Latest News - Channel 5 Belize

Mahogany Heights Resident Busted for Drug Trafficking

A resident of Mahogany Heights is indebted to the court for four thousand, five hundred dollars after being charged for drug trafficking. Twenty-year-old Emmanuel Thompson pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply when he appeared unrepresented before the magistrate’s court earlier today. On Saturday, Thompson was caught red-handed in possession of two hundred and thirty four grams of cannabis following a pursuit by police officers. During the chase, he was seen disposing a bag containing two parcels of weed. In court this morning, Thompson was fined and given until August thirty-first to clear the debt or, in default, serve eighteen months at the Belize Central Prison.

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Kareem Says Street Repairs Are Not Electioneering

Residents of Caribbean Shores have observed that although several of their streets have remained in disrepair for a prolonged period of time, construction has finally begun to remedy the situation. As the time for election draws nearer, questions of whether this can be classified as electioneering arise. Kareem Musa, area representative for the constituency denies the accusation. Here’s what he had to say.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“We have been fixing roads, but it’s never on the radar of the media. For example, we fixed a road in Buttonwood Bay last year, early last year, we fixed, and that was Manatee Drive we fixed, I think it is St. Luke Street again, in Caribbean Shores, and there were other roadworks that started over six months ago, it’s just that the funding for the roadworks, because they had been dug up on those streets on Dunn, Landivar, Guadalupe, and I’ve been advocating heavily for these streets to be repaired since six months ago for us to get the funding for that. And so it’s not electioneering. These are roads that have already been in the pipeline for quite some time now.”

Will Belizeans In The Diaspora Ever Be Able To Vote?

With the ongoing elections in El Salvador, Belize has set up a polling station to accommodate Salvadorans living outside of their home country. With this in mind, the question was raised as to whether or not Belizeans living abroad will ever be afforded the same right. Here’s what Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca had to say on the matter.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“I think that was something the government of Salvador, obviously, they have legal authority to have Salvadorans who live outside of their country vote. That’s established by law in Salvador and So when that request came to Belize we were obliged to, to support and help them to carry that out. We have not reached that point in Belize. I think it’s a good issue for discussion whether we want Belizeans in the diaspora to participate in elections. I think now that we’re going through the process of reviewing the constitution, the PCC process, I think that’s an ideal opportunity for us to discuss an issue like this one. I think it’s definitely something worth worthy of debate, worthy of discussion. And at the end of the day, I think it’s something we can look at but we’re not there yet in the case of Salvador, they already have that as a part of their law. We are not at that point yet. So as I said, I think the PCC represents an opportunity for us to have that in discussion and perhaps coming out of this PCC process. That is something that Belize may want to do. But let’s see what comes out of the process.”