Haitian President, Ariel Henry, has resigned amid mounting chaos in the nation. Over the last few weeks, gangs have been attacking government structures, leaving the country on the brink of collapse. President Henry took over as acting-president in 2021, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Last week, gang leader Jimmy Cheriezer, also known as “Barbecue”, launched a coordinated attack against President Henry, threatening civil war and genocide if he did not step down. The violence erupted while Henry was in Kenya signing an agreement to deploy one thousand police officers to Haiti to restore citizen security. He was forced to land in Puerto Rico following that trip. And, over the weekend, CARICOM members held an emergency high-level meeting in Jamaica, with North American and European leaders to discuss immediate mitigation measures for Haiti. Coming out of that meeting, Doctor Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the President of Guyana and Chair of CARICOM, announced Henry’s resignation and the establishment of a Transitional Presidential Council in Haiti.
Mohamed Irfaan Ali
Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana
“We are pleased to announce the commitment to a transitional government arrangement which paves the way for a peaceful transition of power, continuity of governance and action plan for near term security and the road to free and fair elections. It further seeks to assure that Haiti will be governed by the rule of law. This commitment reflects hard compromises among a diverse coalition of actors who have put their country above all differences. To that end, we acknowledge the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry upon the establishment of Transitional Presidential Council and the naming of an interim-prime minister. I want to pause and thank Prime Minister Henry for his service to Haiti, his service to the Haitian people and for his personal commitment for the furtherance of the development of Haiti and the advancement of the development of Haiti and I asked us to give him an applause.”
Prime Minister John Briceño was also asked for his views on the security crisis in Haiti and Henry’s resignation, during his appearance on Open Your Eyes. PM Briceño says that since 2021, CARICOM leaders predicted that the situation would reach a tipping point. He added that the region and Haiti, specifically, is in need of intervention from leaders in North America and the European Union.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“It is inevitable where it is getting to. WE have been saying this from the crisis started back in 2021. I remember visited the Secretary General of the United Nations, Guitterez and I said Haiti what are we going to do. We said, what can we do, we have to start with the people in Haiti. Unfortunately the people in Haiti don’t have a say because we have these people that are as powerful as the government or even more powerful than the government and this is just years and years of neglect and corruption and greed of the political elite in Haiti to get to where we are, the point where Prime Minister Henry can’t even go back to Haiti and will have to live in exile. But the powers that be, U.S. and Canada and the EU etc, they have to help us. In CARICOM we have been crying out to say we need help in Haiti. The problem or concern is that many people is saying we are going and do what, go against the gang members, a shootout. WE from the beginning said we have a humanitarian responsibility to Haiti. They are our brothers and sisters and that we are prepared to send a small contingent from the BDF once the proper conditions are met.”
Drought-breakers and history-makers, those are the titles being given to the women who were able to break the trend of years of non-placement at the seventy-fourth Miss World Pageant. Among those women was Belizean representative Elisa-Gayonne Vernon, who placed among the top forty of the one hundred and twelve women competing. This placement makes history as it is the first time Belize has placed since joining the competition in 1987. The contest was held in Mumbai, India on Saturday, March ninth, where Vernon competed in a series of events such as fitness, beauty, talent and public speaking. In a statement from Vernon, she reflected on her final answer issued during the pageant, reading, (quote), I am a farmer. A phrase I included in my final answer during the last segment of the Miss World Belize 2022 pageant. I said this, because I am proud of who I am and my heritage. I want to be a representation of every Belizean face and every child with a dream. I want to inspire others to be proud of their roots and know that that they are capable of anything they put their mind to. We are all royalty, because I share this crown with every Belizean, (end quote). Vernon returned to Belize this afternoon where she was met by family and supporters congratulating her on her achievement.
The 2024 Belikin La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge has come to an end and the reigning champs Slim and Trim Like Guava Limb have once again come out on top. The three-man team, competing in the male category, dominated the competition, securing the fastest time on all four days. The race began last Friday at the foot of the Hawkesworth Bridge in San Ignacio, Cayo and ended after a four-day journey at the Belcan Bridge in Belize City on Monday. News Five’s Britney Gordon attended the event to capture the moment the winners crossed the finish line. Here’s the story.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Day four of the 2024 Belikin La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge concluded with no less excitement than its previous days. Thousands of Belizeans across the country lined the banks of the winding tributary. They were there to see if team Slim and Trim Like Guava Limb, would once again be victorious, or if they would be overtaken by team Lucas Oil Male. Before the final race, we checked in with team Guava Limb for an update.
Andres Cabb
Andres Cabb, Paddler, Team Slim & Trim Like Guava Limb
“We feel happy and pressured at the same time because we know we have time on the other guys and they will want to go hard to drop us and put the time back. It’s excitement. Yeah. With the help of God, we’re gonna win.”
Also leading in their category was team Lucas Oil Mixed, which was in sixth place overall at the start of day four.
Milenie Cabb
Milenie Cabb, Paddler, Team Lucas Oil Mixed
“I feel good and I thank God that he’s helping us giving us strength and the and help so to keep it up,”
Britney Gordon
“Are you guys prepared for today?”
Milenie Cabb
“Well, yeah, we are getting prepared yet.“
Britney Gordon
“So, confident going into this?”
Milenie Cabb
“Yeah, first God if we don’t flip I know that we can do it out 0:47 again.”
Unfortunately for team Lucas Oil Mixed, their canoe would be the first to overturn at the start of the race near Paradise River Landing in Burrell Boom. The team then spent the entirety of the race making up for the time lost and still managed to finish first in its category overall.
Clayton Cabb
Clayton Cabb, Paddler, Team Lucas Oil Male
“I feel a little bit disappointed because we flip at the beginning, like how I said this morning, if we will first God do good and come first place, if it we does not flip, but we did flip at the start. So we lost time there, and then we stay way behind, but thank God we made it second place here on the fourth day, but overall we have the first place in a mixed category.”
Another woman overcoming adversity in this race was Lily Cruz of the Belize Port Authority team, who was paddling in the Women’s Category. Cruz had suffered an injury to her finger the previous day and was taken to the hospital but was back on the water for the final day. She told us that she was paddling for all women and girls watching her and her team.
Lily Cruz
Lily Cruz, Paddler, Team Belize Port Authority
“We are representing the women empowering each one of us, telling, we are strong, believing we are strong, and knowing our value and the gender equality. I guess we should be the same as in the male because in each race, they see the woman as a little less than the male and there is a little less prize for us than what there is for the male. So I guess we are rowing to say that we need equality and believe there is equality.”
Although the shortest, the final leg of the race had much room for exhilaration as the gap between Team Guava Limb and team Lucas Oil Male became smaller, the closer the two came to the finish line. Tensions rose as the finish line approached and Lucas Oil managed to overtake Guava Limb for a few minutes. The Belcan Bridge was filled with onlookers, craning their necks over the edge to see which team would be the one to finish first as the race was neck and neck. Ultimately, the answer became known and Team Guava Limb was, once again, the champions. This time, with a four-day winning streak.
Javier Guardado
Javier Guardado, Paddler, Team Slim & Trim Like Guava Limb
“First of all, I would like to give thanks to God for giving us the strength and courage and to sponsor Guava Limb and well, I feel proud of myself and of my teammates too. We worked hard and we did it.”
Britney Gordon
“I know at the end there, it almost seemed like you guys were going to be passed at the finish line and you guys fought really hard to get that first place. What was that experience like?”
Javier Guardado
“Well, you know, we give it our all, the bridge was there. We give it our all and we did.”
Britney Gordon
“So you guys satisfied with your overall performance these past four days?”
Javier Guardado
“Yes. We are, we are pretty satisfied. We won the four days.”
Britney Gordon
”And being that you guys came from being in second place in 2022, first place last year and first place again, how are you guys going into the next year for next year’s La Ruta Maya?”
Javier Guardado
“Well, we’ll see what’s happened. You never know what will happen, but hopefully we could get the first place for next year too.”
With a race so close, the team in second place had given it their all, but ultimately, were not able to overcome the setbacks they had encountered on day two, said Clayton Cabb of team Lucas Oil Male.
Clayton Cabb
“I think what really happened was we had a mess up the second day, which will last like the four and a half minutes. That, that I think got us a little bit mentally, right? We tried to work yesterday to cover some of it, but yeah, there’s too many strong teams. They’re like five, six top teams and in high water you can barely do anything because they’ll just tag along and then it’s heavy so you cannot pull out from all those big teams. It’s hard. It’s hard. Nonetheless, we tried. We couldn’t do it, but overall, I’m proud of what we have done and what we have accomplished.”
And although disappointed at the loss, team Lucas Oil Male was very proud of the team’s performance for both male and mixed categories.
Clayton Cabb
“I’m really proud of my mixed team. I am I’m the manager and owner of Ultimate Electrical Solutions. So I’m co sponsored with Westrack. My wife too, that’s our electrical company. So I’m really proud of all our partners. They flip, the mixed team flipped every day. Nonetheless, they’re still, overall, I think they were sixth today, this morning. They might have lost that sixth place, but for you to see that they can flip, come way from behind, still catch up the other mixed team, still catch up. Well, they used to catch up also every day, almost. That speaks with the quality of training that Westrack allows us to have. Without that training, without that support from Westrack, I don’t think that is out possible.”
Police Commissioner Chester Williams has confirmed that two people were murdered earlier this afternoon in a shocking shooting in Belmopan City. The incident happened at the Belmopan Market Day Plaza at around three o’clock.
ComPol Williams confirmed that an adult and a child were fatally shot.
The shooter is in police custody. A picture shows him shackled and sitting on the floor of the police station. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the shooter is Haitian-American. The victims are from the Netherlands. Police are investigating the motive.
Witnesses at the Market Day Plaza following the shooting
A video sent to News Five shows the two children, a girl and a boy, on the ground, bleeding, before they were rushed to the hospital by witnesses.
Reports coming out of Belmopan are that two children were shot earlier this afternoon. The incident happened at the Market Day Plaza. Police remain on the scene.
Witnesses say that a gunman pulled out his firearm and began shooting at a family. Belmopan-based PLUS TV is reporting that the wife attempted to flee, but the gunman pursued her, ultimately shooting her. The gunman then targeted the two children who were with their mother. He chased after them and fired shots at them. It remains uncertain whether the two children survived the attack.
During his appearance on Open Your Eyes this morning, Prime Minister John Briceño, expressed condolences to the families of Stephanie Lindo and Oswald Garbutt. The couple was found dead in their residence on Freetown Road in Belize City on Saturday morning. Lindo was allegedly shot and killed by her husband Garbutt, proprietor of Blue Steel Sounds. Garbutt then reportedly turned the gun on himself.
PM Briceño said, “My heart reached out…this terrible tragedy on Saturday with Stephani Lindo and her husband. Still at a loss. I know Bill Lindo very well and I know that he is hurting beyond words, he and his family. We reached out to both families. I still don’t know what really transpired. It is tragic.”
PM Briceño described Lindo as “full of life.” She was the City Administrator.
Prime Minister John Briceño today welcomed Sohui Cho, Country Director at the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in El Salvador. In a Facebook post, the PM said that he reiterated “our invitation for the agency to establish a permanent office in the country.”
PM Briceño expressed gratitude to the Government of Korea for the grant funding provided to assist the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB). “SIB is critical as accurate data gathering informs development policies and external investors interested in doing business with Belize”, he said.
(L-R) Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francis Fonseca, Prime Minister John Briceño, KOICA Director Sohui Cho, SIB Director-General Diana Castillo-Trejo.
Most recently, an agreement was signed for Belize to benefit from the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of Korea.
According to its website, “Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has been continuously extending ODA (Official Development Assistance) for water in various sectors, including health, rural development, energy, and climate change response. In particular, in the water sector, linkages with other issues such as gender, governance, and ICT have become more important. Therefore, KOICA has contributed to the sustainable development of developing countries by establishing the Water Mid-Term Strategy (2021-2025) for solving global water problems more efficiently.”
The regional commitment to fight hunger and malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean has made significant progress thanks to the update of the Food Security, Nutrition and Hunger Eradication Plan of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) for the period 2024-2030, known as the CELAC FNS Plan. This update was approved and ratified during the VIII Summit of Heads of State and Government of CELAC, held on March 1 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
This commitment evidence Latin America and the Caribbean’s significant contribution to accelerating the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals, aimed at achieving societies free of hunger, poverty, and inequality in the region.
Our latest estimates show that, in 2022, 6.5 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean suffered from hunger; this represented 2.4 million fewer people than in 2021. But the situation remains critical; hunger continues to affect 43.2 million people in the region.
FAO in Jamaica, Bahamas and Belize/FAO
Likewise, limited access to resources and services, poverty, the aftermath of the pandemic, and conflicts as well as climate-related disasters, among other factors, are affecting the ecosystems on which food production and the livelihoods of farming communities depend and threaten efforts to ensure food security, nutrition and the sustainability of agrifood systems.
In this scenario, the CELAC FNS Plan 2024-2030 is a concrete initiative, reflected in a unanimous response from more than thirty countries, which, at a ministerial level, agreed to update this document to address the challenge of hunger and food insecurity in the region.
The new plan -developed in coordination with the Pro-Tempore Presidency, currently led by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the thirty-three CELAC countries, included broad participation and analysis with technical assistance from FAO, ECLAC, IICA, and ALADI- has become a benchmark for other regions of the world. Its implementation represents a milestone example of the consensus and political commitment of Latin America and the Caribbean.
This plan, structured into four pillars, includes a conceptual basis to guide the countries concerning legal frameworks, sustainable production, access to healthy diets, and agrifood systems resilient to climate change.
2024 could represent a decisive year for Latin America and the Caribbean to make progress in combating hunger and malnutrition and achieving more resilient and sustainable production systems. During 2023, we have consolidated a deep process of alliances, consensus, and dialogue that will soon be part of the FAO Regional Conference.
We are in the final stretch of preparation for our Regional Conference to be held in March in Georgetown, Guyana, where we will facilitate exchanges and discussions that will be essential to guide FAO’s technical cooperation in the design and implementation of plans and projects tailored to the needs of the countries, and in line with the priorities defined by governments at the highest political level.
In this regard, the reflections and resolutions arising from the updating and subsequent approval of the new CELAC FNS Plan also represent a significant contribution to the FAO Regional Conference.
The preparation of the Regional Conference includes an extensive consultation process involving different stakeholders, such as the private sector, academia, civil society, and parliamentary groups; and of course, the participation of government officials from the thirty-three FAO Member Countries; as well as the presence of Heads of State and Ministers of Agriculture and other sectors committed to the search for more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems.
We hope that the results of the Conference, translated into FAO’s mandate, will be consolidated as a tangible response. The success of these efforts will depend on the collaboration of all to make the hope of a world without hunger a reality.
By Mario Lubetkin, FAO Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean for Latin America and the Caribbean
The Belize Police Department is cautioning the public about the increasing prevalence of online scams across the country. A press release from the department says, “There have been numerous reports from citizens who have fallen victim to online scams carried out on social media apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp.”
“Common modes utilized to conduct these online scams are the advertisement of the sale of items or employment opportunities.”
While the Police Department acknowledges the importance of legitimate business transactions conducted through these platforms, they urge citizens to remain vigilant for common red flags that may signal the onset of fraudulent activity.
These warning signs include instances where the other party refuses to provide proper identification, banking information is directed to a third party, shipments are not handled through registered courier services, items or services are priced significantly below market value, or there is a persistent eagerness to accept a lower price than advertised.
The public is advised to exercise caution and only engage in financial transactions with individuals they are familiar with, as they risk unknowingly becoming involved in online scams.
