Earlier today, a police officer was arraigned in Belize City Magistrate’s Court for allegedly bullying Commissioner of Police Chester Williams. While ComPol Williams got a one-month extension before leaving the Belize Police Department, his colleagues charged one of their own for allegedly bullying him on Facebook. The officer, fifty-one-year-old Barrington Gilbert Mai, also known as Barry Flowers, lives in Carmelita Village, Orange Walk District. This morning, Mai was brought to court in a police van but was snuck in through the back to avoid the cameras. By 10 a.m., he appeared before a Senior Magistrate, unrepresented, and was charged with using a computer system to publish obscene and vulgar data. The allegations state that on April 2nd, 2025, he posted obscene and vulgar content about the Commissioner of Police. Mai pleaded not guilty. While there was no objection to bail, the prosecutor requested conditions. The Senior Magistrate set bail at five thousand dollars, with one surety of the same amount or two sureties of two thousand, five hundred dollars each, which Mai met. His next court date is June 4th, 2025. Conditions of his bail include not interfering with the virtual complainant or any of his family members or prosecution witnesses and maintaining a twenty-five-foot distance from ComPol Williams and his family. Failure to comply could result in his bail being revoked.
Personnel from the Department of the Environment and other key regulatory agencies recently met to discuss the Cayo Rosario Project. This meeting addressed public concerns and the government’s assurance that the developer will meet all requirements. The Cayo Rosario Project, which has been controversial due to its location within the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, dates back several years. Marion Ali spoke with Chief Environmental Officer Anthony Mai about the next steps and filed this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
After a recent protest against the Cayo Rosario Development Project, several government departments and agencies have come together to decide on a collective approach. This is to make sure the project’s leaders follow all environmental requirements. Chief Environmental Officer Anthony Mai told News Five that the team has agreed to create a schedule for a monitoring program to oversee the different stages of the project.
Anthony Mai
Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer
“In this case, if we do monitoring on the island, the Mining Unit would be represented to look at the mining related issues; Essential Building Authority will look at matters related to granting approval for the construction of buildings. The Lands Department was at the meeting, and in this case the Lands Department will look for any issue related to the construction of the pier and anything within the sixty-six-feet reserve. The Coastal Zone Management Authority was in the meeting and they will look at the coastal-related issues. The Fisheries Department was there, the Fisheries Department, and the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, as you know, has a co-management agreement for that particular area. So each agency during the site visit would have a specific role to play in terms of ensuring that the development meets their kind of conditions and then the D.O.E. comes in and we ensure that the overall E.C.P. is being complied with. This is the sustainable way through which the Government of Belize wants this type of projects to develop.”
Even before now, the project has had to comply with some tough regulations.
Anthony Mai
“The project went through the E.I.A. process. The E.I.A. process is a very tedious process to some degree. The importance of it, however, is that the relevant technical and scientific information is provided to the National Environmental Appraisal Committee, which currently, is comprised of 15 to 16 senior people within government, people from NGOs, people from the private sector, and from academia. So the E.I.A. report provides all the relevant information that they would need to advise the D.O.E. on any project, and in this particular case, the NEAC went through three deliberations, so three meetings because of early issues related to this project.”
Among the main concerns raised years ago was the potential impact on the local fly-fishing community. Mai mentioned that this concern has been considered since 2018. The meeting also reviewed the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to ensure the project met all requirements. The Environmental Compliance Plan (ECP) is available online, and Mai encourages everyone to download it to help authorities monitor the project. The ECP lists all the conditions for the project’s construction and includes the conceptual design. Mai also noted that the Cayo Rosario project isn’t the only one in a protected area to get the green light.
Anthony Mai
“There are private properties within protected areas, and the owners of those private properties could apply to the Department of Environment for environmental clearance for any development that he or she wants to do within a protected area. The caveat, however, is that the Government of Belize has the E.I.A. process through which we evaluate these projects, and we ensure that these projects, at the end of the day, if they are approved, have minimum impacts on the environment.”
An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a global standard for evaluating the environmental effects of proposed projects. To ensure the Cayo Rosario project meets these standards, the team will take several steps: improve communication about mining permits, mangrove alteration permits, and construction applications for piers and other structures. They will conduct an inter-agency site visit to check the project’s progress and ensure it complies with the Environmental Compliance Plan (ECP). Joint monitoring will happen during all key phases of the project, and they will frequently request status reports from the project owner. The Department of the Environment’s San Pedro office will also conduct regular compliance inspections. Marion Ali for News Five.
The Government of Belize has ambitious plans for the health sector over the next few years. At a recent meeting, the cabinet endorsed the Belize Health Sector Strategic Plan 2025 to 2034, which lays out a detailed roadmap for tackling key health system challenges. The cabinet also approved a retention package of allowances for public health nurses to help keep highly skilled nurses in Belize. We spoke with Andrew Baird, President of the K.H.M.H. Workers Union, to get his reaction to the news.
Andrew Baird
Andrew Baird, President, K.H.M.H. Workers Union
“I’m working as a nurse for the past twenty-five years and for the past twenty-five years, uniform allowance for nurses have been at three hundred annually. And if you look at the cost and living to today, three hundred can only buy us our scrubs. And but our uniform includes shoes. So the allotted amongst should be enough to buy shoes. What I know from it maybe raised from three hundred to five hundred also there is what we call a night. Allowance that is given to nurses. Then at this time it is fifty for every twenty night that you work, but you only get to work seven nights per month. So to reach twenty nights, you have to work at least three months or so before you could get that allowance. I believe that they want to raise that allowance to a hundred dollars or something like that, contrary to what the government might offer in our CBA, I believe we are asking for that a lot that night allowance to be monthly rather than based on the amount of nights that one work. So those are a couple of the allowances that I know that the government may have in their package. May so be that they may have a raise of salary for nurses, I don’t know, or a salary adjustment. But our last adjustment for nurses was in 2012 when we had that adjustment along with the nomenclature name changes throughout the nursing system. But I wait to see a document that the government is pledging to give as a package to nurses, to retain us. The retention of Belizean nurses is long overdue, but not only Belizean nurses, but nurses that works on Belizean a whole. What we have seen over the years is that because of the global demand for nurses, our Belizean nurses and nurses who work in Belize are being offered packages in the US, Canada, and the UK mainly. And those packages have signed bonuses, they find places for them to stay, and then the salary is very attractive. So the government has the match that if we’re going to retain our nurses to stay in Belize.”
Employers nationwide, especially in the agro-sector, are facing a growing labor shortage. Despite the Briceño administration’s claim of a two-point-one percent unemployment rate, there are many unfilled vacancies. Some blame the Business Process Outsourcing sector for this issue. Today, we asked B.C.C.I. Vice President Jody Williams about it, and he mentioned there’s a significant shift happening in Belize’s labor market.
Jody Williams, Vice-President, B.C.C.I.
“There is a big paradigm shift when it comes to labor in Belize. There is that switch. Young, able persons are going to call centers. The thing is that call centers have become the norm in Belize. We have seen many openings up in many districts, even down south as well. It is becoming prevalent, but sometimes we are looking for farmers. We are looking for persons to go out in the field. There are so many different jobs but we cant find persons and we cant bring in persons form outside as well like before. So in our industry when it comes to agriculture, agro-processing, it is hard to find those persons who will go out to farm, to make crops we need and the able persons, with those skills they prefer to go to Ready Call. We see that trend happening.”
The Government of Belize has reaffirmed its commitment to carrying out the redistricting of the country’s electoral divisions. In the latest cabinet meeting, it was decided that the 2023 proposal from the Elections and Boundaries Commission was unworkable and didn’t meet constitutional standards. Although the commission must now come up with a completely new plan, the government has promised to complete the redistricting by the end of 2025. News Five’s Britney Gordon has more details on this situation.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Another general election has come and gone without redistricting Belize’s electoral divisions. In 2023, the Elections and Boundaries Commission put forward a redistricting plan, but it faced immediate backlash from politicians and redistricting advocates. Earlier this week, the Cabinet reviewed the proposal again and decided it was unworkable and didn’t meet constitutional standards. Paul Morgan from the Belize Peace Movement believes the proposal should have been rejected well before the general elections.
Paul Morgan
Paul Morgan, Belize P.E.A.C.E. Movement
“I wouldn’t accept those proposals either. They’re total nonsense, right? When you hear, when you see a constituency that include Caye Caulker and Belize City. And when you see Belmopan stretching all the way out to the Guatemala and border, they cannot be serious. That was intended to, those proposals were intended to be rejected, right? Those weren’t serious proposals at all. And honourable men rarely should be challenged by the media. Take a look at the proposals and tell me if they make sense. They’re betting that we, the population of Belize, will not be reading those things and will not be analyzing them thinking that they’re total magic, but they’re total nonsense.”
The Cabinet has asked the minister in charge of elections and the Attorney General to work with the Elections and Boundaries Commission on any needed constitutional changes to finish the redistricting. They’ve also promised to complete the process within a year. Before his re-election, we asked Prime Minister John Briceño if the redistricting could have been done sooner.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño (File: January 13th, 2025 )
“I believe that the Elections and Boundaries Commission could have worked faster or more diligently and probably have more consultations with the public and to see how best it can work. And so, at the end of the day, we are the government and I, as the head, have to take the responsibility. So, I will take responsibility for that and I can assure that we want, as soon as we get in, to make sure that we start working on it. I’m hoping that one or two years at the most, we should be able to already have that settled.”
Jeremy Enriquez, a strong supporter of redistricting, believes the proposal was flawed from the start. He argues that it didn’t tackle the problem of ensuring fair and balanced electoral divisions across the country.
Jeremy Enriquez
Jeremy Enriquez, Concerned Belizean
“There was another flaw in the proposal is that it did not meet the required international standard of ten to fifteen percent of deviation from the average number of voters across electoral divisions. the proposed twenty-five to thirty-five, which is totally unacceptable. So. first, they did not address the issue across the country. Then they picked areas of Belize City. The methodology did not look at the number of persons eligible to vote. All of those things made it wrong.”
Enriquez also took aim at the Election and Boundaries Commission, saying it was too politicized to come up with an unbiased proposal. He suggests that other organizations should be involved in drafting the new plan.
“I would recommend that an analysis of our electoral revising could be done through the policy section of the University of Belize. They have enough experts who could really objectively do that and then present the proposal to the Elections and Boundaries Commission, who would then present that to the government of their redivision. Secondly, there’s also the Statistical Institute of Belize, which has a lot of data. They have mapping equipment and all of that who could professionally do or undertake a study for a fair divisioning of our electoral divisions.”
Recently, the government has faced pressure from concerned citizens demanding a faster redistricting process. Last month, the Caribbean Court of Justice dismissed Jeremy Enriquez’s appeal against the Government of Belize. Enriquez had tried to delay the election due to the government’s failure to finish redistricting, but he was told that such a claim must be made outside the election period. Britney Gordon for News Five.
Next week, the Belize Peace Movement (BPM) is taking the Election and Boundaries Commission to court to argue that the overall voter’s list, known as schedule one, doesn’t meet constitutional requirements. It’s been several years since the Government of Belize promised to redistrict the country’s thirty-one constituencies to ensure each has a nearly equal number of voters, as outlined in the constitution. The BPM has been vocal in pushing for a faster redistricting process. We spoke with BPM member Paul Morgan for more details on the case.
Paul Morgan, Belize Peace Movement
“The court’s supposed to be the guardian of that constitution. They should guard that thing zealously and jealously, and that the court shouldn’t hesitate to accept our case and expedited as if it was their own. Although our system is adversarial, we as citizens came to the court to say, listen, check this out. And it wasn’t the first one we filed in 2019, similar, but not the same. Before in 2019, we were just trying to force proposals, which they did, in this what I call a nonsensical proposal. They put together. They did that knowing that they wanted to stall. The judge in that first case. When we went to the judge to enforce the requirements that it was not constitutional, the proposals were not constitutional, the judge said that your case, you’re asking for reliefs that does not fit under this one this case. So please, you should go ahead and file another case, a fresh case. This is what we did. The government has delayed that case from November 21st, 2024 to this date, talking about that we as citizens would have forfeited our rights by signing a consent order with the government that they must produce these proposals. Totally ridiculous. How can citizens forfeit their fundamental rights?”
Today, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing held its second annual Women’s Month Sports Day. The amazing women who took part were honored for the unique challenges they face outside of work. Two inspiring speakers, Minister of Human Resources Thea Garcia-Ramirez and Belmopan Deputy Mayor Correta Banner, delivered encouraging messages at the event.
Thea Garcia-Ramirez
Thea Garcia-Ramirez, Minister of Human Development
“You juggle a professional career. A lot of you go to school on top of that and try to continue developing, professionally, personally. You raise families, you take care of children and husbands, and you take care sometimes of older members of your family. I know a lot of times you struggle like I do to have some personal time just for yourselves and you do it all with a smile. And sometimes, you smile on the inside because it’s hard to smile every day on the outside. I get that. I get you, but it’s a wonderful way to recognize you, to say, I see you and to celebrate you.”
Correta Banner
Correta Banner, Deputy Mayor, Belmopan
“Your dreams are valid and no one can take away your potential. It’s important to support one another and lift each other up because when women stand together, the force becomes an unstoppable force. Never doubt your words and never forget that you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Keep pushing forward and stay true to yourself and trust the process. Remember, as Maya Angel beautifully said, we may encounter many defeats, but we should never be defeated. But we must not, so we must not be defeated. Keep going because the world is waiting for you to shine. And always remember, never ever forget. You are all wonderfully and fearfully made.”
President Donald Trump has imposed a ten percent tariff on Belizean goods exported to the U.S., just three months after taking office. The Government of Belize is closely monitoring this new policy, which the Trump administration calls a reciprocal tariff. This ten percent fee targets countries like Belize that have tariffs on American goods. Some countries, like China, face an additional thirty-four percent on top of an existing twenty percent tariff. The tariff rates vary for the one hundred and eighty-five affected countries. What does this mean for our exports to the U.S.? We asked Narda Garcia, C.E.O. in the Office of the Prime Minister. She said there’s not much information to share yet as officials are still analyzing the situation. Tonight, we start the news with an official reaction to these higher reciprocal tariff rates imposed by the U.S. Government on Belize.
Narda Garcia
Narda Garcia, C.E.O., Office of the Prime Minister
“I can only say that they’re revising the list to see what products will be affected and then government will give a response. We as CEOs have not been given the information as yet, so I wouldn’t want to speculate on that position.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that officials are quickly analyzing the situation and will consult with relevant stakeholders to protect Belize’s economic interests. In recent years, Belize’s top exports to the U.S. have been sugar and fisheries products. A swift response is crucial, whether through direct talks with U.S. officials or a coordinated effort with CARICOM. How will this impact our local economy? We spoke with Economic Consultant, Doctor Leroy Almendarez, to get his perspective on this latest development. Here’s what he had to say.
Leroy Almendarez
Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Economic Consultant
“In essence, every country that is applying a tariff to American products we are now applying a tariff to each one of those countries. I must immediately say that countries can do that. It goes way back to the history regarding trade. Even Germany tried it for infant industries to survive. In this case what they are saying is my manufacturers and those people who do business in America, if I make the cost of goods coming into the country a little bit more expensive, trying to apply these rebalancing tariffs, or tariffs, then it simply means they will be able to survive. The only way that really happens is if I can provide everything I need, the inputs etc. When I looked at it, and honestly, I left because I watched it and said, is Belize being tariffed, because I didn’t see it. Then I went back, and I looked at the countries and saw the application of the ten percent. I also noticed reciprocally Belize applies ten percent as well. So, this was a direct reciprocity, one for one, because it could have been less than third percent.”
The Boledo and Sunday Lottery Draw are moving from Belize City to Belmopan. Despite assurances that protocols will be followed, some people are unhappy about the change. Narda Garcia, C.E.O. in the Office of the Prime Minister, reassures that the same protocols will be maintained, and Belmopan residents can watch the draw in person. She explained that the move is to ensure the games are in a safe location, away from Belize City’s hurricane and flood risks. Garcia also shared details about the profits from Boledo in 2024.
Narda Garcia
Narda Garcia, Chair, Lotteries Commission
“For practical purposes, because the main office is in Belmopan and for looking at the issues that we have with climate change and hurricanes and having to move, so we said, let us take it to Belmopan. However, we have two machines, and we maintain them every year. We have people to come and calibrate and to audit the machines. So, we don’t foresee a problem. Change is always something that people reject and some people will not accept. We will make it available for the public to view it in Belmopan, of course, but Marion, it is a myth. People no longer go out to view the drawings; people view it live. That has changed so much. I mean, you can go now and see what happens on a Sunday, when it’s the biggest draw, the jackpot and the Sunday lottery, right, and the Boledo, nobody goes out”
