Last week we told you about the so - called Principality of Islandia, timeshare turned into a supposed micro-nation that's taken up residence on Belize's Coffee Caye. And while it's probably all just time share, or "tent-share" marketing - there have been questions about the legality of setting up a micro-nation within the sovereign territory of Belize.

Our team put that question to Prime Minister Bricenco this afternoon and here's how he responded:

We also reached out to Minister of Foreign Affairs Eamon Courtenay on the subject, via text he told us, quote: "Belize is sovereign and indivisible, over all its land, islands, and sea. This includes Coffee Caye. People should be careful of what are clearly spurious claims." End quote.

House on Central Bank Regs

The Briceno Government also moved the second and third readings of several important amendment bills. These are draft pieces of legislation that the government thinks are improvements to the current laws.

First up was the Central Bank Amendment Bill of 2022. This one seeks, among other things, to increase the authorized Capital of this regulatory bank to 50 million dollars, and a paid-up capital of 40 million.

Here's today's debate on that bill:

Hon. Mose "Shyne" Barrow - Leader of Opposition
"The Opposition initially spoke on this bill, and our position is that we would like to see the Central Bank as a regulator and not a playmaker in the banking industry. We're just concerned that the monies that have been increased, and how the function of the Central Bank will move from regulator to play-maker."

Hon. Francis Fonseca - Minister of Education, Culture, E-Governance, Science & Technology
"The Honorable Member for Mesopotamia, the Leader of the Opposition, is, I think, seriously confused. I don't even know what he means by [a] playmaker. I'm not sure that he knows what he means by [a] playmaker. But, he seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the bill. And what investors look for, both domestic investors and foreign direct investors look for is ensuring that you have a stable, regulatory environment for your economy. And how do you ensure that you have a stable regulatory environment? It's by ensuring that the Central Bank of your country is properly capitalized So, that is critically important. For a very long time, the Central Bank of Belize has been undercapitalized."

Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister/Minister of Finance
"The Central Bank is not going to lend to individuals. The Central Bank lends to banks. Just like in the United States, the Federal Reserve Bank lends to banks, not to individuals. And by raising the capital, they will be able to have more money, just in case, there is a crisis within any of the banks because of the forbearances that took place between 2020/21. The forbearance came to an end in December 2021. As I mentioned, over 800 million dollars were in forbearance, and there is the possibility that some of these people/companies might not be able to pay their loans. The local banks may need to borrow to have money to keep the bank going. That happens all over the world. Simply, what we're doing [is] we're just preparing should in case."

House Amends DFC Law

Then, there's the Development Finance Corporation (Amendment) Bill of 2022. According to the Government, this one seeks to make the DFC more competitive with other lending institutions. But, according to the Government, in exchange for more trust with authorizing bigger loan products, there are also more strict measures to hold the decision-makers at DFC accountable for the institution's funds. Here's that part of the House Meeting:

Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister/Minister of Finance
"What has happened is that we're putting in new amendments to the act. In trying to protect the DFC, the amendments shackled the hands of the DFC. And now, here we are 12 years later. The directors, managers, and the people at the DFC are saying that it's difficult for them to compete with the other lending institutions. They need to be allowed the greater latitude to lend monies, but with the assurances that we would be able to put in place penalties, if there are any directors or any member of the DFC who would make any illegal loans of any sort. So, Madam Speaker, this is just to allow the DFC to better provide services to its customers, but at the same time to continue to protect the DFC as an institution."

Witness Protection Legislation

Rounding out the bills for the second reading was a suite of draft legislation for improvements in the administration of justice.

There were the Indictable Procedure Amendment Bill and the Inferior Court Amendment Bill. These seek to make it official and the law that the Magistrate Court and the Supreme Court can hold virtual hearings.

Then, there's the Witness Protection Bill. That's one in which the state wants to protect the identity of witnesses in criminal cases, especially murder trials.

Over the years of covering these criminal trials, we've shown you how the crown counsels from the DPP's Office often have the most difficult time in proving their case against accused persons. That's because witnesses don't show up, or become hostile on the stand and recant their written accounts to police. These are often key witnesses who allegedly saw the accused person committing the crime, but refuses to identify them as such in the trial. Then, there are instances where the police can't even get witnesses to cooperate with them in the very initial stages of their investigation.

Here's the House Debate on these bills:

Hon. Mose "Shyne" Barrow - Leader of Opposition
"The Opposition certainly supports this bill as a great step towards strengthening the criminal justice system. I know the Minister of Police has his hands full, and our security forces do as well. I believe that we have to get to a point where we can increase the conviction rate for the people who are terrorizing our nation. I sit on the Constitution and Foreign Affairs Committee, and I have been deliberating this bill with some of the legal minds, and I would just like to offer some of the suggestions that are being made to strengthen this bill. Again, while we support, as the Opposition, we would to see some more provisions made to strengthen the anonymity of the witnesses, to protect who comes in contact with these witnesses. One of the things that have been suggested is that only the Magistrate would know the identity of the witness. We've had instances where senior ranking securities forces members have leaked the identity of witnesses. So, we would just like to see greater protection of the identity of witnesses."

Hon. Henry Charles Usher - Minister of Public Service
"I wouldn't want to throw our security forces under the bus, Madam Speaker, to say that they are leaking out any information, but certainly I believe that we need to protect out witnesses, we need to have access to our courts more open and certainly we support these bills. The Protection of Witness Bill is one that is long overdue."

Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs
"It is certainly an issue that has arisen time and time again, whereby witnesses do not feel safe in either giving a statement to the police or actually showing up for the trial in the case of criminal proceedings. Included in this bill are very serious penalties for any contravention or disclosure to the public of the identity of witnesses who are protected under this particular act. We are talking about $20,000 fines or 4 years in presentment."

All of these bills got their 2nd and 3rd readings in today's House Meeting along with the Fisheries Resources (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

Women In Art: "A Kaleidoscope of Creativity."

And now for a break from all that politics….

Women in art return to the Belizean art scene this week as NICH and the Bliss Institute for the performing arts host the 2022 iteration of the exhibit that during the pandemic, went largely virtual.

This year's theme, "Reemergence: A kaleidoscope of Creativity." is the guiding principle by which curator Briheda Haylock put the whole thing together. This afternoon we got to hear from 3 of the 100 women in art who will present their pieces in this year's exhibit. Here's more.

Women in art kicked off today, Tuesday, March 15th, 2022.