October, 2024 - Channel 5 Belize

National Hurricane Center Warns of Potential Gulf System Development

The state of Florida is preparing for another potential storm as Tropical Depression 14 is expected to form in the Gulf of Mexico, with a 70 percent chance of development in the next 48 hours. “A tropical depression or storm is likely to form later today or on Sunday,” said the NHC in its latest updates. It is likely to make landfall on Florida’s west coast by Wednesday.

The next tropical storm to form will carry the name Milton.

The NHC warned, “Regardless of development, locally heavy rains could occur over portions of Mexico during the next day or two and over much of Florida late this weekend through the middle of next week.”

This new threat follows Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm on September 26, causing widespread flooding and over 200 fatalities across six states.

Additionally, the NHC is monitoring two other hurricanes in the Atlantic: Hurricane Kirk in the central subtropical region and Hurricane Leslie in the eastern tropical Atlantic.

UDP Rejects Calls for Leadership Change

The United Democratic Party says that its National Party Council has confirmed decisions made at the National Convention on August 13, 2023, and reiterated in an April 7, 2024 resolution. This statement comes as October 20th nears—the date when the Alliance for Democracy led by Albert Area Representative Tracy Panton has scheduled a “UDP National Convention” in Belize City.

The UDP says that “The Party Leader, Shyne Barrow, Deputy Party Leader Hugo Patt, Party Chairman Michael Peyrefitte, and Deputy Party Chairman Alberto August are elected to serve until the National Convention to be held immediately after the next general election.”

It added, “The National Party Council makes it emphatically clear to all delegates, party members, and supporters that the United Democratic Party is not conducting a national convention until it is due immediately after the next general elections.”

“The National Party Council condemns the lies, defamation and personal attacks against our duly elected Party Leader, Shyne Barrow, Deputy Party Leader, Hugo Patt, Party Chairman, Michael Peyrefitte, Deputy Party Chairman, Alberto August, and other Party Officials.”

The statement also says that the party supports Peyrefitte in rejecting petitions to alter these decisions and backs the Central Executive’s resolutions regarding John Saldivar, Tracy Panton, Patrick Faber, and Beverly Williams, as well as Phillip Willoughby and Andrew Bradley, to align with their reform plans for the upcoming elections.

Man Allegedly Sets Common-Law Wife on Fire During Dispute

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and tonight we have a chilling report from Independence Village. According to the report, a woman was set on fire by her partner during a dispute on Thursday night. The details reveal that thirty-year-old Karima Logan and her common-law husband, twenty-four-year-old Travis Lopez, got into an argument inside their home. During the altercation, Lopez allegedly dragged Karima outside, doused her with gasoline, and set her ablaze. He then reportedly tried to extinguish the flames by placing her in the shower. Logan has since reported the incident to the police. She was initially taken to the Independence Polyclinic and later transferred to the Southern Regional Hospital, where she received treatment for severe burn injuries. News Five has learned that Logan described the incident to the police as an accident. This morning, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams addressed the incident.

Reporter

“Sir is there anything you can tell us about a domestic incident last night. I think a man might have lit his wife on fire.”

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“No, I don’t know about that.”

Why wasn’t Andre Perez Investigated After Drug Find in San Pedro?

It has been a week since police in San Pedro discovered a quantity of suspected cocaine on a boat owned by Area Representative Andre Perez. In the immediate aftermath, the Belize Police Department issued a statement essentially exonerating the Minister of Blue Economy from any criminal wrongdoing. The statement clarified that Perez’s vessel was at a boatyard awaiting repairs and that, acting on information from residents, police conducted a search of the boat. However, public criticism has been mounting, with many arguing that Perez was never subjected to a thorough criminal investigation, despite his ownership of the vessel used to stash the narcotics. Here’s how the Commissioner of Police responded.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The department is not one that would act based on what certain sector of the public may want to see us act on. We act based on evidence and we must be objective in terms of how we carry out our functions. If you have a vehicle and your vehicle experiences mechanical problems and you take your vehicle to a mechanic garage, you park it there for six months, you don’t go to that mechanic garage and check on your vehicle, your vehicle is left open and the mechanic has access to it, the garage is an open area and people have access to the garage. If police were to go and find drugs in your vehicle after six months, would it be fair to say that the drugs belong to you?”

Isani Cayetano

“The counterargument, as far as I am understanding, however, is that, for instance, if the police conduct a raid or a search at a residence and they find illegal items in there, then automatically it’s ascribed as your property.

Chester Williams

“But again, you hear what you said, at a residence. The boat was not at Mr. Perez’s residence. Mr. Perez lives miles away from the boatyard. The man does not live there. If there was anybody to be held to account for that drugs in the boat, it would have been the owner of the boatyard. But even they could not be held to account because the boatyard has so many ins and outs. People go in, and as I said before, the police went there based on intelligence that was given to them by people who live in the area having seen these drug men going to the area. Do you expect me to charge the minister for something that there is no nexus between him and that object? I can’t do that mein.”

Home Affairs Minister Weighs in on San Pedro Drug Bust

We also spoke with Home Affairs Minister Kareem Musa, who backed the stance taken by the Commissioner of Police concerning the drug bust on Minister Perez’s boat. Musa, who is also an attorney-at-law, asserted that there is no direct link between Perez and the narcotics discovered on his vessel. Here’s his explanation.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“It’s a very unfortunate situation that can happen to any citizen of Belize, regardless of the position that you hold. It could happen to members of the media and I am certain that you would likewise hope that the police investigate the matter the way that they did Minister Perez’s boat. From all the circumstances, all the facts of the case, it is clear that police received a tip based on suspicious individuals who had been traversing the area, and so it wouldn’t have been just a random search of Minister Perez’s boat. It was based on information provided by a member of the public, that police were able to go on the boat and locate the drugs. And so, it’s a good thing that it was located prior to Minister Perez even using the vessel because from all the information, it had been months that he had actually used the vessel. So it’s not a situation whereby police had pulled over Minister Perez in the course of using his vessel.”

Major Crimes are Down, Except for Murder

Aside from murder and unlawful sexual intercourse, major crimes have decreased in 2024 compared to the same period from January to September last year. This morning, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Commissioner of Police, and the top brass of the Belize Police Department convened to review the latest crime statistics and develop strategies to further reduce these numbers. Since January, there have been seventy-one recorded murders and one hundred and eighteen reported robberies. Additionally, incidents of burglary, theft, and rape have also declined. Commissioner of Police Williams presented these encouraging figures to his colleagues in the department.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I put together a presentation, an overall presentation where I outlined to the officers where we are so far for this year, where we have been at the end of each quarter, outline to them how we got to where we are, and I also told them in my presentation what I want us to do collectively, together for the rest of the year so that we would be able to defeat the numbers for last year. I am extremely passionate about what I do, saving the lives of Belizeans is important to me and as I said to them, we finished the month of September with three murders above last year’s figures around the same time. My objective is for us to work our butts off for the rest of this year to defeat the number for last year which was eighty-seven. So, in other words, we’re at seventy-one murders right now, that puts us at sixteen below last year’s figure and I am pleading to my commanders for us to work together in order for us to be able to defeat that sixteen so that we can end up with either eighty-seven or less murders. I also outlined to them the strategies that I want us to do to be able to ensure that we would be in a position to defeat the numbers.”

What’s the Police Department’s Crime Fighting Strategy?

With the latest figures showing an uptick in murders compared to the same period in 2023, the Commissioner of Police is crafting a proactive crime-fighting strategy to prevent this year’s numbers from exceeding last year’s count. He is relying on the Leadership Intervention Unit to ensure that interventions and mediations occur whenever tensions flare between rival gangs.

Isani Cayetano

“You’re going into the fourth quarter of this year, what is the outlook? Is it that the police, in trying to keep these numbers down, will take on now a more proactive, as opposed to a more reactive approach to policing?”

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Certainly, and that’s my thing to them this morning, that we need to be more proactive in terms of our approach. We don’t want to respond. I even said to them, if it is that they hear that there is an issue brewing between two different gang groups, we must step in, do intervention, do mediation, get LIU involved, get Mr. Nuri involved. Let’s see how we can stem that before it reaches a stage where somebody’s getting killed because once somebody’s getting killed the problem becomes greater because then the other side wants to retaliate and so we need to do what we can to avoid getting to that stage.”

19 Firearms Retrieved After Recent Tradeoff with SOE Detainees

The extended State of Emergency, which saw dozens of young men from various neighborhoods in Belize City and Roaring Creek Village detained, has come to an end. Many of these individuals, including numerous gang members, were required to surrender their weapons, yet the department managed to retrieve only nineteen firearms. Earlier today, we spoke with the Commissioner of Police to get his insights now that these alleged troublemakers are back on the streets.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“We didn’t get as much as expected. We got a total of nineteen weapons, different calibers and a number of ammunitions. Those were collected and submitted as found property and will be sent to the National Forensics [Science] Service firearm or ballistics unit for testing.”

Isani Cayetano

“What has the observation been in the wake of that extended SOE, in terms of how the gangs interact with each other at this point?”

Chester Williams

“Well we do have follow-ups. Brother Nuri is tasked to ensure that he does follow up with them to ensure that we have a system where they don’t just come out of SOE and we leave them right there. We want to do programs with them, so Brother Nuri and LIU are tasked in ensuring that we do follow-ups and different programs with them. We have a system where they were told that if it is that there is some issue is brewing between them and other groups, for them to come forward and let us know and then we’ll step in and do intervention, mediation. I think some of them are serious about trying to make a change and we must do what we can to help them make that change.”

MoE Agrees Payment System for Teachers is Antiquated

The Ministry of Education has issued a press release emphasizing the importance of timely teacher payments. They acknowledged that the current salary processing system is outdated and prone to delays, often due to incomplete or late submissions. The ministry provided several clarifications in their statement. Firstly, they noted that one hundred and twenty-two teachers were scheduled for an off-cycle payment, which the Treasury Department confirmed would be deposited into their bank accounts by this evening. Additionally, the ministry pointed out that a few names on the B.N.T.U.’s list of ninety-nine teachers were duplicates. Of the remaining names, forty-four were already included in the off-cycle payment and should have received their payments by now. For the last batch of forty-three teachers, the ministry found that nine had already received their September salaries, three were secondary or tertiary-level teachers processed through a different system, and four were being finalized for the next payment cycle. The remaining twenty-seven teachers required further attention, and the ministry is working with school management to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. Today, B.N.T.U. President Nadia Caliz reiterated the union’s stance and explained what prompted them to address this matter.

Nadia Caliz, President, B.N.T.U.

“What really broke the camel’s back was when our teachers came forward and said there was an agreement with the ministry that we would not be kicked out of the system, but we were kicked out. We didn’t receive our salary. We were paid in the month of August and now in September no salary. What happened? And we started to query with the ministry what was actually going on. We did not get the kind of response that we wanted. We stand by our one-thirty [list]. We stand by our one-thirty. We went through our listing, cause they called us, we went through our listing, and we do have one-thirty. Three of those though, we will admit, were paid because those teachers actually were increments and we mistakenly submitted that. But if you look at the BNTU’s press release, it said one hundred and thirty plus teachers in this country. One hundred and twenty-two teachers are going to be paid today, but you still have like an outstanding thirty-five or so. And up to this morning, we have teachers calling and saying, “I did not fill out that form because I had no faith in the system. But now that we see so many persons being paid, could you please add my name onto that list?” So again, we’re receiving another list of persons. It’s not about the numbers. For us, our teachers are suffering. They have worked. They deserve to be paid. Teachers should not be going through this. There are things that I can’t even say publicly that teachers have shared with me that they’re doing so they can survive, and some of it is very unethical. I’ve visited teachers who called me, crying, asking for assistance. All I want to see come October, that our teachers don’t go through this.”

One Month Later, Maskall Primary Still has Teacher Shortage

A month ago, several schools reported a shortage of teachers as the new school year began. Among them was Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Maskall Village, which faced a loss of three teachers across its pre-school, middle, and upper divisions. Fast forward a month, and the school has made significant progress, securing one teacher and on the verge of hiring a second. However, they are still searching for a teacher for their pre-school department. Today, Principal German Ramirez shared with News Five the strides the school has made towards full staffing and how they have been managing the ongoing shortage.

German Ramirez, Principal, Our Lady of Lourdes School, Maskall Village

“We have managed to secure one teacher coming this way to help us with our teacher shortage. We have been doing everything we can from our end to ensure that he remains in the community. It’s not something easy for him, but he’s adapting and we’re lucky to have him here. We’re still short of two teachers. We’re working on one, trying to make sure that we get his license. The license application process goes through some bureaucracy, and I guess some vetting. And so that is probably what is keeping us back from getting the other replacement in this community. We’re still working to try and secure the replacement for the preschool as well. So I work along with the general manager of Catholic public schools to try and see if we can secure the replacements as early as possible.”

Marion Ali

Explain to me how it’s been over the past month in getting the curriculum delivered in an effective way to these students with the shortage of three teachers.

German Ramirez

“It’s not been easy, I mean, we tried to stay in alignment with what we have to be doing for the month of September but jumping out of a classroom and going into another, you don’t get to do what you need to do as effectively as possible. So, what we try to do is to ensure that our children are busy, getting their printed packages for them to be working on while I’m there. I can explain while I’m out, they work on their own with some limited supervision from the teacher nearby.”