Latvia’s State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andris Pelšs, was paid a visit by Belizean Ambassador Therese Rath.
Rath is the first ambassador of Belize to Latvia.
Secretary Pelšs welcomed the Belizean government’s decision to appoint a non-resident ambassador to Latvia for the first time. Both officials expressed their interest in fostering bilateral cooperation and collaborating within international organisations to enhance the effectiveness of the multilateral system, uphold the rules-based international order, and respect the principles of the UN Charter, particularly sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In response to the current wildfires affecting Belize since May, the EU is providing one hundred and seventy thousand Belize dollars in humanitarian assistance to families most affected by the disaster.
By supporting the Belize Red Cross Society, the EU aims to support two families or about eight hundred individuals, primarily farmers, who have lost their crops due to the fires.
As a result of the wildfires, more than thirteen thousand hectares of agricultural land have been destroyed. This has damaged approximately two hundred homes and caused over eight million US dollars in damages. Twenty-four villages and communities, primarily in the western portion of the Toledo district, were affected. These numbers might increase as the fires and further assessments are still ongoing.
The European Union offers assistance to the victims of the wildfires in Belize/ The Belize Red Cross
The effects of climate change, a prolonged excessive heat wave, and prevailing dry weather conditions helped spread the fires in the Toledo District and Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve in the Cayo District.
The assistance will support the provision of health, water, and sanitation services, as well as cash assistance by the Belize Red Cross Society.
As of June 13th, fires in the Toledo District continued to flare up and progress due to strong winds within the area.
Keyren Tzib has been sentenced to four years and ten months in prison after she was found guilty of attempted murder by High Court Judge Candace Nanton in March. Justice Nanton found Tzib guilty of an attempt on the life of a colleague, Kurt Hyde, as they were returning to the Belize Coast Guard Headquarters in Belize City.
In court today, Justice Nanton initially set the sentence at thirteen years but deducted seven years due to the nine-year delay in bringing the case to trial. Tzib’s attorney, Arthur Saldivar, sought a non-custodial sentence, but the court considered various factors, including her mental health issues and the use of a deadly weapon.
Saldivar says he will be appealing the conviction.
Full story on News Five Live at six o’clock tonight.
The Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic is reporting that a second tapir was knocked down and killed in three days. In a Facebook post, the clinic said that the incident occurred on the Hummingbird Highway on Sunday morning.
On Friday, June 14, News Five reported that a tapir was knocked down nearMaya Center Village.
The Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic said, “Like many species, tapirs are vulnerable to nighttime and early morning collisions with vehicles, and this can have devastating consequences not only for the tapir.”
Belize’s national animal was buried with the help of the team at Sleeping Giant Rainforest Lodge.
The Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic is asking drivers to drive with extra caution on the roads, especially at night.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in North Korea to meet with its leader, Kim Jong Un, signaling the deepening alignment between the two countries. This visit marks Putin’s first to North Korea since 2000 and is notable as he has made few overseas trips since invading Ukraine in 2022.
The visit aims to strengthen the partnership between Russia and North Korea, founded on their shared hostility towards the West and driven by Russia’s need for munitions for its war in Ukraine.
Putin’s itinerary includes signing a new strategic partnership agreement with Kim, replacing previous agreements from 1961, 2000, and 2001. The visit is being closely watched globally, especially by the US and South Korea, who have accused North Korea of supplying military aid to Russia. Both countries deny these claims.
Following North Korea, Putin will visit Vietnam, underlining Russia’s ties with another communist-governed nation, which is likely to unsettle the United States. Putin’s trip also comes amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula and ongoing international concern about North Korea’s military ambitions.
This visit reciprocates Kim’s trip to Russia last year and is seen as an opportunity for Putin to bolster support for his war in Ukraine. It also provides a platform for both leaders to demonstrate their defiance against Western pressure and sanctions.
A Belizean man finds himself on the wrong side of the law in the U.S. After serving about half of his thirty-year sentence in prison for a home invasion in Lake County, Illinois, forty-five-year-old Alejandro Requena Junior was released earlier this year.
However, that was not the end of his troubles in the U.S. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) still had its eyes on him.
After his release, ICE issued a detainer, requesting his transfer into federal custody for deportation. ICE located Requena at his workplace in Villa Park, a Chicago suburb, after two weeks of surveillance.
ICE intercepted Requena, who was also in the company of his wife, as he drove off in the vehicle. He was taken into custody for immigration proceedings.
Governor-General Froyla Tzalam has officially issued a Writ of Election for a By-election in the Toledo East Electoral Division, as announced by the Elections and Boundaries Department. The writ sets the nomination day for candidates for Tuesday, July 2, 2024, with the polls scheduled to take place on Wednesday, July 17, 2024.
According to the Representation of the People Act, only individuals whose names appear on the division’s register as of Nomination Day are entitled to vote in this election. The deadline for new voter registrations was June 10, 2024, ensuring ample time for the necessary due diligence, including the publication of supplementary lists and the holding of revision courts. Any application received after this cut-off date will not be eligible for the upcoming By-election.
In preparation for the By-election, the Elections and Boundaries Commission, along with Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai, has appointed Therese Martinez, Assistant Comptroller of Customs at the Belize Customs & Excise Department, as the Returning Officer. Additionally, Marion Nolberto, Education Officer I, and Venancio Ack, Acting Finance Officer III, have been designated as Election Clerks. This team will oversee the election process in the Toledo East Electoral Division, ensuring a fair and orderly vote.
At 700 AM CDT (1200 UTC), the disturbance was about 355 miles (575 km) east-southeast of La Pesca, Mexico. The system is moving toward the north near 6 mph (9 km/h). A gradual turn toward the west-northwest and west is expected is expected tonight and Wednesday, and the system is likely to approach the western Gulf coast late Wednesday. Maximum sustained winds remain near 40 mph (65 km/h) with higher gusts.
Some increase in strength is likely during the next 36 hours, and the disturbance is forecast to become a tropical storm by Wednesday. It has a high (80 percent) chance of formation during the next 48 hours and the next 7 days.
The disturbance is quite large with tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 290 miles (465 km) to the northeast of the center.
RAINFALL: Potential Tropical Cyclone One is expected to produce rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches across northeast Mexico into South Texas, with maximum totals of 15 inches possible. This rainfall will likely produce flash and urban flooding along with new and renewed river flooding. Mudslides are also possible in areas of higher terrain across northeast Mexico.
STORM SURGE: The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline. The water could reach the following heights above ground somewhere in the indicated areas if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide…
The rains are here and less than a year after it was officially opened, sections of the Coastal Plain Highway’s surface have been compromised by flood waters. Seventy-eight million U.S. dollars was invested into the construction of the highway. The Government of Belize boasted six million dollars in savings upon the completion of the road. Undoubtedly, the Coastal Plain Highway is a great service to residents along the stretch, as well as Belizeans commuting to and from the south. But, over the weekend, a portion of the road surface on the approach to the Soldier Creek Bridge cracked up and pieces were strewn across the highway. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development issued a press release informing that the location of the damage occurred at mile seventeen and a half because of flooding associated with heavy rainfall. The ministry says that a box culvert was flooded due to backwater from Soldier Creek about six hundred feet away. That issue was caused by blockage of the creek and deforestation due to the recent wildfires. We spoke with Chief Engineer, Evondale Moody, who further explained what led to the damages.
Evondale Moody
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH
“What I found out this morning is that there are land clearing being done upstream whereby logging is occurring and of course we had the forest fires over the last two months within that area as well. And so what transpired you had blockage of the soldier creek itself and because of that it affected the overflow culvert we have on the approach to the Solider Creek Bridge. We have two culverts that are three meters wide by one point five meters high and those culverts were designed under the Coastal Plain Highway Project as overflow culvert for Soldier Creek Bridge. But they were never designed to accommodate all that flood water that was supposed to be passing under the bridge. So because of the blockage of the creek, that runoff was diverted to the tributaries that are the inlet for those culverts instead of going to the creek itself and under the bridge. Because if you may know, that bridge is similar to the one called Sibun Bridge. Both structures were built a long time ago and they have a clearance of ten meters highway. So we still had sufficient capacity and hydraulic flow under those structure. So the run off diverted through those tributaries significantly affected those two culverts because those two culverts did not have the hydraulic capacity to contain that water. So that overflowed the road there causing the pavement to be deteriorated. From what I saw on the site there was also a large log which is like the whole tree itself that was blocking one of the culvert that came down that tributary and we also observed there was no damage to the embankment of the road itself in that section.”
Images that surfaced on social media following the destruction of a portion of the Coastal Plain Highway showed pieces of broken pavement and exposed gravel. This led many to question the integrity of highway pavement. Those concerns were also put to the M.I.D.H’s Chief Engineer, Evondale Moody. Here is how he responded.
Evondale Moody
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH
“The pavement structure we have there is bituminous surface dressing which is just two quotes of bitumen with stone chippings on top. That is the traditional paving in Belize and that is what was implemented on the Coastal Plain Highway. Photos you have seen will depict that it is something critical happening on the Coastal Highway, but I believe as individuals and as a country we need to look at the project holistically because the entire project is thirty-six miles. The damage that has been done to the highway on the approach to the Soldier Creek Bridge is only a hundred meters, which would be zero point zero, zero, one seventh of a mile, which is really minute, but because you are looking at the picture and the way the media spun it, it would look like the entire Coastal Road has fallen apart. I don’t think that is the case and that shouldn’t be the information disseminated to the public because that is not the intent or the idea. When we designed the Coastal Highway four or five years ago, we took into consideration all the climate factors we thought were necessary for us ti project on where the flood path will occur or the flooding will be intensified, however you guys know climate change is real and it changes every single day. So, we did not expect we would have that problem at that location, however we still took it into consideration with the installation of those two large culverts. Those culverts were never there before, it was only the bridge. So, in addition to that we ended up raising the approach to the bridge two meters. Can you imagine if the approach was not raised those meters, then the road would have been impassible.”
