and abetted the UDP Government through his position of Business Senator, while his calls for reform were merely a front to preserve relevance among those who would turn to him.

Hulse had been walking a thin line all along but pretended not to. This certainly answers how by refusing to vote against the 9th Amendment back in October of last year, Hulse, as a Senator appointed by the Chamber of Commerce, helped the Barrow Admin-istration in passing it, even though the Chamber had strenuously opposed the proposed change to the constitution.

Masquerading as a reformist, Hulse was all along a true UDP loyalist and as PM Barrow later put it, he is “redder than red”. But Hulse appears to have an insidious compulsion for serving two masters, and this time he apparently wants to take Belizeans workers for a ride.

The BELIZE TIMES understands that Hulse, who is the Barrow Admin-istration’s Minister of Labour, is still an appointed Director on the Belize Sugar Industries Board. If true, this poses a serious conflict of interest, which sugar workers ought to investigate. Why is this dangerous? As the Minister of La-bour, Hulse administers the law as it re-lates to workers. But how can we trust that he would administer the laws fairly and impartially in a case involving a cane farmer or sugar worker, when he is also a director for the sugar company?

We know that Hulse enjoys the sweets that come as a BSI Director, but he can’t hide behind a cloak no more. He can’t serve two masters.

By Stanley LemusThe dictionary defines the mean-

ing of the word gang as: “A group of persons working to unlawful or antiso-cial ends”. Examples of gangs: a gang of drug dealers, he is a member of the gang; or he was shot and killed by a member of a ritual gang.

Coming straight from our Laws which now forms part of our Consti-tution of Belize – Part 1, Section 1 – states Suppression of Criminal Gangs.

(a) 1. In this Part, unless the con-text otherwise requires, “criminal gang” means an organization or as-sociation or combination of persons which is formed for, or which acquires, the purpose of committing or facilitat-ing the commission of any of the of-fenses set out in section 5(2) of this Act; and any such organization or asso-ciation or combination of persons shall be treated as a gang whether or not it has other objects or purposes.

2.-(1) Subject to subsection (3) be-low, a person is guilty of an offense is he knowingly:-

(a) belongs or professes to belong to a criminal gang;

(b) solicits or invites support for a criminal gang; or

(c) arranges or assists in the ar-rangement of, or addresses, any meet-ing of three or more persons (wheth-er or not it is a meeting to which the public are admitted) knowing that the meeting is: Membership, etc.,of crimi-nal gangs.

Section 7 – goes on to state (i) to support a criminal gang; or, (ii) to fur-ther the activities of a criminal gang.

Looking at our Laws, especially the above one, it is crystal clear that the buck must stop at the Prime Min-ister and his gang of Ministers. Recent events suggest that our Prime Minis-ter may be guilty of breaking the above Laws.

1. Our Prime Minister has met with not three persons, but many known gang leaders, some now de-ceased. Coming out of his constituen-

cy, it is also alleged, that the late gang member Pinky was responsible for distribution of goodies, used to coerce voters to vote in his favour.

2. By virtue of paying salaries to this group or criminals, as the leader of this country, he has now helped to legitimize the gangs. There is also the other aspect of having a Minister with a portfolio with responsibility for gangs.

Mr. Prime Minister, Minister of Gangs and all other members of your gang, you are only two and half months into your second term of of-fice, but sirs it’s time for you to go. And by the way Madam DPP, what have you to say regarding what seems like a se-rious infraction of our Laws. Why is our Bar Association so silent on this issue, the Churches, and other NGOs. Un-less these groups known as gangs are disbanded, we the law-abiding citizens will continue to live in fear.

Some years ago, church leaders in Latin America were locked up and jailed for preaching, advocating, protesting and fighting systems and governments against all forms of fear and injustices. Their message was called by those who wanted to see the status quo con-tinue “Liberation Theologians”. Church leaders in Belize, you all need to be-come “Liberation Theologians”. Come out for the truth, speak out without fear or favour. Your existence or surviv-al, as well as ours, is at stake. We call on the Bar Association, all other civic patriotic and nationalistic Belizean, to rise up, calling for the impeachment of our Prime Minister. Mr. Barrow, do the right thing, disband the gangs, stop us-ing our tax paying dollars to ensure the survival of these gangs.



www.belizetimes.bz

in my perspective…Law and Order: a

Critical Need

By Rayford YoungI was visiting Belize in late April

2012 and I have never witnessed the City as tense as it was, and for good reason. Two of the most notorious gang leaders were murdered.

I was on my veranda one after-noon and all of a sudden I saw peo-ple starting to gather at the corner of Raccoon and Dolphin streets where I lived, so I asked one of the onlook-ers what was happening. He told me that the funeral parade for Pinky will be passing by soon. So I went inside the house and got my camera. What a momentous time to be in Belize City. Sure enough as I looked down the street there was the limousine coming with the body of Pinky. So I had my camera all set to go and sure enough I got some very good pic-tures of the funeral parade. I noticed something very strange in one of the pictures. The driver of the limousine that Pinky’s body was in was drinking a beer. Hmmmm, I thought - drink-ing and driving was against the law. Wait a minute, everyone in the funer-al parade was also drinking as they marched along. Then there were the cops and the security guards escort-ing the parade. How could they allow this to be? Maybe I lived in the USA too long and don’t understand Belize type of freedom – where one can drive and march in a funeral proces-sion while drinking alcohol and smok-ing a funny-looking cigarette. It was truly remarkable to see this. I asked someone about this and he said they were just celebrating and mourning his death - it’s the way funerals are done in Belize.

In my younger years I used to drink and I know you would have to use the rest room a lot. Where will these people relieve themselves? Well, I saw the answer to my ques-tion when a young man just pulled out of the parade and relieved himself on the side of the street, in a drain. I always wondered what those drains were for, now I know. It just seems that we have no law and order in the

City. We are free to do “whatever” regardless of the consequences.

Then there are the bicycles and motor bikes all over the city. You have to be so careful when driving not to hit someone on these cycles. They are everywhere and suddenly appear on either side of your vehicle. I don’t know if I can totally blame the bike riders as there are no signs or lanes for cycling in the City. Hey, I love free-dom but in a developing Democracy you do need some law and order or you’ll just have chaos and disorder.

Most mornings I go across the street to purchase Belize morning breakfast - chicken tacos. Many of the school children stop to buy their tacos and a drink. Most mornings I would have to stand in line and wait my turn to place my order which is usually 5 tacos no hot pepper please. Mostly it’s the adults that stand in line. The younger kids usually ride up to the food preparer and shout out their order even if the preparer is busy or serving someone. They don’t even see us it seems. Kids do this time and time again. Whatever hap-pened to getting in line and waiting your turn? No respect or concern for the other people, including the elder-ly that have been standing there for a long time.

Maybe I’m from the old school that teaches you to wait your turn, you don’t drink in public, you respect others - especially the elderly. But it seems to me that the younger gen-eration has none of these basic val-ues or principles. It’s all about me and my needs, what I want now, don’t tell what I can or cannot do. Perhaps this is the result of broken families or lack of a father figure. Or they see people like Pinky and Arthur Young getting all the press cover-age and want to be “famous” like them. Or maybe they see our poli-ticians go into office poor and four years later they have a mansion and an SUV. What should our kids do in a Country that lacks good paying jobs, where you have to depend on politi-cians for food and housing? What a terrible future lies ahead for our kids when we glorify gang members and thugs, where murder is as common as my daily taco breakfast. We have got to do better. We need positive, decent role models - not gang thugs to impress the young mind. We must show our young people that there’s a better way. We need law and order.

Rayford Young is a Belizean-American, who currently lives in Michigan, U.S.A. Send comments to [email protected]


Between the Devil and the

Deep Blue SeaBy Omar Silva

Cancer is a terrible disease that has no preference for its victims, and Belizeans know it too well that we are vulnerable to this illness, especially because just about every one of us has a relative or a friend who is af-flicted with or has lost the battle to cancer.

There are many ordinary Beliz-eans with no prominent stature or public recognition who are suffering from this awful sickness and are dy-ing silently each day. Our country’s small budget does not provide for an adequate facility with medical special-ists and state of the art equipment to provide this service to our patients at a free or affordable cost. These ordi-nary Belizeans cannot afford to seek medical attention abroad.

Since the third quarter of 2011, the nation learned about Prime Min-ister Dean Barrow’s wife, Mrs. Kim Simplis Barrow’s breast cancer diag-nosis and her treatment and condition has been a recurrent on the news al-most weekly.

In my opinion, every Belizean sin-cerely identifies with this frustrating situation and the distressing period for the Prime Minister but the people of Belize are also hinged and are af-fected indirectly to the consequences of this case in particular. We could understand that all loving husbands or wives would love to be by their spouse’s side during difficult periods like these because it is morally right, and it is a monumental boost to the treatment process, and we could cer-tainly understand Prime Minister’s show of love to his wife with his fre-quent and continuous travelling to Mi-ami to be by her side during this time.

No doubt, Prime Minister Dean Barrow has demonstrated that as a man, his love for his wife is monu-mental and above all, but is his con-tinuous absence from the helm of his government causing an adverse effect or continued stagnation in the affairs of the people?

Prime Minister Dean Barrow has travelled back and forth from Belize to Miami for at least a dozen times since his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and each time it has been for a week. Apart from the exorbitant cost of travelling and accommodation, not to mention medical bills purportedly to the public purse, the Prime Min-ister has been absent from the helm of government for a time frame of al-most three months when combined.

I am almost certain that the Prime Minister Barrow is conscientious enough to conclude how his absence is causing some gravity of neglect and affecting his ability to govern to the best of his ability because no doubt there has been negative effects and snags in the day to day running of government, especially since our af-fairs can no longer be put on hold nor can they be solved by remote control or good intentions.

We all know that Prime Minister Dean Barrow is the heart, soul and the brain of his government and no other elected Minister at this time could supplement Barrow’s role, es-pecially at a time like this when the country is already dragging its feet in crisis mode economically. If we were to examine each time Prime Minis-ter is absent we note that he often chooses one of two ministers to act. One would ‘eck’ himself for a day or two, then that one would hand over that illusionary power to another for the remaining period. But what is strikingly noteworthy is that nothing of substance gets done for that entire week, nada.

We all know how some insidious individuals in the public service sys-tem work… when the cat is out the mice come out to play.

It is evidently clear that Prime Minister Dean Barrow cannot ‘take leave’ or resign his post temporar-ily from the reins of government to dedicate more quality time by his wife’s side until her treatment is com-pleted. But the problem is that in his absence, there is no substitute in his Cabinet. Having recognized the ter-rible frustrating predicament of Prime Minister Dean Barrow, we must con-tinue to pray for the speedy recovery of his wife because the country is falling further into neglect. The situa-tion is desperate and urgently needs a Prime Minister at the helm.

It is not the intention of this writ-er to be cynic but while the actions and attitude of Prime Minister Dean Barrow towards his wife in these dif-ficult times seem upright decent and honest, it is also right to say that the nation’s economy, and its people are ailing and is urgently in need strategic planning and attention to bring it back on stream to an economic recovery.

It is strikingly evident that that overall, neglect has placed our econ-omy between the devil and the deep blue sea and it is of no comfort to know that the road to hell is paved with ‘good intentions’.


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After 2 burglaries & 2 robberies, Humana People

to People closes charity store

A Wonderful WomanBy Mrs. Gertrude Velasquez

We celebrated Mothers in May. May is short for Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus. That is why we cele-brate the month for Mothers.

I have a special message for a most wonderful woman, Mrs. Jane Usher. She is considered as the Matri-arch of Holy Redeemer Credit Union. Miss Jane is a woman of substance. I think everyone should know that Mrs. Jane Usher is dealing or managing that credit union for fifty seven years. Can you do that? She is a respectful wom-an, understanding, patient, kind and always interested in your problems. When you sit and talk with her she never shoos you away.

When I was younger I went there for a small loan. She looked at me and asked “how is Boom”, and then we would talk for a short time, while I waited to hear if I will get this loan. She looked at me and said take this to

the teller. I got the loan.Mrs. Jane you have really done a

great job. Keep on going until the Lord says “come”. I pray that whenever that time comes, if I am still here, I can find another Miss Jane. I love you and re-spect you all the times you dealt with me since 1982.


The indignity of being robbed on the streets especially as a regular citizen is awful enough, while businesses stand little chance of staving off burglaries. But add both together, with a well-known not-for-profit business into the mix, and the recipe will be disastrous, even cata-strophic.

Humana People-to-People Store, lo-cated on King Street, has unfortunately become a lightening-rod target thanks to the small amount of wholesale and retail sales in clothes that go directly to children’s charities throughout the coun-try via its parent organization, Humana. After the Sovereign’s Day weekend, they were hit not once, but twice in a matter of days, making it the 4th time criminals attack the store.

On Tuesday, May 22nd, shopkeeper Carminia De La Fuente and her assis-tants opened up the store as per usual, only to find the store’s back door busted down, and 19 wholesale bales as well as over 700 individual retail pieces of clothing gone. The items stolen valued in total at BZC$13,490. The incident in question may have occurred sometime between May 19th, when they locked

up, and May 22nd, when they opened up the store.

But the store’s troubles were not over yet, as on Friday, May 25th, as the store was about to close for the af-ternoon, De La Fuente and another fe-male attendant were robbed. The two armed, unmasked men, who posed as customers, stole their respective cellu-lar phones, BZC$2,000 worth of jewelry and BZC$400 in cash, to a total value of BZC$3,200 before making good their es-cape.

Previous to these incidents, the store was robbed a few months ago, and bro-ken into a few weeks ago.

The BELIZE TIMES visited the store and spoke to a shaken De La Fuente today. Beneath what could best be described as a stoic expression, lurked a clear sense of frustration, especially since she gave up working out of the store in Belmopan to transfer and manage the store here in Belize City. But these incidents have be-come the last broken straw, and the store will be permanently closed. De La Fuente says she will return to manage the Bel-mopan outlet, while her associates will either join her or seek work elsewhere.

Police investigations into who carried out the attacks continue at this time.

Mrs. Jane Usher

The store on King Street has been targeted by criminals four times


Hola!Did you know June 8, is celebrated as World Oceans’

Day?In Belize, our coastline is blessed by the Caribbean Sea

along with our beautiful Barrier Reef and our super cleaners the mangroves.

On World Oceans’ Day we honour the world’s oceans and celebrate the sea creatures living in the ocean.

We also on this day try to do activities to help clean up our beaches and coastline.

Many of us won’t be able to do this but how about re-membering to dump your garbage in a trash can.

Another great way to help is by starting a recycling proj-ect to get Styrofoam containers and plastic bottles off our streets and away from drains and canals. This will help to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in our beautiful oceans!

What do you think you could do?

Sea Creatures

Find and circle all of the sea creatures that are hidden in the puzzle.The words may be hidden in any direction.

CRABDOLPHINJELLYFISHLAMPREYLOBSTERMOLLUSKSOCTOPUS

OTTERPENGUINSEA TURTLESEALSHARKSHRIMP

SPONGESQUIDSTARFISHSTINGRAYWALRUSWHALE

Horsing Around!

Can you find your way through this sea horse maze in 60 seconds? Give it a try!

Connect The Dots!

Connect the dots to find out who popped up to play!


What Are You Afraid Of?

The human being is a unique creature; a special specie! Yet there is one thing common to all of us and it is ‘fear’! It doesn’t matter how big or small, how strong or weak, how bold or shy you are, there is something you are afraid of.

I remember as a young boy, around the age of ten mov-ing with my family into a previously rented home. One of our neighbors had an abandoned house next door and someone made the mistake to tell me that it was haunted. To make matters worse I could see the house clearly from my eight foot high (top bunk) bed. I tell you I was terrified night after night. After many nights of trying to protect my-self from ghosts, I ended up with a habit of covering under my bed sheet from head to toe, even if it was extremely hot. This was my way of hiding so that whatsoever was there didn’t see me!

In the same token I have found that many people are afraid of many different things. Some are afraid of height, some afraid of water, we have those who are afraid of in-sects such as roaches, spiders, and bees, we have others afraid of lizards, snakes, dogs etc. Sometimes our fears may be based on past negative experiences or the testi-mony of someone! For crying out loud, I even met some-one afraid of chickens! Some of these things we are afraid of would cause us to freeze in our tracks simply standing there helpless!

Well in Belize today we have all developed a healthy fear of gun violence. I have heard people not wanting to go shopping or worse, not even willing to stand on their very own verandahs, because of this fear!

My hope today is to ask you to add one more fear to your current ‘active’ list of fears! My encouragement to you today is not to fear only the notorious gang leader or the “GSU”, but rather to be terrified of the one who loves you so much that He did not spare His Son, but sent Him to suf-fer and be humiliated so that you and I can have eternal life.

In (Matthew 10:28) He warns us of something very criti-cal! Allow me to paraphrase: ‘Do not be afraid of the roach, who only looks bad, smells bad, and is all gooey and crawly, neither be afraid of the snake, who is poisonous and su-per strong and capable of paralyzing you and then crushing your whole body into something digestible for himself. In fact do not even be afraid of the gunman who can take your precious life in a split second, RATHER, be afraid of Me. The others can only kill and destroy your body, they cannot touch your soul but I can destroy both your body and soul in hell!’

I am worried of the many things we fear more than God! We fear bankruptcy more than God, we fear presti-gious people more than God and somehow we don’t take into consideration that sooner or later, whether by natural means or by the barrel of a gun or some other weapon, or maybe even by traffic accident, regardless of the means, we all have to face the end ‘death’. We all have to die! I en-courage you to place on top of your fear list the fear of the Creator. Let’s make the necessary steps to ensure we give to Him that which He is requiring of us as human beings and that is nothing less than ‘our lives’!

Until Next weekGod bless


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think About itNO PROTECTIONThe citizens of Belize City are at

the mercy of criminals. Gunmen and robbers can strike anytime, anyplace.

Every week the murderers are shooting persons they don’t like. These murders take place in the day, at night, in front of many witnesses, and in one case inside a crowded barber shop, and in another case they shot a police-man inside a police station in the Be-lama area.

The murderers are not afraid of broad-daylight. They are not afraid that there are several witnesses. So brazen are these killers that they come shoot-ing without bothering to wear masks.

The residents of Belize City have very little protection. They try to stay off the streets and lock up in their houses.

Nobody sees any increased police presence. There are no extra patrols taking place. The police don’t even have the amounts of vehicles needed to maintain a proper police presence.

We are in deep doo-doo.Come this week the question is

who will not live to see next week.Things dread, especially under the

red.WITNESS IN DANGERWhen one or more murderers

three weeks ago rushed into a barber shop on West Canal side, the well-known Jason Canto was the target, apparently. He got hit in the chest.

Jason was in the company of a businessman. That businessman had his license pistol. He came out the bar-ber shop and fired at the fleeing killer. And caught him. According to the po-lice version.

Incredibly, the Police released the name of the businessman and the two main television stations have been call-ing his name and showing his picture.

The only evidence against the mur-derer of Jason Canto is the business-man who saw him and shot him.

How irresponsible can the Police be?

How do they expect citizens to co-operate with them when they so care-lessly put our lives in danger? Mortal danger. And put the lives of our fami-lies in danger as well.

And don’t the television news peo-ple know better by now than to expose witnesses to these cold blooded killers in our midst?

NO CABINET – NO PARLIAMENTCheck this out!Since the March 7th general elec-

tions there has not been a single busi-ness meeting of the House of Repre-sentative.

Not a single sensible discussion has come out of Cabinet since March.

There is no national budget indicat-ing how taxpayers’ monies are to be spent.

The financial year 2011 to 31 March 2012 ended and no reporting to the na-tion.

It appears like if there is no govern-ment and the country di run itself.

JEREMY MCNAB’S KILLER CAUGHT

Last Thursday, 24th May at the Wesley Church on Albert Street, the family paid their last respects to Jer-emy McNab, who was murdered the previous weekend at his hardware and grocery store on Currassow Street. The church was packed to capacity and

family and friends heard good remarks and remembrances for a man who had made his contribution to the country.

McNab was a well-loved business-man and community activist for the poor. He started selling one dollar hot dog to school children over the past two years in an effort to assist families fighting to survive.

On Wednesday, 30th May police announced that they captured the per-son who murdered McNab. He is an eighteen year old and the word is that McNab was murdered in a robbery gone wrong.

We hope the police have done and are doing a thorough investigation as we are getting tired of cases coming to court three years after the events only to hear that the accused walked free.

Our condolences to the wife, chil-dren and families of Jeremy.

ANTHONY MAYEN KILLEDPopular businessman, the well-

known Anthony Mayen lost his life early Sunday morning. He and his two brothers Darrell and Kirk had just left Tropicana Lounge when they were faced with death. As Anthony reached the vehicle the bullets came raining down. One to the right hand, one to the side of his back, two in the right side, one to the chest and three more to the belly. Strong as the rasta man was this was just too much. He died before even reaching the hospital.

The news was a shock to many in the City. Anthony a strapping brown-skinned with the longest dreadlocks in town was a friendly and pleasant per-son. He is the son of one of Belize’s famous footballers – Christobal Mayen and his wife Julie Mayen, both now re-siding in New York. Julie who had been visiting Belize City had just left for New York the previous week. She now returns to bury her third child. Many years ago she suffered the pain when a small plane on the Belize City Airstrip plunged in the waters close to shore at a then popular bathing spot and killed her child. Then not so long ago a second son died in a traffic accident. And now the relentless uncontrollable violence of Belize City has claimed the popular Anthony.

It is clearly an execution – a hit carried out by hired killers on behalf of someone with some foolish “beef” or envy or a business deal gone sour. None of which justifies murdering this man.

We hope the cops get their man. We hope that the DPP will start re-questing the death penalty in these murders for hire, pre-meditated kill-ings.

Our hearts go out to Julie, Stobal and the family for a wound that will never heal. Nothing is as final and irre-versible as death. And nothing is more painful when death comes dressed up as murder.

ANOTHER BATTLE OF ST. GEORGE’S CAYE

St. George’s Caye is famous for the place where the Baymen claimed to have repelled a military invasion by dozens of Spanish war ships back in 1798. Every 10th September misguid-ed Belizeans are encouraged by a co-lonial loving segment of our society to celebrate a bogus battle.

St. George’s Caye is now under an-other invasion. The enemy this time is real. There is no one to protect Belize.

Who is this new enemy that has come to harm us? The Lion Fish. Dozens of Lion Fish are seen eating through our defenses without any re-sistance from us.

For those who don’t know what’s going on, the Lion Fish is a deadly killer that will destroy the fishing habitat and ultimately destroy our fishing popula-tion.

Nothing is being done to hunt down and kill the Lion Fish that is pre-senting such a threat to our livelihood.

ANOTHER MINOR MOLESTEDA thirteen year old visited the

Queen Street Police Station in the company of her mother to make one of those all too familiar complaints – that she was sexually molested. And the all too familiar predator - a close family member.

What caused this revelation was the predator’s determined effort to mo-lest a younger sister, aged 9. He had sex with the thirteen year old on many occasions and it is the thirteen year old who tried to protect her younger sister.

The mother and her daughter after waiting more than an hour at the police station were told to return in the after-noon. They were told to return another day as the person who had already started the interview had to leave early.

The concern is that the minor, al-ready traumatized and ashamed to be publicly walking in and out of the police station yard and having to give details of her nightmare, must be treated with more sensitivity and not be returned over and over to the police. In fact at the end of that first day she was still required to return another day.

We are sure that no counseling is ever provided to these unfortunate children who are victimized by sexual predators who are invariably family members or close friends. And then three to four years after making their report, they get victimized by poor in-vestigation which leads to no one been punished for the crime.

WOODLICELast week it rained. It rained long

and hard. This week Tuesday again it rained hard. By hard we mean like the heavens had opened up and water was pouring down on Belize City.

In between these bouts of rain guess what was happening. The tiny little rain flies were flying around. They have two wings that are bigger than their bodies. When they get in to your house some circle your electric bulbs and they let go their wings before starting their search for wood.

Rain flies are woodlice. They shed their wings and they start hiding and boring their way into wood. Those who live in wood houses live the plague of woodlice. Unchecked woodlice can eat down a whole house. The only thing worse than woodlice are the crack heads and house thieves who are plagues in the City.

Two months ago a wooden house – upstairs and downstairs at the corner of South Street and East Canal in Be-lize City was stolen. This is what is go-ing on in Belize City in broad daylight. Archie Lee’s big three storey building on central American Boulevard suf-fered a similar fate. The only reason the whole building was not stolen bit by bit is because it is cement. It was com-pletely gutted by thieves. Windows, burglar bars, doors, light fixtures, inter-nal decorations – everything that can be removed was removed. Last month during the day the brazen-face thieves could be seen with mall hammering out and breaking out the side of the

main entrance to steal the iron curtain. Within two and a half days a ten feet wide, heavy metal curtain was gone.

HALLOW POINTPersons with firearm license for 9

mm caliber pistols can purchase both solid and hallow point bullets. The hal-low point bullets are extremely lethal. They rip through flesh and bodies and create huge holes in human beings and tear up internal organs.

Hallow point should not be sold in Belize. Regular bullets are deadly and dangerous enough.

Only GSU should have hallow point…LOL

SINGLE LADIES American television shows domi-

nate our lives. Our young people are fascinated and influenced by the glitzy and glamorous and even fabulous presentations. The young men are handsome, the women are always beautiful and sexy and their surround-ings are fabulous cars and impressive homes and mansions.

There is a level of idiocy to many of these shows. The Kardashians (a bunch of bubble head rich sisters). Basketball Wives (a group of aban-doned quarrelsome women). Mob Wives (neglected Mafia/Gangster wives). The Game (lots of cheating and lots of sex).

Latest on the scene is Single La-dies. Three African American men and one white woman who spend all their time going from man to man. There is no morality. There is no safe sex.

These shows/series are not things should be shown to a small society like Belize. Our young men and wom-en are attracted to these impressively produced shows. These shows are not reality shows. Even the so-called reality shows are shallow and stupid. If we are to save the young genera-tion (who says they want to be saved) we have to provide alternatives to the North American market.

Oh and by the way, based on these shows drinking alcohol by the women is an integral part of their life style.

GAGA GAGGEDLady Gaga, the American singer

quoted by Caleb Orosco, spokesper-son for UNIBAM as providing inspira-tion for his homosexual lifestyle, ran into trouble last week. Lady Gaga got gagged.

She was to perform in Indone-sia to an audience of fifty thousand for which all tickets were said to have been sold out. The performance couldn’t take place. Widespread oppo-sition led to its cancellation. Reason is that it would corrupt the impression-able minds of young people in that country.

Indonesia has the largest popula-tion of Muslims of any country in the world. Muslims are more than ninety percent of the two hundred and sev-enty million people. Indonesia is also a democracy.

Lady Gaga’s popular song is en-titled “Born This Way”.

THE WICKED WON’T LAST LONG

“Let his days be few and brief, and let others step up to replace him.” - Psalm 109, Verse 8


Average hurricane season in 2012, is NEMO ready?


Students viewing special Coca Cola art displays

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Guats attack Senior Police at Western Borderment say what corrective measures and strategies will being put in place to prevent another confrontation at that busy port of entry.

Everyone has been deafeningly silent, perhaps saving face over the embarrassing incident, which ex-posed just how very vulnerable Beliz-ean law enforcement authorities are if and when they come under aggres-sion by our neighbours.

The people at the Belize Border Management Agency have no way of defending life and property if they were to come under violent attack. The only officer who was forceful in keeping the peace, while diplomati-cally dealing with the issue, Sr. Supt. Ralph Moody, was also very much outnumbered had he come under at-tack. Equally vulnerable are the peo-ple at the office of the Organization of American States, which sits right between the two borders at the Ad-jacency Zone.

Last Friday, May 25th, sometime around 11am, Customs officials at the Border Management Agency office noticed that a red L-200 Mitsubishi pick-up truck that had been parked on the OIRSA compound on Belizean soil had no license plates. This rose suspi-cion among the local authorities who then notified the Officer Command-ing the Benque Viejo Police Station, Sr. Supt. Moody. But Sr. Supt Moody would face very tense moments when he had to single-handedly ward off an aggressive mob of about 100 Guatemalans, including armed Gua-temalan Police Constables and an armed civilian who also attempted to disarm Moody. A Guatemalan woman became angry when Sr. Supt Moody decided to impound the suspicious vehicle. The woman, who goes by the name “Ana”, claimed that she owned the vehicle, yet could not produce documents to prove her claim. In fact, the papers she pulled out only showed that the real owner was nowhere in the area and also that the VIN charac-ters had been altered, suggesting that the vehicle was stolen. A VIN on the chassis bore the characters: MMB-

JNKB408D096595, but this did not match the VIN on the documents that “Ana” produced. Those characters are: MMBNG45K58D096595. A Po-lice press release sent out yesterday stated that the VIN on the chassis ap-peared to be altered and that a sticker on the engine with a VIN appeared to be false. Coupled with that, its Mexi-can license plates were removed by its occupants before they abandoned it on May 22nd.

After Sr. Supt Moody got em-broiled in a contentious verbal ex-change with a Guatemalan gun-wielding civilian who called himself “Loquillo”, the vehicle was kept in cus-tody in Belize for the necessary inves-tigations to proceed, but not before Loquillo parked his van to block the police from towing away the pickup truck. During the chaos, the civilian cocked two guns and tried his best to intimidate the officer with it, and even tried to steal Sr. Supt. Moody’s own service weapon!! All this happening on Belizean territory!

Guatemalans, influenced by un-guided temper, exaggerated the inci-dent when they informed their own Guatemalan police in Melchor, who then responded in like fashion. A police press release issued on Mon-day evening stated that ... “a mobile came with six officers (constables) and inquired about the situation where they were informed. The of-ficer in charge of the PNC, Soto De Leon arrived and was invited along with the lady Ana to a Customs of-fice where they discussed the situa-tion concerning the vehicle. The other PNC officers who were armed with rifles went back by the OIRSA build-ing. Ana produced documents for the vehicle in the name of Victor Hugo Rosado Luna and another document authorizing Rolando Cruz Ramos to drive the vehicle. Belizean authorities explained to Ana that they needed to verify whether the vehicle was stolen or not and that Ramos and Luna need-ed to claim the vehicle and that she could not represent them as there is nothing to show that she is the owner. Soto De Leon concurred with

what the authorities explained to Ana and informed her that the authorities were doing the proper thing.”

After the almost one-hour long meeting with the parties concerned, it was revealed that Luna, who is Ana’s father-in-law, gave her the vehicle as a gift and that Ramos drove it through Belize from the Corozal border. If the pick-up’s rightful owner shows up to claim it, they will be given the key to it, provided that it was not stolen.

The incident last Friday, which happened at a time when the Belize/Guatemala land dispute still looms

over our sovereignty, could have been avoided from escalating to the ver-bal confrontation and aggression on Sr. Superintendent Moody had there been adequate security at the Border Management compound to comple-ment the Customs, Immigration and other civilians who are stationed there. Such was not the case, and ac-cording to one eyewitness account, it was not until about an hour after things had mushroomed into a loud verbal exchange that a group of BDF soldiers were deployed in an attempt to diffuse the matter.

Belize City, Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Post-Tropical Cyclone Beryl, churning northeastward to east-north-eastward toward North Carolina, will not come anywhere near Belize, but it surely has officially opened the hur-ricane season for 2012.

The season is being forecast to be relatively tame. Forecasters seem to agree mostly that there is a probabili-ty of 12 named storms of which seven possibly will develop into hurricanes. Out of the seven hurricanes, three of these are predicted to be “major” hurricanes in scope with winds sus-taining 111 mph or more. This would

place them at a minimum at Category 3 status on the Saffir Simpson scale. Most the landfall models are predict-ing fairly close or normal landfall of storms along the United States coast-line. The Gulf of Mexico coastline and the coastline of Florida are being giv-en an elevated chance of landfall over the East Coast in 2012.

But even with this outlook, it does not take Belize out of potential danger and it leaves one to wonder, with the disaster caused by category 1 Hurri-cane Richard still in recent memory, how prepared the National Emer-gency Management Organization is, and its other sub-agents, i.e., the City

Emergency management teams, dis-trict and village ones.

A clear indication that things are not shaping up in time for the fast-approaching June first opening is the fact that not much money is be-ing spent to repair as many shelters or acquire emergency supplies as in previous years. Another tell-tale sign is the fact that CEMO Belize City doesn’t even appear to be able to pur-chase plywood to secure the glass windows at the Charles Bartlet Hyde buildig, which it normally used in the past to use as its command centre. In fact, the situation seems so dire that CEMO has decided to seek lodging in

the event of a hurricane inside one of the media house buildings. It is sad that 31 years after Belize achieved independence the old capital’s City Emergency Management Organiza-tion cannot stand on its own and op-erate from a neutral location in a hur-ricane.

The suspicious pickup truck


udp welcomes the dead Ryan Swift & common-law

wife charged for assaulting City Council messenger

Still no charges for drug chemicals importer, Vernon Cuthkelvin

KHMH morgue space & fee increased

Belize City May 28, 2012Information to the BELIZE

TIMES is that U.S. officials are very unhappy with the Barrow Administration’s handling of the latest known drug case in Belize. U.S. officials donate millions of dollars and equipment so that Belize can fight illicit trade and activities, while calling on the Government to address the ab-sence of proper laws that pro-hibits and penalises the impor-tation of precursor chemicals.

This absence of adequate laws and the Barrow Adminis-tration’s feet-dragging is what

Vernon Cuthkelvin

Ryan Swift

used in the manufacture of me-thylamphetamine (cystal meth).

Cuthkelvin claimed that the chemicals were fertilizers for his company, Belize Garden Consortium. Customs officials didn’t believe him and when they conducted forensic tests, they discovered that Cuthkelvin was not telling the truth.

Inside the container, offi-cials found enough drug-related chemicals to produce some 400 metric tonnes of crystal meth which is valued at about ten bil-lion dollars in the U.S. market.

In his defense, Cuthkelvin claimed that the wrong goods must have been sent to him by the Chinese supplier. Customs officials, we are told, are scep-tical and were prepared to file charges against Cuthkelvin for

making a fraudulent declara-tion. The total fine sought was $2.3m calculated by taking the estimated market value of the item, plus the cost of freight multiplied by three. But UDP officials in Government have intervened and are protecting Cuthkelvin, so that no charges are levied on him.

It appears the UDP’s known operative, Vernon Cuthkelvin, will not face legal punishment for the six containers he im-ported under the guise that the contents were fertilizers. Cuth-kelvin has been allowed to roam free.

Of interest is that the Cus-toms Department falls right un-der the Minister of Finance’s portfolio which is held by Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Was PM Barrow the one who stopped Custom’s official from laying charges on Vernon Cuthkelvin? Inquiries minds and U.S. offi-cials would like to know.

saved UDP crony Vernon Cuth-kelvin by the skin of his teeth. Cuthkelvin, who claims to be in the business of selling fertiliz-ers, was busted importing con-tainers that contained almost half a million dollars’ worth of precursor chemicals that is

BELIZE CITY, Wed. May 30, 2012By Roy Davis

A common-law couple, Ryan Swift, 49 and Honduran national Lau-ren Vanessa Rosales, 27, were both charged with wounding when they appeared today in the #2 Magis-trates Court.

They pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Swift, a businessman of 35 Nar-gusta Street, was offered a bail of $2,000.

But Rosales, who admitted in Court that she entered Belize illegally from Guatemala, was denied bail be-cause she was deemed a flight risk.

love and he did not ask Rosales how she came to Belize. Swift asked the Court for 2 weeks to straighten out her immigration status in Belize.

The complainant, Errol White, 55, a.k.a. “Pepes”, a messenger for Belize City Council, reported to the Police that he was at Swift’s home when a misunderstanding ensured. White and Swift are cousins.

White said during the misun-derstanding, Swift and Rosales as-saulted him. He told police that Swift used a shovel while Rosales stoned him with a pint bottle that struck his forehead and caused a wound.

Because she admitted her illegal status in Court, Rosales may very well face charges related to immigra-tion offences.

Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser re-manded her into custody until June 14.

The remand was despite pleas from Swift who said he just fell in

Belize City, May 30, 2012As if accepting and em-

bracing the high number of dead bodies carted off due to the increased crime rate, the Barrow Administration today unveiled a refurbished morgue that can hold twelve more bodies than it used to.

The Karl Heusner Memo-rial Hospital morgue area was filled with a sick sense of joy and fulfilment this morning as hospital officials revealed the “upgraded” morgue. Instead of 9 bodies, the morgue unit can now hold 21 bodies.

The murder rate has in-creased under the Barrow Administration. Instead of working to reduce murder incidences, the upgraded morgue indicates that UDP of-ficials embrace the dead bod-ies of our sons and innocent children. Months ago, UDP of-ficials announced the opening of a new cemetery to make more space for the dead un-derground.

Hospital officials revealed that the Government invested about $150,000 to upgrade the KHMH morgue.

Of course, in true UDP-style, hospital officials also an-nounced that the morgue fee will also increase by 100%, from $25 to $50.

belize times june 3, 2012

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