Not only is Matura now the attorney representing Belize High School, she is also a parent at the private institution. As a parent, Matura spoke a bit more candidly about her experience with the former principal. Here is what she told us.
Audrey Matura, B.H.S. Parent
“Whatever miss Usher did as a leader, whatever passion she had, whatever work she did, that is the work she did. Nobody can take that away. So my personal objective and the objective o the board and members and staff is not discredit anyone as a professional. As a parent, my ultimate concern was that on the fourteenth of February Ms Usher sent out an email to all of us parents, she had been communicating to us parents before, parents of students going away on these trips that represent the school and my only regret was that on that on that morning when I woke up she had sent an email to me and all the other parents and unfortunately she made a decision to copy my child and all the other children in that email. I am speaking here as a parent now. I thought that was most inappropriate. There are certain things in that email I believe was confidential and certain things my child should have never read. I don’t believe that when adults have differences you bring in the child. I do a lot of family matters and as a parent I can tell you that I think it is most inappropriate to drag children through the battles of adults. For me, that could not fly.”
Former Port Loyola Area Representative Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez called another press conference today, a little over a month after delivering a sheaf of signed petitions to the Governor General back in January to trigger a recall referendum. Martinez is seeking to have the voters of Port Loyola recall Gilroy Usher’s seat in the House of Representatives via a referendum. But he is disheartened that several weeks have gone by and he is yet to get a formal response from the Governor General, despite what he believes are legitimate signatures that satisfy the requirement to trigger the recall mechanism.
Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez
Anthony “Boots” Martinez, Former Area Rep, Port Loyola
“I am very disappointed in terms of what has transpired. The petition was delivered on the sixteenth of January, 2024, and as the law allows the governor general to pass it to the Chief Elections Officer forthwith. Upon checking on Friday, well from Thursday, I called the Office of the Governor General and said to the secretary that I believe by law that the answer should be forthcoming by tomorrow which was the sixteenth, Friday, the sixteenth. Friday morning, I called and the secretary’s response was that let her check. After waiting on the phone for like two minutes, she came back and said no response. I called again about minutes to three that afternoon and it was the same thing, no response. So I tend to mean say, the month should expire, in my view, checking with attorneys and so, with attorney, Mr. Dean Barrow. Dean Barrow said, probably, it could mean the sixteenth is up to twelve o’clock Friday night. Fair. I called yesterday morning, no response back from Elections and Boundaries. That is the answer I get. Called this morning again and no response back.”
According to Martinez, he attempted to get an update on the status of the petitions through the vice chairman of the United Democratic Party who sits on the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez, Former Area Rep, Port Loyola
“Through the representative of the UDP on the commission, Mr. Alberto August, he tried to intervene and being on the commission, to ask the commission and the Chief Elections Officer about the petition. And, rightfully so, she said she had no comment on the petition but referred the answers about the petition back to the governor general which, in my view, by law the governor general, now I don‘t know why or what is causing the stalling. I don‘t know if the Chief Elections Officer has gotten the petition. I don‘t know what is the situation but I noh di get no answer and at least you should get answers from the head of the stream, as the law allows for the timeframe. And so, I don‘t know the interpretation or the meaning of the word, in terms of the governor general, forthwith and I don‘t know what it means when you say you could be less than a month but not more than a month fi verify the signature. I don‘t know where the bottleneck is and it raises concerns, especially to the people of Port Loyola. We have checked around and spoke with Senior Counsel Dean Barrow to see the challenge that exists. One thing I want to make clear, you know, is that I, in dealing with this petition, I was very wary and careful of all the steps I was following in the law because like what I said to the governor general when I delivered the petition on the sixteenth of January. There is an old saying that was said to me by my old boss, Mr. Barrow, ’Have trust in God, but still tie your camel.” And that is what, to me, that old phrase comes to roost today.”
Is the Belize Marketing and Development Corporation (BMDC) unduly marking up prices on agricultural produce they supply to wholesalers? A recently released political ad claims that the statutory body is placing a sixty to three hundred percent price markup on imported produce such as potatoes, lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli. The ad alleges that a group of P.U.P. cronies are collecting up to two hundred thousand dollars weekly as a result of these markups. BMDC was established under the Ministry of Agriculture with a mandate to ensure food security and affordable prices among other objectives. So, we reached out to the administrator at the BMDC, Valentin Carillo, to find out if there is any truth to the claims being made in the ad. Here is what he had to say.
Valentin Carrillo
Valentin Carrillo, Administrator, BMDC
“I saw the ad and I saw that they have a price quotation in the ad and certain Mexican commodity has a certain price. First of all I would like to explain that it is not as easy as the people might think that we just go buy, bring it over and sell it. If they see and article or a product in Chetumal for let’s say twenty-two pesos, we come bring it twenty-two pesos is about three dollars, we come and we sell it for three-twenties for instance. That is not how it works. Let me explain a little, for example let us say for onion which is one of our strong commodities, we have been offered onions for twenty-two pesos a kilo. We cannot buy those onions. The onions we bought are almost double the price. For various reasons, because twenty-two pesos is the one they contraband and move cross the border, but the one we buy has to meet certain standards if not BAHA won’t allow us to bring it in. The one at twenty-two pesos, the conditions and the quality is inferior and as soon as it reaches here our wholesaler will complained which has happened with certain commodities. So these are things we need to be careful if you notice right now, I got a price quotation from Cheduarea. The price of a kilo of onion, similar to what we import is up to fifty-nine pesos. And if you go in the market at Chetumal, the regular market where the inferior quality is, you can find it for twenty-two pesos, even twenty-five. Those we need to be mindful. We cannot bring those commodities. Similarly, the broccoli which was in scrutiny also, the ones we import is especially placed in garbage, the black bag, filled with shaved ice so that they can be transported across the border and meet certain standards.”
Carrillo further noted that the Belize Marketing and Development Corporation does not receive subventions from the Government of Belize. He says the corporation’s finances are managed autonomously. And, because of this, there are certain overhead costs that they must meet from the profits they obtain. Carrillo sought to ensure Belizeans that they only mark up their prices by twelve to fifteen percent.
Valentin Carrillo, Administrator, BMDC
“Each head of lettuce is labeled with one of our labels and that is extra cost in the Mexican side. They have to open each case and a case brings twenty-four. If we bring, imagine, fifty cases, seventy-five, each case has to be opened and labeled individually for us only. And we are not a big wholesale. In Mexico when they export those people are exporting by containers and we import only cases. So it brings a heavy cost to us, but to meet certain standards we have to do it.”
Paul Lopez
“Is that to say that the prices quoted in the ad are accurate or close to correct?”
Valentin Carrillo
“They are not accurate. Some of those things, I saw in the ad it says in bulco and in Mexico a bulco is a bag and it comes different for Mexican than for us and in Mexico we buy in case and that is specific for us to meet some of our standard. A part from that let us say the price is similar. We have duties to pay which we cannot avoid. We have freight to pay. We have Mexican fees to pay and we have Belize fees also a part from the duty. For example on the Mexican side we have loading fees, phytosanitary fees that is on the Mexican side. The loading and unloading is very heavy over there. On the Belize side we have local fees, landing permit, border management fees, BAHA permit fees, freight also. All of these things it comes to a good amount when you add it up. This is the best price. We mark up at twelve percent, fifteen percent. Remember these are perishable goods that they would not last. We import Mondays and Thursdays. These things, if you just leave them, the broccoli we bring in Mondays the wholesalers don’t want to buy those Thursdays and you can interview anyone and you can see we have left with certain commodities. We try to play and make a balance between one and the next, but not to increase the price so much, but it is not more than fifteen percent.”
Ambassador Assad Shoman, Belize’s former foreign minister, appeared before the International Court of Justice earlier today where he presented on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine and the atrocities being committed by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza. Here’s an excerpt from his presentation at The Hague.
Assad Shoman, Former Foreign Minister
“President, members of the court. The Palestinian people have an inalienable right to self-determination and complete independence which has always been systematically denied to them. The League of Nations Mandate to territories had a right to independence which was realized to all of them, except for Palestine. The UN Charter enshrined the right to self-determination for protection of all peoples, except in practice for the Palestinians. More than half of whom were massacred or driven off their land in the 1948 Nakba. The land was partitioned and half of it allocated to a new state that promptly extended it to seventy-eight percent by brute force. In 1967, just seven years after Resolution 1415, Israel commenced its still continuing occupation of the entirety of the remaining Palestinian territory. Since then, Israel has through systematic manipulation of negotiations to undermine the presumed objectives to ensure that the Palestinian people are prevented from ever exercising that right. Israel cannot be permitted to continue flouting one of the most fundamental principles of international law with impunity. Impunity breeds inhumanity. The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is violated in many ways, I will focus on three. First, the exclusion of Palestinians from any part of Palestinian territory denies their right to territorial integrity which is an essential part of the right to self-determination.”
The government’s recent Draft Maya Customary Land Policy has come under fire by a human rights organization known as the Minority Rights Group which claims to work with ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide. In a recent post, the organization urged the Belizean government to, “respect the human and property rights of the Maya People of southern Belize and demands the immediate suspension of alarming terms contained in a recent draft policy related to Maya Customary lands that, if enacted, would severely limit Maya lands to a few kilometers at most”. The statement further goes on to stress the importance of land to the Mayan community, as they are connected through various means such as farming, hunting, gathering, as well spiritual connections. The organization claims that hostile reactions from government officials are fuelling anti-Maya sentiments in the dominant society and that the policy is a breach of international conventions.
On Sunday, a public consultation was held in San Pedro, Columbia in Toledo in order to discuss the government’s Draft Maya Customary Land Policy. These public consultations are a necessary part of the legislative process as the impacted communities are able to give their input before a law is put into effect. As there are over forty Mayan villages to consult with, the process has only just begun, but it would seem that San Pedro, Columbia has made its mind with a resounding no to the proposition of communal land. We attended the public consultation for more information. News Five’s Britney Gordon Reports.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Residents of San Pedro, Columbia are regarding the recent public consultation a success after the community was able to voice its opinions regarding the Draft Maya Customary Land Policy. A major point of contention was the proposition of communal land for residents, which would result in the suspension of any private land titles currently held in that area. We spoke with Minister of Rural Transformation Oscar Requeña who stressed the importance of these consultations.
Oscar Requeña
Oscar Requeña, Area Representative, Toledo West
“This is an ongoing process. As you are aware, the government continues to go community to community engaging. The villagers in consultation on the draft Maya land policy. Columbia is just one of those stops here today, and I must say that I’m very grateful that the community came out. We, you saw that the people had an opportunity to be able to listen, to ask their questions, and to get clarifications. My position has been very clear that, at the end of the day, the government presents the draft policy engages the communities in consultations to get the feedback. And at the end of the day, we have to respect the wishes and the will of the people. That is democracy. We cannot, we are not in any way, imposing one over the other to the communities. We have to respect the will of the people.”
Requeña noted that, although the turnout appeared small, it was a good representation of the Mayan Community in San Pedro, Columbia.
Oscar Requena
“I’ll tell you what. San Pedro, Columbia is a very unique village. And I don’t want you to get a misrepresentation of the numbers that you see here. Generally for meetings, this is, in fact, today I think you have gotten a very good attendance. Really and truly, because generally, people don’t really come out for meetings here in the community. So I think that if you were to really take, a census of the people who are out here today that represents a good percentage of the community being out here.”
Chairman of San Pedro, Columbia, Basilicas Choco, explained that one of the positive outcomes of the public consultation was being able to gather the opinion of the community on matters that have previously remained unresolved, such as that on communal land.
Basilicas Choco
Basilicas Choco, Chairman, San Pedro, Columbia
“Today I am very happy because of the fact that, Before, we have several meetings. We have had meetings with MLA. We have had meetings with the government side. But the community has never taken a position. And up to today, we still haven’t taken a position. There are questions in the air as it regards to communal land. And today, I believe that is clear for majority of our people. And the next step, as I was telling them in our meeting, which I had planned for a meeting today with an attorney, which is supporting us in finding alternatives, because our community doesn’t want communal land. Majority of our community doesn’t want communal land. We are trying to seek advice, independent advice. Not from MLA, not from government. So our next meeting would be scheduling, looking at the alternative and that’s what I explained to them.”
Choco further explained that consultation helped to educate residents as a first step towards independent land ownership.
Basilicas Choco
“Since a majority of our community doesn’t want communal land, as I said to them, we want to identify people who have leased land, we want to identify people who have private property, we want to identify people who are living on land that is not measured or surveyed yet, then we want to identify our people who do not have land at all. Then we are going to propose to government this is what we want. We don’t want this to come out of community land, and we don’t have an alternative. We have, and we have been thinking ahead. But we want to educate our people first, and I believe today was a great day to educateour people.”
We also spoke with a resident of San Pedro, Columbia to hear how he feels about conclusion of the consultation.
Cipriano Salam
Cipriano Salam, Resident
“I feel it about it’s very difficult concerning this communal land, what’s happening, and all of us, well not the whole community, but very few of the community that they have a lease land and a private land. And we are not used to that again because our community is growing big. This village here, I know when I was a little boy here around the school here; it’s a big tree here. This is a big tree, but now, the population, it’s growing now. You go to the back street here, we have a lot of people, a lot are there in the bush. And some of them, they have a lot of children at their home, they don’t have no land, and that’s very difficult to us, that’s why we are not interested of communal land. We are interested of our own private property or lease land, but we are interested of that because we have our grand pikni. I have a grand pikni, about thirty of them. There are a lot of them. So where these kids are going now whenever I die? I know I’m not going to carry nothing to die, but I’m going to leave something for the inheritance of my grand pikni.”
Late last year, the Miss Universe Belize franchise made a call for women to join the line-up after they announced that the franchise would be undergoing a transformation under its new ownership, House of Crowns. Now, with these changes implemented, women of all ages and marital backgrounds were eligible to apply and after much suspense, the delegation has been unveiled. We caught up with National Director, Destinee Arnold and a few delegates, here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with the story.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
The Miss Universe Belize franchise has finally announced its delegation, kicking off its pageant festivities. A diverse array of women from different backgrounds was selected to potentially represent Belize internationally. We spoke with National Director, Destinee Arnold, who told us more about the delegation.
Destinee Arnold
Destinee Arnold, National Director, House of Crowns
“It is amazing to start to develop that culture of not giving up on your dream and continue to be steadfast in the pursuit of all your aspirations. Just because a door closes doesn’t mean that you can’t find a window that will open up to you. And we are really taking advantage of all the barriers that have lifted. it and taking advantage of the inclusivity of women, no matter how old you are, what your marital status is, or if you have children, it’s truly a celebration of a woman in all her forms.”
Arnold explained that this delegation is the result of months of hard work and deliberation.
Destinee Arnold
“Monday night was a huge night because we finally got to show basically the world, the Miss Universe Belize 2024 class and just to see the fruits of our labor and the result of when visionaries, creatives and organizers combine their talents to see the result of that was just breathtaking for me. It literally left me in tears. And I think I speak for all of my team that we were all emotional as we watched everything play out.”
We also spoke with a few delegates to hear how they are feeling about this year’s competition. Twenty-three-year-old Monilee Aspinall stated that it is an honour to be a part of this year’s diverse delegation.
Monilee Aspinall
Monilee Aspinall, Delegate
“Meeting the delegates. They have been what an amazing group of people. They’re so accomplished. They’re so passionate about, you know, all the things that, makes them who they are, their values, their family and so being a part of that, I feel absolutely blessed and honored to, for them to even have the belief that I’m one of those people that could contribute towards their vision. So I’m super excited to see how it progresses.”
We also sat down with Vivian Noralez, a returning contestant who competed in 2019, but is back again with renewed vigor.
Vivian Noralez
Vivian Noralez, Delegate
“It is an honor. Actually, when I first decided to re compete, a lot of people were sending me the flyer that Miss Belize will be back at Miss Universe. And they were like, Vivian, we just Feel like you should give it one more try. One more try. And I was so nervous. I was just nervous of the fact/ being back on stage, being in the spotlight again. But I do feel prepared and I feel like now I have a lot more to offer. So it wasn’t that I don’t think I’m ready, it’s just that you have to mentally prepare yourself to be out there again. coming back seeing all the girls, all the women, I just got to meet them two weeks ago, and it is such a diverse group.”
A Belize City man was shot on Friday night over fifteen dollars that he reportedly owed. Reports are that Eugene Thompson was at his home in Belama Phase Five when a man known to him as Hubert Paqiul arrived at his house and told him that he came to collect the fifteen dollars owed. According to Thompson, he told Paqiul that he will pay him the following day, but Paqiul refused to leave. Thompson told police that he then went back inside to get some money for Paqiul. He alleges that when he returned to give Paqiul the money, twenty-seven-year-old Victor Parham fired one shot at him. According to Thompson, he ran back inside his house and jumped out of his room window to hide in a nearby bushy area until police arrived.
Victor Parham & Hubert Paquil
Police later detained Parham and Paqiul. Both of the accused men were arraigned in court today. Parham was charged for attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm. Paqiul was charged for the crime of abetment to commit murder. No plea was taken from them. Due to the nature of the offense, they were denied bail and remanded into custody at the Belize Central Prison until April nineteenth.
“On Friday the eighteenth day of February, 2024 around nine fifty p.m. police responded to a shooting at Belama phase 5. Upon arrival they saw Eugene Thompson with gunshot injuries to the body. He was taken to the KHMH where he was listed in a stable condition. Investigation reveals that Eugene Thompson was at his yard at the address when two male people came and fired at him. Two persons have been detained and arrested and charged, namely Victor Parham and Hubert Paqiul. Victor Parham was charged for attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm and Hubert Paqiul was charged for the crime of abetment to commit murder.”
