This morning, representatives of various media houses met for breakfast with the Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs and her senior staff, including C.E.O.’s Adele Catzim and Marconi Leal Junior. Also present was Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck and Assistant Solicitor General Samantha Matute-Tucker on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General. The purpose of the breakfast meeting was for the Government of Belize to provide an update on where it is in respect of the draft Maya Customary Land Tenure Policy. Following a demand by the collective Maya communities that government consults with them in their respective villages, Minister Dolores Balderamos-Garcia announced today that they will be visiting all forty-one indigenous communities to meet with villagers regarding the draft policy. She also explained that the Office of Indigenous People’s Affairs had already scheduled a public consultation in Punta Gorda Town prior to the mass gathering in Santa Elena on January twenty-seventh.
Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs
“Yes, we do intend, it will set back the process, as senior counsel has said, but we do intend to reach out in going back to the villages because I think that in responding to the political reality, because there is pressure, senior counsel and Samantha [Matute] can speak to the legal aspect, I have to try to address the political reality. We do intend to go back to as many villages as we possibly can, even if we have to bring some of them together. But I want to clarify a misconception that the government was not responsive to the call of the people to visit their villages when we held the latest consultations in January. Those consultations were planned well in advance, the latest iteration of the policy was shared from early December. What basically happened is that the plans for the consultation that Saturday and Sunday were already in place long before, when all of a sudden a few letters started to come in to the Office of Indigenous People’s Affairs in Punta Gorda, saying, “We noh di cohn da PG. We want unu come to Santa Elena.” And clearly, it was not a situation that the government could have responded to in any kind of responsible approach because had, well, I don’t want to use the word capitulated, but had we said okay, we’ll go to Santa Elena, we would have met twenty busloads of people with placards that had been prepared for them, saying, “Remember, you have to come back to us for your vote.” turning the entire situation completely political.”
The controversial, provisional document put forward by the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs has been met with cold water by the wider Maya community with one alcalde openly trashing the draft land tenure policy. With the Government of Belize on one side of the divisive issue and the Toledo Alcaldes Association/Maya Leaders Alliance on the other side, are the masses of residents in Toledo District properly informed of what’s taking place? That’s what we asked Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck earlier today.
Andrew Marshalleck
Andrew Marshalleck SC, Attorney-at-law
“I see certain Mayan villages claiming interest to land that third parties and other Mayan villages and other Belizean villages also claim interest to that space and I see everybody looking to the government to find a solution to that problem. I don’t see it as a race for popularity as between MLA and TAA and the government. The government must act responsibly and has a responsibility to each and every one of those persons who will be affected, including the Maya people, and they have been. There are, as I have repeatedly said, we acknowledge that there is a historical moral imperative to correct certain wrongs, to try to correct certain wrongs done to the Maya people. That is so, we accept that, but in correcting those wrongs, we can’t create another one. There are other interests in that space and everybody has to be considered fairly. The history is one thing, yes, but what exists today on the ground is what we must look to and try to resolve. Now it’s fundamentally untrue to say you’re being confined to one kilometer. First off, and you will recognize this right away, a one kilometer radius means the actual diameter is two kilometers, it’s not one. So from outer boundary to outer boundary is two kilometers. From the center to the outer boundary is one. What has been described is a radius, so when you hear language like that, that I am being confined to one kilometer, corralling the Maya people like hogs and all of that, that’s designed to inflame. It’s not designed to paint the correct picture of what it is… well this is why I am trying to address it, but I am trying to address it in fairly neutral terms because I don’t want to engage in any inflammatory back and forth on it. So, first off, recognize that what has been stated is a radius, it’s not the diameter. The diameter is actually two times the radius.”
At the adjournment of today’s Senate meeting, we asked Senator Michael Peyrefitte if he has received a response from the prime minister. As we have reported, Peyrefitte wrote to Prime Minister John Briceño requesting further details on the government’s reacquisition of the Port of Belize Limited. Senator Peyrefitte requested the names of any private individuals that the government may have contracted to aid in the process. He also requested information on how much they were paid from the public coffers. Here is what Peyrefitte told us.
Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Senator
“In short, no he has not responded. He has not gotten it to me. I checked my email. I checked my PO box, I have checked everywhere, the National Assembly. There is no letter here for me. But it would not be surprising if he does not respond. He has a tendency to not respond to legitimate questions from the people answers that he should give and it should be fairly easy to give. I don’t see what the difficulty there. I don’t expect him to respond because he doesn’t respect the law. He hasn’t responded to my last three or four questions, which indicates that he doesn’t care. He doesn’t feel like he needs to respect the law or uphold the law. So we will see what happens.”
Inside the National Assembly chamber, senators debated amendments to the Criminal Code and Summary Jurisdiction Acts. The proposed amendments seek to increase jail time for individuals who interfere with the work of law enforcement officers. Lead U.D.P. Senator, Michael Peyrefitte, raised concerns over the definitions of certain offenses outlined in the legislation, such as indecent words and behavior. NGO Senator Janelle Chanona also weighed in on the proposed amendment. These contributions prompted a response from Senator Eamon Courtenay. Here is how that discussion played out.
Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Senator
“I have great issue with the summary jurisdiction amendment. If you read it carefully madam president, what this is saying pretty much is that I don’t even have to threaten a public officer. I don’t even have to threaten a peace officer, all that peace officer has to do is determine that what I say in my own yard, amongst my own friends, drinking rum, that I can go jail for that. That is what I find completely and utterly unacceptable. It says, any person who uses, I am reading from the news section four (a), any person who uses any threatening, abusive, profane, obscene, and this is where you really lose me, indecent, because who defines indecent. What might be indecent to you might not be indecent to me, especially if I am in my home, if I am in my yard.”
Janelle Chanona
Janelle Chanona, NGO Senator
“We fully support the direction of this bill, but calls out that I don’t know if this is the open and shut to it. And I know we have some other pieces of legislation in the works. We would like to signal that sexual harassment on a whole currently should definitely be treated with the seriousness it deserves. As stated earlier, it is also critically important to define what is meant by terms. Because, what I might consider sexual harassment and indecent others may not consider indecent and what is culturally tolerated, if not encouraged behavior is so intrinsic sometimes we lose sight of what that is and that becomes blurred.”
Eamon Courtenay
Eamon Courtenay, Lead Government Senator
“What Senator Peyrefitte described, drinking and having a barbeque with his friends, behaving the way he usually behave, he will be guilty of an offense today. Let us look at what the bill proposes, we are going to repeal the provision I just read. Now recall what I read; the law as it stand today does not have any categories. Anybody who does these things and anybody who hears it anywhere is an offense. There are now these limiting words, if you do it in the hearing of a person acting as a judicial officer, legal officer and peace officer. Not a police officer walking down the road. He has to be performing his duties and this happens, then an offense is committed.”
An amendment to the Families and Children Act, stemming from a recent High Court ruling, seeks to mandate that a grandfather care for his grandchildren if the father of that child neglects his responsibility. The proposed amendment caused a great deal of concerns and questions among senators. Several parliamentarians referred to the proposed amendment as unfair. Here is how that debate played out.
Eamon Courtenay, Lead Government Senator
“Respect of the grandchild, it is only where the father or mother of the child is ill cannot be located or are unable to maintain themselves. So, a father must maintain his child. With respect to the grandchildren, that obligation rest on the mother and father to maintain that child, however if that mother or father is ill, cannot be located, or unable to maintain themselves then it is the grandfather obligation to maintain is imposed. This comes out of a decision of the Supreme Court. And so the law is being clarified that the obligation of the grandfather is not forever and always it is only if the parent cannot maintain the child in these circumstances.”
Michael Peyrefitte
Michael Peyrefitte, Lead U.D.P. Senator
“I according to this, I have a child and no matter how hard some parents try, sometimes your children don’t turn out they way they should turn out. So now me, I am eighty-five now and I can only run five miles now as opposed to the ten I run today. I am receiving a pension and small social security and my son who is not able to maintain himself, he has three four children that he is not able to maintain, that falls on me, as an elderly grandfather with limited means? You get to same problem. How can you expect people to take on the responsibilities of another human being? The great Dean Lindo once coined a phrase, if you dead deh nuh wah bury me.”
Janelle Chanona
Janelle Chanona, NGO Senator
“When you get into the issue of fairness, to segue from Senator Herrera’s comments, then it also raises a dynamic well for the state and the tax payer, is it “fair” that children are born to the mercy of the world, abandoned by everybody and then the tax payer has to meet the needs of those children? I have stood in this honorable house before and said we don’t talk about sex and it is a national fact that men and women are having sex and having children and it is costing us in multiple ways. We spoke about keeping children in schools. The trauma of some of these experiences, these homes these children are coming from because they are born into relationships to keep financial ties to a man, men who has thirty children, forty-five children.”
The Government of Belize is changing the mandatory school age from fourteen to sixteen-years old. An amendment to the Education Rules was passed in the House of Representatives and debated in the Senate this morning. The primary objective of the change is to decrease the nation’s school dropout rate and increase enrollment in primary and high school. The amendment was supported by the Senate, but some senators had reservations about its implementation.
Jamal Swaso
Jamal Swaso, U.D.P. Senator
“These amendments from our side, we welcome it because as a developing nation these changes are needed if you want to build a great foundation for our nation. We need to increase the captured audience that we can use through the education system to get them into school. I would like the government to consider several things, before we move forward with this great effort. Has the government taken into consideration the additional resources needed to be effective and capture these students we now have? We have to take into consideration we do not have enough schools, dilapidated schools, we do not have sufficient teachers, we need more psychosocial support for these students who will be in these classrooms.”
Elena Smith
Elena Smith, NTUCB Senator
“We believe that moving the age from fourteen to sixteen is good for the country because we are looking at ensuring that more of our students and population has a certain level of education and can function in our society. And that is a good thing. However, these things do come with its setbacks. As a teacher of thirty-eight years I understand we can see where students who remain in our primary school system for longer than they should so if we had the primary school age will be fourteen, we do have a few students who are older than fourteen in the primary school students. These are students who are not particularly academically inclined.”
Bevinton Cal
Bevinton Cal, P.U.P. Senator
“I listened to Senator Swaso earlier and his comments. He made some valid comments but it also makes me wonder as a young person where he is at, because him and I are from the south and just at his backyard, if he would do his research before coming here, on the last budget we approved moneys for the education uplifment program or what we refer to as free education. In his backyard at the Delille Academy, that program has enrolled. In his backyard again, George Town Technical High, that free education is also rolling. At the ITVET, just in November the Prime Minister announced that they will be investing one point three million dollars at the ITVET in Stann Creek.”
You may know them for various meat products, but Quality would like to remind you that, these days they have much more to offer than just poultry. Quality Foods restaurant and store located in San Ignacio has a selection that ranges from groceries to pastries, drinks to deli meats and so much more. Today, we stopped by their store and restaurant to get a better idea of what it’s all about. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with the story.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Quality Foods supermarket and Quality Express, opened their doors in November 2023 and has since prided itself in being the one-stop shop for all your needs. Located at the corner of Branch Mouth Road and Joseph Andrews Drive in San Ignacio, this store delivers on convenience, cost, and of course, quality.
Andre Salgado
Andre Salgado, Manager, Quality Poultry Products
“It’s a fairly new business that we opened in San Ignacio. So it’s a two part operation. So we have Quality Foods which is a distributor of quality poultry products. So the idea is when people hear the name quality poultry products, they only think chicken. And that has been going on. We’ve been in the industry for over forty-seven years so some people only associate the name Quality Poultry with chicken. So what we’re trying to do in San Ignacio is, we’re trying to move away from that. And so we have named the grocery store quality foods.”
Whether you’re searching for a familiar favorite, or you fancy something foreign, Quality Foods has got it too. With an array of locally sourced vegetables and meats, you can create a meal you’ll be proud to serve at your family’s table.
Andre Salgado
“One thing that a lot of people don’t know about Quality Poultry is that we don’t do a high profit margin on most of our items. So for instance, all our greens, it’s priced really low, and that’s rice, beans, flour, sugar, because again, when you think of a Sunday dinner, you think rice and beans and your chicken, so of course we have the chicken here, so why not make the, some of the items affordable?”
And if you’re feeling peckish while you shop, Quality Foods has a solution. Their in-house deli is stocked with delicious meats and cheeses that a chef will turn into a sub right before your eyes.
Andre Salgado
“First of its kind, of course in any one of the quality poultry stores. We decided to do something a little bit different. We wanted to showcase more Belizean products. And so we have a wide variety of cheeses from different producers in Belize Cave Branch. I don’t know if you know what Cave Branch produces locally made cheese. So we have cheese from Cave Branch. As well, hams we do have locally produced hams and the entire idea with the deli is we wanted it to be that you can come and you can choose what type of ham you want specifically and what quantity out you want.”
The deli also offers a variety of freshly baked goods such as meat pies, patties, and sausage rolls. For those with a sweet tooth, Quality Foods also offers baked goods, delivered fresh every day.
Andre Salgado
“We do have a wide variety of pastries including a different variety of cheesecakes, some lemon pies, bread puddings. And another good thing about quality poultry sounding natural is that same thing. We have suppliers that come in every day that brings brownies, cupcakes, and they’re also seasonal. So when it was Christmas, we had Christmas cakes and we had the black cakes and the regular white cake. So same thing for Valentine’s. We have Valentine’s cake. And of course, we’re budget friendly.”
And the day doesn’t have to end when you’ve completed your grocery shopping. You and your family can head next door to Quality Express. With seating capacity for over two hundred fifty persons, Quality Express is prepared to serve your family, no matter how big or small.
Andre Salgado
“What makes us stand out from any other restaurant here in Belize and San Ignacio and most of the quality poultry chains, we have a drive through. This building as well in San Ignacio, we do have a drive through here. Again, we’re all for convenience. We’re all about family. We’re all about, whatever lifestyle quality lifestyle.”
Quality Express brings out all when it comes to chicken. From wings to burgers, quesadillas, salads and even locally sourced chicken pepperoni pizza, they’ve got it all and with a selection of desserts such as soft serve ice-cream and freshly baked cookies, and a playground located just outside, Quality Express is the perfect place for every child.
Andre Salgado
“So we have serve ice cream machine. So we have different flavors of ice cream and it’s available daily. And it’s not the same flavor that’s available every week. So you come this week, maybe we have cheesecake. Next week we’ll have chocolate. But we always have vanilla. As well with the ice cream. You can make a Sunday. We make Sunday so you can just ask the cashiers and they will let you know what specific Sunday we have available. Sometimes we have Oreo. So it all depends on what your preference is. Another thing about Chicken Express besides making fresh food is that every day we make fresh cookies. So every day you come in and you get freshly baked cookies available at Chicken Express San Ignacio. Actually, next week we’re gonna be introducing a soda fountain machine as well.”
And no matter how many new items are introduced Quality, wouldn’t be quality without their chicken.
Andre Salgado
“What we do in all quality poultry countrywide is that we have something called mix and match. So what that is that if you purchased twenty-five pounds of any chicken products, you get the wholesale price, right? So the wholesale price is a discount off the normal price, right? And it’s a significant discount. So you mix it to what you want and as long as it reaches the twenty-five pound, then the system automatically gives you the wholesale price for those chicken items. And that also goes for our processed products because, again, a lot of people don’t know that at Quality Poultry, we do make sausages. So we have habanero sausage, we have smoked sausage, we have breakfast sausage, we have chicken ham slices, we have turkey ham slices. So, again, we do offer a wide array of products, but it’s just that a lot of people don’t know what we have.”
A man who was caught stealing several items inside Simon Quan Store on Queen Street was ordered to pay thirty times the cost of the two items he stole after he pleaded guilty to the offense. Thirty-five-year-old Rashaan Kadeem Castillo, an unemployed of a Holy Emmanuel Street address in Belize City, was arraigned this morning in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court on Coney Drive on a charge of theft. Allegations are that on Wednesday, Castillo took a pack of chocolates valued less than five dollars and a pair of reading glasses, also worth less than five dollars. The magistrate imposed a fine of three hundred dollars, plus five dollars cost of court. The store owner reported that on Wednesday evening sometime after six, he was working at the cash register inside the establishment when he was alerted by one of his employees that there was someone shoplifting in the store. The store’s security guard searched the man and found the stolen items tucked under his shirt in his pants waist. Castillo has until April thirtieth to pay the fine, or he will spend three months in prison.
A man was fined today for consuming alcoholic drinks in a public space. Twenty-five-year-old Francisco Torres pleaded guilty to public drinking after he was caught drinking a beer in public. The incident happened on January twenty-eighth on West Canal. In court, Torres wasted no time to plead guilty to the charge, and picked up a fine of thirty dollars plus five dollars cost of court. Torres has until March twelfth to pay the fine or he will spend a week at the Belize Central Prison.
For years, Belizeans have had to travel to Mexico in order to apply for a Schengen visa, which is a permit allowing visitors to enter the Schengen region, which comprises of twenty-seven European countries. The question of whether or not Belizeans will ever be allowed a waiver this visa was posed to Minister of Foreign affairs, Francis Fonseca. Here was his response.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“We haven’t let up on that issue. Even in some initial meetings that I’ve had with representatives of the EU and other institutions we are emphasizing the importance of that issue to Belize. So no, we won’t let up on that issue. Our ambassador in Brussels has that charge as a priority issue for us. So we will continue to engage with them every opportunity I get to speak with representatives of countries in the EU. We raise that issue and explain to them how critically important it is for Belize. Next week I have another meeting with the EU or later this week, I think on Friday and I will bring that issue up again. So we will continue to work very aggressively on that issue.”
Reporter
“Is this something you would push for as well in your capacity as Minister of Education given that it will open studying opportunities for students abroad as well?”
Francis Fonseca
“Yeah, exactly. That’s absolutely one of the benefits of the visa program and having that visa waiver. It presents so many opportunities. Education is one of, obviously, economic opportunities as well. There’s so many benefits to it. And we certainly hope that we can advance that issue and that Belize will be included if not this year, next year. Something we will continue to work on.”
