Police in Punta Gorda Town are investigating an incident that took place at the BDF’s Fairweather camp yesterday afternoon. News Five has learned that police officers are investigating a staff sergeant who reportedly fired his 9-mm firearm several times inside the compound.
The staff sergeant fired the shots in the air. There are no reports of injuries.
The staff sergeant left the scene. News Five contacted the BDF, and we were told that it is a police matter.
This is a developing story.
Bowen & Bowen Limited issued a release earlier today, saying it is facing temporary disruptions in beverage production due to recent power challenges from CFE. B&B says that it is working with Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) and the broader community. The company says it is voluntarily reducing its power usage at BEL’s request to help ensure a stable electricity supply for residential areas and other critical services.
In its statement, BEL said “While reducing power usage has caused temporary availability issues for certain products, it is necessary to support continuous power availability to households and critical services. We understand this has caused an inconvenience for our customers and consumers, but we assure you that this is a temporary situation.”
According to BEL, these power reductions coincide with scheduled maintenance on its production lines and backup generators, further impacting its production capabilities. BEL says it is working diligently to complete this maintenance as quickly as possible.
Twenty-six-year-old Frank Young was shot last night in Ladyville Village. Investigators say that Young was shot while walking on the Philip Goldson Highway. He was injured in the right arm and leg. According to Young, he heard gunshots and later realised he was shot. He was taken to the hospital, where he remains in stable condition.
Prime Minister John Briceño is back from Cancun, following a whirlwind visit over the weekend where he met with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the head of the Federal Electricity Commission, C.F.E. PM Briceño was accompanied by senior officials from Belize Electricity Limited to discuss a solution to Belize’s energy crisis. As we’ve reported over the past few weeks, the country has been experiencing a series of scheduled power outages. Those blackouts were the result of load shedding that became necessary when C.F.E. was unable to provide energy to Belize’s national grid. The meeting with President AMLO was fruitful and PM Briceño has returned to Belize with good news that the Mexican energy provider will now supply a total of seventy-five megawatts to the national grid. This morning, the prime minister spoke with reporters regarding this latest development.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“When I met with the president in Mexico City, he invited me to join him in Cancun where every two weeks he goes to look at the [progress of the] Tren Maya project. And so he invited different ministries and the head of C.F.E. to be able to meet with us. We had a chance to meet with the president and the head of C.F.E. and they have agreed that they will work with us to continue to provide energy. As you know, well probably most people don’t know, we have a maximum of fifty-five megawatts of energy that we can buy. Now what the president offered us to be able to increase it by twenty more, so we’ll be able to buy approximately seventy-five megawatts and we’ll be working with C.F.E. now to run a second line into Belize.”
Also accompanying PM Briceño to Mexico was Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise, Jose Abelardo Mai. Together, they held discussions with other Mexican government officials on issues that include cattle exportation, as well as the contrabanding of Belizean sugar.
Prime Minister John Briceño
”As you all know, a lot of our sugar is being contraband into the Chetumal region and it creates shortages for us. The president agreed that he’ll talk with the Minister of Economy for us to look at the tariff regime to be able to expect to reduce it and also then to give us a certain quota to be able to export sugar into [Mexico]. We spoke about cattle. The presidential decree has come to an end and we’re looking at expanding it so that we can continue to export cattle into Mexico. We also looked at coconuts, a new industry in Belize and we’ll be working with… and the Minister of Agriculture was there with me. They will start the discussions as to how we’d be able to get our coconuts, following the requirements from Mexico and so we spoke also about that and shrimp.’
Earlier today in Belmopan, the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, AMEXCID, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, launched a project called Reproductive Technology in Cattle Production in Belize. The project includes a diagnosis of the cattle industry.
The Briceño administration has taken a decision to remove the existing border tax for Mexican visitors entering Belize. Among several other initiatives, Cabinet has also agreed on allowing Mexican visitors to use their insurance in Belize. It’s all in an effort to facilitate easier access and movement into the country. PM Briceño explains.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Our cabinet has agreed to lift or to provide the cards for the Mexicans free of charge so they could come into Belize easily, remove the border tax and also be able to use their insurance into Belize. We’re doing this so that we can be able to make it easier for Mexicans to visit Belize. And lastly, we spoke about Tren Maya. We spoke with General Aguila, who is in charge of the project, along with ICA, a private sector company that’s building, they have different sections. They are building different companies, along with the army. They are building it and about the possibility of moving it from Chetumal, Tren Maya, to our border, to start there and to eventually go into the rest of the country. So all of these discussions, this is what we’ve agreed to roughly and we’re now starting to put that on pen and paper and hopefully sometime next month we’ll be able to sign this agreement. So it was very successful, I’m very grateful to President AMLO, as everybody knows him, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. I also met with the governor from Quintana Roo, who was also there. We had several discussions. There’s an interest in the port because now that Chetumal is going to be a duty free area, all the goods will have to come in through the Belize port. So they want to also take a look at the port and see that we can improve the port so that they can handle the amount of goods that they expect will be coming through shortly. I extended an invitation to the governor and we expect that probably in maybe a month or two, so that he’d be able to come on a working visit.”
The past several weeks has seen a surge in cartel activity in neighboring Mexico, particularly in the state of Quintana Roo. This spurred Belizean authorities to tighten border security and increase operations along the Rio Hondo River. Today, Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa was asked if these violent crimes are showing any signs of slowing down soon. He said that, according to Mexican officials, they are.
Kareem Musa, Minster of Home Affairs
“Our counterparts in Mexico are saying that in fact things are dying down. The tension is easing a bit, but at the same time we must be relentless in terms of protecting our border. And so we are at no point letting our guards down right now. The presence is still there the increase in presence and personnel from our department and the military is at our border points and we are taking it very seriously. We have not put our guards down despite the fact that it seems to have quelled a bit in Mexico.”
Reporter
“Have you investigated or are you investigating any of the narco operatives? Because I believe the COMPOL conceded that we know that there are some operating in the north.”
Kareem Musa
“Absolutely. You might have seen last week I believe it was a wanted posters for certain individuals from the north. Those are active investigations into those individuals that, that is being carried out by the department.”
Twenty-five-year-old Jemine Thurton is making headlines tonight for scamming a popular Belize City restaurant and bar out of thousands of dollars in food and drinks. Between March twenty-fourth and May first, she ordered generously from Celebrity’s menu, requesting shots of tequila, nachos, Heineken beer, shrimp alfredo and an extensive list of other food and drinks amounting to three thousand, two hundred and twenty-eight dollars. Thurton never paid for any of it and has been charged with two counts of obtaining property by deception. It is alleged that Thurton, a regular customer of Celebrity’s, scammed the establishment by making fraudulent online payments. Taylor Fuller, an administrator at the restaurant, grew suspicious when he observed two payments dated May fifteenth and seventeenth, respectively. According to Fuller, the online banking system does not make mistakes with time and dates as it is an automated process. When he visited Belize Bank to make a query, Fuller was informed that the transactions were illegitimate. He then did a review of all the previous payment transactions made by Thurton and discovered that none of the payments were legitimate. On Sunday, a police report was filed by Fuller and Thurton was arrested and charged. She appeared in court earlier today where she was charged with two counts of obtaining property by deception. She pleaded not guilty to both charges and was offered bail in the sum of five thousand dollars, plus one surety of the same amount.
Due to its accessibility and the option of anonymity, the internet has become the primary place to conduct a get-rich-quick scheme. Over the past few years, many Belizeans have fallen victim to online scams and authorities have grappled with how to counteract them. Today, Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa was asked what efforts are being made to limit the number of online scammers in Belize. Here’s his response.
Kareem Musa, Minster of Home Affairs
“Yes, cyber security, as over the last five years to a decade, has been on the front burner for our ministry and across the region. As you know, Jamaica was facing an incredible issue with scammers in Jamaica. And now we have seen it come to our shores on a much smaller scale, but at the same time, extremely important. And so we have been monitoring this along with the chamber of commerce. They have brought it to our attention from last year. A number of call centers have raised the issue. And so moving forward it is our intention to meet with them to see what types of legislation we can put in place for them. I’m happy that in some situations, we are able to charge individuals for the fraud that they have committed, but moving forward, tightening the legislation around that is extremely important.”
Reporter
“Sir, would the presence of the regional police commissioners be able to bolster your efforts along those lines?”
Kareem Musa
“Absolutely. Like I said, that is a cross region issue. That’s one of the top issues, cyber security and so it is expected that will be addressed.”
The mitigation pleas for convicted attorney, Oscar Selgado started today, but his medical condition was so fragile that the proceeding was adjourned until Friday. Today, two persons spoke on Selgado’s behalf: former Chief Magistrate, Sharon Fraser, who is a diabetic like Selgado and who can attest to some of the challenges that diabetics endure. The second person, Frank Selgado, is the attorney’s brother, who shared information about their humble upbringing that his brother had to work hard to become an attorney, and that he made a mistake in life. But the matter could not proceed further because Selgado experienced a fainting spell and Justice Nigel Pilgrim, adjourned it until Friday. Before the adjournment, Selgado asked for permission to speak and told the court that the prison penalized him by putting him in solitary confinement without proper ventilation for making a phone call to the courthouse last Thursday to inquire if the documents for his temporary release for his appearance in court today were made out. He said he made the call because he heard from an employee at the prison that there were no documents for his appearance in court. Selgado, fighting back tears, apologized to the court and said his purpose for making the call was not to undermine any system, but simply to ensure that the papers were prepared in order that he could be brought down to the court today. He said that his experience in the poorly ventilated cell played havoc on his already fragile health condition and that the person who was sent to examine him was a fellow prisoner who could only check his glucose level, which at the time was acutely low. The judge said he’d have the matter investigated as it pertains to how Selgado’s health condition is being treated at the facility. Following the adjournment, one of Selgado’s attorney, Arthur Saldivar told reporters that he thinks the prison was too harsh on Selgado for calling and inquiring about his release papers.
Arthur Saldivar, Attorney for Oscar Selgado
“There is always this belief that there’s special treatment and he’s not going to be treated the same way ordinary people or other persons would be treated. He is an ordinary person. There is nothing superhuman about an attorney. And he is an ordinary person with serious medical frailties and conditions. And certainly there’s no special treatment being given to him. He’s been convicted of a serious offence, we know this, and like any person would, he has to go through this process. I do believe that the prison for what he is said to have done, acted extreme, to say the least. A phone call does not warrant a trip to solitary confinement. He was not threatening anybody. He was not making himself a menace. He was simply querying as to whether or not his removal order was properly processed for him to be here today. So I am urging the prison and the prison authorities who I understand have a job to do, to at least be a little bit more reasonable and rational with all their inmates but in particular with those who have conditions like Mr. Selgado. We had the situation of Jahan Abadi not too long ago – a person, Mr. Selgado, with Mrs. Salgado’s particular medical condition, diabetes. He himself was put in solitary confinement on a number of occasions for very minor things, wound up dying in less than a year. We do not want that to repeat itself. I believe that the management at Kolby were given that privilege to manage and earn monies off inmates with a view to having conditions made better for all inmates, not to make remand time and short-term sentences a death penalty. The court may not be apprised fully and understand fully, so we are in the process of bringing a doctor to give the court the benefit of expert testimony as to what could be expected, and why it is that the facility at Kolby is not adequate for a person in Mr. Selgado’s condition.”
