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As soon as the judge delivers a decision on the Cotton Tree case, we'll tell you what it is, and next month we'll be at court for the PUP case against the Supplementary Appropriations Bills.

Making Birth Registration Simpler, Faster

The Attorney General's Ministry, UNICEF, UNHCR along with other partners hosted a national birth registration consultation at the Radisson today. Now almost every Belizean has a horror story about waiting months, sometimes much longer for a copy of their birth paper only to get it back with errors from the Vital Stats office or trying to fix an error you made on your child's birth paper years ago…and the list goes on.

Well, AG Michael Peyrefitte is trying to address these concerns by identifying the issues and setbacks within the vital stats office, figuring out what's causing them and finding an effective way forward. But the AG also said it is up to the individual to ensure all their information is accurate. Here is more from the consultation.

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"We are looking at ways to improve the registration of births. We realize that when people have issues now about trying to get birth papers, trying to get their documentation, it is usually a problem that started 20 years ago when the child was born so what we are trying to do is come up with ways to ensure that at the earliest stage as the child is born that the child can be registered in such a way that when they come for that birth paper 20 years from now there is no issue. We are trying to minimize the difficulties we have at Vital Stats and this is one of the ways we can minimize that."

Courtney Weatherburne:
"What are some of those specific strategies or measures that will be taken and I am sure you are all are discussing those today?"

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"We haven't discussed that so far, we have just done an introduction and Mr. Gillharry has just explained basically what are some of the things that work at Vital Stats and what are some of the things that don't work. One of the things we want to propose though is the implementation of more bed side registration, we want to ensure more that hospitals don't withhold birth papers for people who don't pay their bill and I even threw out there of putting responsibility in the hands of the parents, maybe it should be an offense for you to fail to register your child within a certain time, maybe it is an offense to have a child be born in one name and get out a document for that child in another name and then you fail to do a deed poll because when that happens it causes a lot of problems. So we as the government we have to have a structure in place to ensure that we can produce documents that people need but the people also have to have a responsibility to ensure their documentation and their information are in order."

Dr. Susan Kasedde, Country Representative, UNICEF
"What we are talking about is putting in place an action plan with clear responsibilities to make sure we close the gap for the children who are not registered but also makes sure that there are benefits in terms of the improvement of the system are felt by all Belizeans because we are improving efficiency, communication and public awareness and access to services through modernization."

The AG says a list of recommendations and ways to implement those recommendation will be devised after today's session. Kasedde says they will also look into launching a public awareness campaign on the birth registration process and what documents are needed to carry out a valid birth registration. The team will also look into training office staff and administrators.

AG Urges PUP to Abandon

Speaking on the road ahead to the ICJ - and the current legal issues in domestic courts, AG Peyrefitte also backed up what his one-time adversary Julius Espat said the PUP will do - and that is abandon their challenge to the special agreement:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"I think it would be in the best interest of the PUP now to discontinue and withdraw those cases from the court, that would be my suggestion we talk about cooperation with the opposition, I think that is a way the opposition can start to cooperate. They need to take the guns out of their hands and say listen the people have spoken and now we must work together moving forward to ensure we get the best representation in the ICJ for the people of Belize."

"We have appointed the agents and what we are doing we are going to inform the ICJ about the decision of the referendum, Guatemala then has up to a year to deliver what we call a memorial, essentially their case, they will present what is their case. We have up to a year after that to respond and then Guatemala can then choose to respond to that response and the we can respond to the response to that response which would take us all the way to 4 years before we even get to court, so we are talking about this is not an immediate process, it is not going to happen next week. It is a timely process, a process in every sense of the word it would take time it would take investment and it will take a commitment ensuring that when we do get before those judges our case is clear as we know it is clear now and we are very very confident that the court will maintain that 1859 treaty and Belize's borders will be declared as Belizeans know it."

The Mile 44 Mystery Robbery

Police have arrested and charged two men and are looking for two others after a holdup at a farm in the Cayo district. It happened two days ago at mile 44 on the George Price Highway where four masked men carrying a gun and knives tied up watchman, Juan Garcia in the security booth. They beat him up and stole his money.

But a passerby intervened and that led to the arrest of two of the men. Police told us more:…

Police add that at around 10:00, a civilian the police and followed the vehicle espying form the farm. At Roaring Creek - police jump in the civillian's vehicle and followed them to Camalote, where they tried to escape. Justin banner was captured on the scene - and with the assistance of Cayo police they caught Luis Castellannos.







Roaring Weapons

In other news from out west a search yesterday at 11:15 am in Roaring Creek in a house across from the cemetery, police found a 16 gauge double barrel sawed off shotgun - and a 9mm Glock pistol. Shelly Scott has been CHARGED for kept firearm and ammunition without a gun license

Pleads Guilty To Bank Scam

At the beginning of this year, news broke that 3 South Americans were charged by police with the offense of preparation for a crime. That's after the cops allegedly caught them with sophisticated equipment which could be used to steal money from ATMs. 2 of the 3 got off that charge, and tonight, the news is that the third, Chilean Juan Espinosa, has pleaded guilty to the crime.

Espinosa appeared before Chief Magistrate Sharon Frazer this morning, and he indicated to the court that he wanted to accept guilt for the offense. When he and the other South Americans were initially arraigned he pleaded not guilty.

The Allegations are that on January 17, 2019, he went to Scotia Bank ATM in the Belama Area of Belize City, and he tampered ATM using a special device, which he placed on the ATM to copy personal information of bank customers who used that ATM. Eventually, if he was not caught, he would have been able to steal money from the accounts of unsuspecting Belizean customers. A similar case of preparation to a crime allegation was made against Espinosa on that said date, this time in Dangriga. Police say that on January 19, 2019, three men were stopped at a checkpoint whilst on the Hummingbird Highway and an electronic device use to take out money from the ATM was found in their possession.

For his guilty plea before Chief Magistrate Frazer, he was fined $3,000 to be paid forthwith.

He also pleaded guilty to the offense before the Dangriga Magistrate, and he was fined an additional $3,000 to be paid forthwith.

Before he was taken into custody by Immigration, he told court reporters that he has already paid both fines. Steps are being taken for him to be deported back to Chile.

He was represented by attorney Hurl Hamilton.

The Many Wonders of Wayne

He's a reggae dancehall star with true staying power and Wayne Wonder is performing in Belize tomorrow night at the Lerisi Garifuna restaurant. He arrived today and we found out more about the show:…

Doors open for the Mother's Day concert at 9:00 on Friday night until the concert finishes at 4:00am.