If you enjoyed the activities from last week, get ready for even more excitement because Belize is barely half way through its most patriotic month. With our nation’s 43rd Independence Day just around the corner, Belize is bursting with patriotic fervor and exciting events this weekend. Here’s what you can look forward to:
Belize City:
September 12-15: Groove to the Electric 80’s at the Francis Reneau Concert Series, Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts, 8 PM. (Ticketed)
September 14: Reconnect with history at the Belize Volunteer Guard Reunion 2024, Price Barracks, 10 AM.
September 14: Dance the night away at Pan Yaad, Government House Compound, 8 PM. (Ticketed)
September 14: Enjoy the Old School Dance at Bird’s Isle Restaurant, 10 PM. (Ticketed)
September 14: Savor a Caribbean Night Dinner Dance at Old Belize Pavilion, 7 PM. (Ticketed)
September 15: Join the BTB September Criterion at the BTB Office, Dr. Dame Minita Gordon Drive, 8 AM.
Belmopan:
September 13: Kids Movie Night and Camp Fire at Market Plaza, 6 PM.
September 14: Experience the Emergency Services Display and Sports Fun Day at Devon Beaton Park, 10 AM.
San Ignacio and Santa Elena:
September 13: Celebrate Colours Day at SISE Town Hall, all day.
September 13: Explore local art at the Art Walk, Cayo Welcome Centre, 9 AM.
September 14: Enjoy an Adult Talent Show at Cayo Welcome Centre, 7 PM.
September 15: Witness the Ms. Chiquitita Queen pageant at Cayo Welcome Centre, 7 PM.
Benque Viejo:
September 14: Check out the Business Expo and Dance at Cancha Marshalleck. Time to be announced.
Orange Walk:
September 13: Attend the Youth Concert at Fort Cairns, 2 PM. (Free)
September 14: Rock out at the Rock Concert/Food Truck Festival, Fort Cairns Market Plaza, 7 PM.
Dangriga:
September 13: Tune into the Hamalali Talk Show at Hamalali, 9 AM.
September 13: Don’t miss the National School Children’s Rally along Principal Streets, 9 AM.
The life of Cleopatra Eugenie White remains a celebrated part of Belizean history. Born in then British Honduras to Joseph and Maria White, she made significant contributions as a nurse, social worker, and community leader. Her work had a lasting impact on both healthcare and community management in Belize.
Pioneering Healthcare in Rural Belize
In the 1940s, Cleopatra White was one of Belize’s first formally trained nurses for public health services. She began her career in the early 20th century and focused on rural areas.
White’s first assignment was in Double Head Cabbage village, but she soon relocated to Gales Point and the Manatee River area of Belize, where she would spend the majority of the next 16 years. As the first rural health nurse in the region, her role quickly evolved beyond traditional nursing duties to include social work. She became a beloved mentor to many village children and played a crucial role in educating young women about hygiene practices.
White was an innovator in community management. Her most notable achievement was her establishment of the first village council in Gales Point. Recognising the need for organised management of village affairs, especially during emergencies, she set up a system that would later be replicated across Belize. This model proved effective during hurricanes and other crises, showing her foresight and leadership.
White played a crucial role in disaster relief efforts. After the 1931 hurricane, she helped establish nursing facilities and supply stations. Her work during Hurricane Janet in 1955 and Hurricane Hattie in 1961 further demonstrated her commitment to her community. She drove daily to care for people affected by Hurricane Hattie, showing remarkable dedication.
Awards and Recognition
In recognition of her contributions, White received several honours. In 1953, she was awarded the Victoria Medal for her services. By 1958, she had travelled to England to receive the Member of the Order of the British Empire Medal in the 1958 Birthday Honours. These awards underscored her impact on both a local and international scale.
In 1986, the Women’s Bureau of Belize created the Cleopatra White Shield, awarded to the winner of the National High School Quiz Contest. This prize not only honours her memory but also supports educational achievement among Belizean youth. In addition, the Cleopatra White Outpatient Clinic was established in her honour, and a postage stamp was issued in 1993 featuring her image.
A Legacy Preserved
Upon retiring from the Hattieville Clinic in the mid-1960s, Cleopatra White returned to Belize City with a fervent goal: to rejuvenate the declining Black Cross Nurses training courses. Her commitment extended beyond nursing education; she founded the Women’s League and played a pivotal role in organising fundraising events and entertainment for the National Festival of the Arts. Known for her exceptional skills as a scriptwriter, songwriter, and storyteller, White earned numerous accolades for her creative work. To honour her contributions to Creole heritage, E. Beck, a professor at St. John’s College, recorded several of her songs, preserving her efforts to instill pride through music.
Cleopatra White’s life showcased her deep commitment to service, shaping healthcare and community management in Belize. Although she lived modestly and spent her final years as a pauper at the Belize City Old Folks Home, her impact imprinted Belize’s history for years to come.
The Transport Department has expressed deep concern following yesterday’s incident at Belize City’s terminal where a part of the roof became dislodged, injuring two women. The Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Transport stated, “Our immediate thoughts and sincerest apologies go out to the affected individuals and their family during this difficult time.”
One of the injured women, Ana Moralez, was admitted to the emergency room at Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Moralez’s husband, Filito Chanim, explained that he, his wife, and his son-in-law were preparing to catch a bus back to Belmopan when a section of the terminal’s cement roof collapsed unexpectedly. The piece of cement struck Moralez on the shoulder and injured another woman.
According to the Ministry’s press release, a full investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the incident. “We are working with structural engineers to assess the overall safety of the building,” the ministry stated.
“Any structural damage identified during this assessment will be repaired immediately to ensure the safety of all terminal users,” the Transport Department assured.
Chanim criticised the terminal employees, claiming that no assistance was offered and describing their reaction as unprofessional: “There was a couple of employees sitting at the top, laughing. I don’t know what was funny.” The Ministry did not comment on this aspect of the incident.
The Government of Belize has entered into a new partnership with the Republic of China (Taiwan) to enhance economic opportunities for women through a project titled “Increasing Economic Power for Micro-Entrepreneurs.” The agreement was signed today by Adele Catzim-Sanchez, CEO of the Ministry of Human Development, Families, and Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs; Amalia Mai, CEO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; and Robert Pan, Chief of the Taiwan Technical Mission.
This initiative, part of an ongoing bilateral cooperation between Belize and Taiwan, aims to strengthen women’s economic empowerment in the post-pandemic era by focussing on small business development, digital marketing skills, and improved access to capital. The project aligns with the Government of Belize’s National Gender Policy and Plan Belize Medium Term Development Strategy, which emphasise women’s economic participation as a key driver for poverty reduction, economic growth, and social cohesion.
The Ministry of Human Development’s Family Support and Gender Affairs Department will oversee the project’s implementation. Women from the Corozal District, Belize City, San Ignacio/Santa Elena, and Dangriga are encouraged to apply and benefit from the opportunities offered.
This collaboration is another step toward fostering economic inclusion and empowering women across the country.
The Sitting of the House of Representatives is underway in Belmopan, and much to his dislike, sitting alongside the Leader of the Opposition, Moses Barrow, are Albert Area Representative Tracy Panton and Collet Area Representative Patrick Faber.
Barrow has written to House Speaker Valerie Woods to recognise Albert Area Representative Tracy Panton and Collet Area Representative Patrick Faber as resigned members of the United Democratic Party (UDP). Woods denied Barrow’s request, saying, “My office has not received any notice of resignation by either member. On the contrary, in the public domain, both members have stated they have not resigned from their political party.”
Faber and Panton have been pushed to the end of the bench. Chronic absentee Denise “Sister B” Barrow was moved up to the third seat. Hugo Patt remains in the second seat.
A domestic incident involving two police officers has led to one being detained. The altercation occurred late last night, around 10:30 PM.
According to reports, 29-year-old Police Constable Janeau Arzu, who is attached to the Special Patrol Unit (SPU), is in police custody after allegedly attempting to shoot her common-law husband, 23-year-old Police Constable Kendale Nunez.
Nunez, 23, reported to authorities that at approximately 10:30 last night Arzu reportedly took the firearm he had put away, and allegedly pointed it at him.
She reportedly accused him of having an affair and said, “Tell yuh boss come for yuh.” As Nunez fled to the front door, Arzu allegedly fired a single shot, which missed him.
She then allegedly threatened him, saying, “The next one will ketch you in the head.”
Police recovered one expended shell on the scene. Janeau Arzu has been detained for questioning in connection with the incident.
A man is dead following a fight on Thursday night in Santa Elena, Cayo. The deceased has been identified as 61-year-old Ubaldo Guzman Sr. According to reports, Guzman Sr. was socialising with his roommate, 43-year-old Peter August, when an argument ensued. August says that Guzman attacked him with a machete, but he managed to wrestle the weapon away and then chopped Guzman multiple times. Guzman was taken to the hospital, where he died. August is in police custody while the investigation continues.
On Wednesday night, we brought you the horrific story of twenty-six-year-old Dornell Talbert. He is the resident of Double Head Cabbage who was murdered over the weekend and his body was mistakenly cremated only a couple days later. Munnings Funeral Home broke the unfortunate news to the family on Wednesday afternoon. The owner, Andrew Munnings, is taking full responsibility for the error. He contends, however, that the third-party funeral home he contracted to transport Talbert’s body from Burrell Boom to the K.H.M.H. morgue got the instructions all wrong and proceeded to cremate the body instead. Well, today, we spoke with the director of the funeral home that was contracted as a third party, Leiva Funeral Home. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.
Voice of: “Chico”
“Chico”, Director, Leiva’s Funeral Home
“First of all, I got a call from Mister Munnings, so I asked him are you ready for the cremation? He said, no, finance is not available as yet, but I have a body for you to pick up a body and deal with. When I get that statement to deal with a body it is direct cremation. If you say transport, from point A to point B, that is different.”
Paul Lopez, Reporting
That’s the voice of Chico. He is using a childhood alias and is speaking off camera for fear of his safety. Chico runs a funeral home that mistakenly cremated the body of twenty-six-year-old Dornell Talbert earlier this week. Talbert was shot and killed in Scotland Halfmoon on Saturday. As the undertaker explains, a cremation that was scheduled for Monday was eventually postponed.
“Chico”, Director, Leiva’s Funeral Home
“And first of all, this mix up with a man and woman, can’t be possible. One body is at Karl Heusner from August the thirty-first and one body is at Burrell Boom. So, there is no mix up in a male and a female. The mix-up is cremation and transport from Burrell Boom to Karl Heusner.”
Paul Lopez
“How do you interpret a body “to deal with” as cremation?
“Chico”, Levia Funeral Home
“Usually, if you say transport a body from point A, to point B, I know that is clear, transport a body from point A to point B. But, when you say I have a body to deal with, automatically I say, in my head, that is cremation, because that is the term we are already use to.”
A tomb for what should have been Talbert’s casket has already been constructed at the Double Head Cabbage Cemetery. The grave error, however, now means that a metal urn will be placed inside the concrete tomb and not a wooden casket. Stephanie Talbert spoke with us today while standing next to her son’s tomb.
Stephanie Talbert
Stephanie Talbert, Mother of Deceased
“Well we can’t make no arrangements. It is already done. We just have to finish it and we wah put this person that is supposed to be my son in there. I don’t know if this dah my son, in loving memory of who. Mister Munnings did everything he could do for us and now I have to deal with this. And so we just wah do with this and do it on our own. We have our pastor that we are going to do the service with, because now it is not a funeral service. It is like a celebration to remember life. Everything stays the same, it’s just that now it is without a body.”
According to Andrew Munnings, before any cremation, the funeral home must be in possession of a death certificate and full authorization must be given by the family. In this case, while Munnings Funeral Home had the death certificate, none of the funeral homes were in possession of a consent form from Dornell Talbert’s family.
Andrew Munnings
Andrew Munnings, Owner, Munnings Funeral Home
“The body should have been in the morgue from Monday evening. Keep in mind the morgue was waiting for this body to come back from Monday evening. If it was that I had scheduled a cremation the morgue would have locked up from five, the morgue would not have waited for anybody. There was no consent for any cremation, anything. When I got the death certificate it was from an employee at the medical college because the family member that witnessed the autopsy did not have any net. You have to send me that for me to say, I declare I am the person in charge of this body. That is the reason why I called the other funeral home, please go ahead, I am dealing with my daughter, move the body from Boom and bring it back to KHMH.”
Leiva’s Funeral Home trusted that its counterpart had all the paperwork dealt with and would make the proper submissions after the September Tenth holiday. Chico says, all he needed to move the body from Burrell Boom was the death certificate which was left at the facility’s security booth.
“Chico”, Director, Leiva Funeral Home
“Listen to me, these guys contract me to cremate. They deal with the paperwork. I go and deal with the physical part, because it is not my personal job. If it was my personal job, I would have known it was no cremation, because I would have been up there with that form. I don’t use any other agent or any other people. I try to be there to the best of my ability, so these things don’t happen. This is nothing strange to me. Sometimes the body is decomposed, sometimes the autopsy finishes when the autopsy is already finished. So, this is nothing strange to me, like this is the first time I went to do a cremation without certain documents. I just got to clear my name, because I am a well-known guy and anywhere I go, they say “bway, bway, you burn the wrong body”. I can’t go on living like this.”
Chico insists that the blunder was the result of miscommunication and nothing more. The situation has left his entire staff distressed and sends his condolences to the family. News Five understands that the family of Dornell Talbert is weighing its options, including the possibility of legal recourse.
Stephanie Talbert
“They need at least a family member, the paper from the postmortem, the death certificate and none of that was not given. I still, we need more answers. There are more questions than answers. There is still so much things that should have been done instead of going through with a, whatever it is called, cremation. I get it correct, cremation.”
Fifty-seven-year-old businessman, Simeon Herrera has been charged in connection with the fatal road traffic accident that claimed the life of nineteen-year-old Tamisha Jeal on September eighth in Santa Elena Town. As we reported, Tamisha and her brother Keenan Wragg were travelling on a motorbike towards San Ignacio when a pickup truck, travelling in the opposite direction, made a sudden turn into their lane. The siblings collided into the vehicle and were flung off the motorbike. Tamisha sustained fatal injuries. On Wednesday, police charged Herrera with one count of manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, failure to give way when changing direction, driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention, driving a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s license and driving a motor vehicle not covered by third-party risk insurance. Tamisha’s father, Graham Jeal urged motorists to be more cautious on the nation’s highways.
Graham Jeal
Graham Jeal, Father of Deceased
“In certain cases, I just want to reflect on the life of my daughter. I want to reflect that she lived a good life, a happy life. She was an amazing child like what my wife said. A lot of potential ahead of her for sure. Tragedy does happen in this world and this life, but sometimes tragedy can be avoided by just being a little bit more careful on both sides, being a biker and a driver, because I have the same experience, and actually being a driver of a vehicle. We just need to learn to take more keen attention when we are driving. When we are driving the lives of other people is also in your hands. I explained that to my son and I hope that other people take that into consideration. When we drive on the road, we are not just driving for ourselves, but we are driving for everybody else as well.”
Two unsuspecting women escaped grave injuries this afternoon when rubble from the roof of the bus terminal on East Collet Canal fell on them. The women were having a brief conversation on the sidewalk just outside of the building when a piece of cement fell from the rooftop and landed on them. It was a frightening experience for persons in the immediate area and the mishap has led to questions about the integrity and soundness of the building. News Five’s Isani Cayetano visited the scene today and spoke with members of the taxi association. He also spoke with the husband of one of the women who remains hospitalized at the K.H.M.H. tonight. Here’s that story.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
A fifty-three-year-old woman is hospitalized at the KHMH after being struck by falling debris at Novelo’s Bus Terminal here in Belize City. Ana Chanim and her husband Felito arrived at the station around midday and were on the sidewalk in front of the building when she felt a sharp and sudden pain in her right collarbone.
Felito Chanim
Felito Chanim, Husband
“What happened is that I came down here today, me, my wife and my son-in-law we went to an interview for a job for me, and after that well then we came back and had lunch and we decided to catch the bus to go back home to Belmopan. Doing so, my wife was behind me and I was walking in front of her and she paused to speak with another lady and the roof of the terminal, atop, the cement building roof, fell from up there and the piece of block fell on her shoulder. I don’t know what is broken, I don’t know what it is as yet but we have her in the emergency room at this moment. We’re not sure what the outcome will be.”
According to Thomas Garcia, a cab driver who operates from the terminal, he frequently hangs out in front of the building, along with members of his taxi association, to greet customers. Not once did they realize that high above them the roof of the building was breaking apart.
Thomas Garcia
Thomas Garcia, Taxi Driver
“All of us like to stand up outside, neva know that this thing ya di heng pan di side and none of us even look at it that kinda way, right. And apparently, you had two ladies and another man were standing out there waiting for somebody to come and pick them and sudden one dis thing ya just break away.”
Isani Cayetano
“What kind of assistance was given to the two women after they got injured?
Thomas Garcia
“Well, apparently deh mi di wait pan di ambulance but according to what I see, these taximen from out here, they rushed the two people to the hospital.”
The incident, says Chanim, was rather frightening. The falling debris sent passersby, as well as people entering the terminal, scrambling for cover.
Felito Chanim
“Everybody were really frightened. People were running all over the place because they think more was coming down. They thought that more of the building was falling I mean everybody was frightened because little bricks were falling, little small pieces, so everybody was running for shelter. Mein I was terrorized, I was frightened. The thing is, my wife was behind me, I didn’t even know that the thing fell on her because I think the impact that she got, at the moment, she didn’t react. She reacted like a couple moments after when she realized that she got hurt. That’s when she jumped and hugged me, you know, and when she hugged me she was falling and I had to lift her up because she couldn’t even stand up, you know, and it was frightening, really, because I didn’t expect something like that. That’s right out of the blues. You’re going into the terminal, this thing could have fallen on her head, imagine.”
In the wake of what took place earlier today, Garcia is making an appeal to the management of the terminal to assess the building for structural soundness.
Thomas Garcia
“I would like to make, well I would say the guy that runs this terminal and so on to keep on checking and make sure that this does not happen again because this is a lawsuit for these people, whiching these people neva touch nothing fi mek that could drop pan dehn, but what I am saying is that by right dehn suppose to check it out.”
Isani Cayetano
“Was there any response from persons who were in the building on the second floor?”
Felicito Chanim
“No, there was none. Just a couple employees sitting at the top laughing. I don’t know what was funny but I guess they found something funny about it, but nobody from the terminal itself who was in charge did come down and say anything or checked what was the problem. I would like to let them take responsibility as well because as I said, I am not working right now and hospital is a bill, so they should take some responsibility and see what they can do to help.”
