Important Note: This Internet version of 7 News is a verbatum
transcript of our evening television news script. Many interviews on our newscast
are conducted in Creole. In the interest of clarity for our foreign readers,
we attempt to paraphrase the Creole quotes in English
Since September 20th, the business tax on cattle has been waived, allowing more cattle to be exported to the Mexican market. As the PM explained, trade through the Guatemala border hasn't been formalized, so it is sometimes more convenient for farmers to sell their cattle to Guatemala. So he called the waiver "good business sense." But is it a conflict of interest since his family also has a cattle ranch? Here's how he explained the reasoning behind the decision.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "What has happened is that for a long time the cattle was being exported into Guatemala. Now here in Belize it breaks no law to export it into Guatemala, obviously we're negotiating an agreement with Guatemala to be able to formalize that. But the people they need the meat and they go with it so there's no taxes that is being paid. Mexico came in, when Mexico came in, they want to have a long terms agreement with us to buy, they need a minimum of 2,000, that's just for them to breakeven. They want to be 5, 10,000 heads every month. Now because of the competition and I also have a cattle ranch and I remember in 2006, 2007 when we started off, we were being paid 40 cents on the hoof, that means live, they pay you 40 cents and they take the cattle. Today because of the competition because of them coming in, the Mexicans, now the price has gone up to over $2.50 so you imagine how much more, especially then we have over 5,000 small cattle ranchers. 80% of them only have 50 heads or less so that's having a tremendous impact on their lives and helping them. But when you export to Mexico, you're at a disadvantage, you have to pay the business tax so they can't compete. It makes it easier for the Guatemalans to say, well, I'll pay you a little extra more if you sell it to me. They want to drive the Mexicans out of business, obviously, because once they do that, they don't have to pay $2.50 or $2.75, they could go back and pay 80 cents. So it's just good business sense for us as a country to be able to protect the Mexican market and that is why we removed the business tax to give them as best as possible a level playing field."
And the media also asked the PM about the alleged election fraud in Cayo North. As we told you, no determination was made in the court case, and it was moved to the high court to determine whether the Magistrate breached the constitutional rights of the voters by even hearing the case. But filling the registration lists with phantom voters is a PUDP ploy, and today Briceno said we should start with the names on the other side.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Well, I don't think you want to open that can of worms when you have the Leader of the Opposition registering himself in his office, that that's where he lives. So we need to start there. When you have the Honorable member from Albert have over 80 people registered in her office. If we want to be real, let's look at everything, and that's where we need to start."
We reached out to Albert area rep, Tracy Panton and she said, quote, "While my office is indeed located at 56 Regent Street, the building also has apartments. The 80 people the PM refers was not done in one registration period but over a period of time. I have publicly stated that I believe that the law needs to be revisited as there are violations from both political organizations." End quote.
Additionally, the PUP has previously challenged Shyne Barrow's residency in Mesopotamia, but it was upheld by the court.
And on Tuesday, the Cabinet approved the repeal of the Food and Drug Regulations, with regards to registration, licensing and inspection. According to a press release, this will be replaced with a modernized legislation designed to meet current needs and ensure the safety and efficacy of medicines accessed by Belizeans.
But how will the government ensure the safety of the pharmaceuticals that the public gets considering there is currently no drug inspector appointed at the Ministry of Health? We asked the PM.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "I think that the minister is working on that. We're supposed to be appointing one soon. But that's the job, not just of one person, it's a department. And if you notice, we have not had lately that bad drugs are coming in like before under the previous government, where a lot of bad drugs. We had unfortunately a person that I knew, a few million dollars plus of his drugs were rejected because they were not meeting the standards so it's not just a person but it's a department, we have strengthened the department to ensure that the drugs that we put on the shelf are the ones that are able to meet the standards and to help our people. I remember coming into 2020, I have a friend that was taking pressure pills and they said the pressure pills weren't helping them. So he went to see the doctor, he said the doctor said just take double, when he should not take double. So we're dealing with it and we're handling it and it's not going to be a problem."
The Camara family from northern Belize is breathing a huge sigh of relief tonight. That's because the father and son, 48 year old Louis and 19 year old Johan Cámara who had been abducted in Subtiniente Lopez on Tuesday were found early this morning.
According to a Mexican news report, members of the Quintana Roo State Preventive Police found them unharmed with only minor abrasions. They were taken to the Mexican police headquarters for medical attention while their families were notified.
In their preliminary interview, the victims said that it was all a misunderstanding.
A family member in Belize told us they are hugely relieved.
On Wednesday, we told you the city saw its first murder in two months. It seems that the cops are eager to make arrests because a woman is claiming they broke down her door to get to her surveillance camera.
Delcia Abdullah came to our studio today and said that she already told the cops that her cameras didn't get anything. But that didn't stop them from jumping her fence. Here's what she told us.
Delcia Abdullah, Claimed Police Harassment "We really really upset with the police department, A murder happened couple days ago, down the street from our home, ever since the murder happen the police just the constantly come at our house the harass we, harass we, harass we they ask we all kind of question and all kind of thing. We done tell they already we done know nothing we didn't see nothing, Today they come back again they ask if they could check our camera I explain to the police along with my mom that nothing is on the camera, no footage, no nothing we already checked it."
"Like 5 minutes we saw a truck load of police come and they brought a piece of white paper I was like you know what I don't have time for this so I went back into my house and lock my door, so now they jump the fence, the entire police truck that came they all jumped the fence. When they jump the fence I open the front door back and I am like what are you guys doing outside of my house."
"They broke down our door, tear open the door everything traumatize my son have my son the cry and they thing, how old your son my son 8."
"The ask they why they the broke open our door right, the man seh he have a warrant he just have a piece of paper weh he just the read something bout check our camera."
"First of all they broke down we house door, jump we fence, look like they want shot we dog, bring big gun ina we house like dah some criminal, I nuh use to they thing, and they still nuh find nothing."
Reporter "So when they check the camera they nuh find nothing?"
Delcia Abdullah, Claimed Police Harassment "They still nuh find."
A truck smuggling fuel, presumably from Guatemala, was intercepted in Independence village late last night. The covered truck was loaded with barrels and tanks containing a total of 1500 gallons of fuel.
The driver whose address is Pueblo Viejo, Toledo has been detained - and customs is waiting to hear from the business person who hired him to bring the fuel across.
We have to wait and see what happens next with the load and what fines - if any will be assessed.
You may remember her story back in February when Ana Toro first appeared on Sunup on 7 to talk about how she was being framed by an unknown facebook scammer using a profile for Minister of Natural Resources, Cordel Hyde. She said the scammer was using the account to scam people out of money by using her bank account to collect the funds.
The San Pedro resident was picked up and charged shortly after a woman named Natalie Gotoy filed a report. Gotoy stated that she deposited money into Toro's account at the instruction of the fake Cordel Hyde profile, only to realize that she had been scammed.
Toro was charged with Theft and was set to appear in court back in August to settle a payment agreement with Gotoy but failed to do so. Today she appeared before magistrate Lois Young and handed over the remaining $200 she owed to Gotoy out of the $500 she had obtained from her. Toro was to stand trial for theft but since she returned the money the court concluded the case and her charge was dismissed.
For the past few nights, we've been reporting on the possibility that MSC shipping, which is a huge global cruise and Port company, may end up buying over the Take Bank cruise project.
But, today, FECTAB - which has long been allied with the Feinstein Group had a press conference to come out swinging against MSC guises. With the usual dramatic language, they say their presence in Belize will be the end for small local cruise operators:
David Almendarez, FECTAB "We are here because we're not happy with the situation. We had a dream that they will build a port, front of Belize City. They will have good owners who thinks about the country, think about us, try to make a little money, spread the wealth, make Belizean people get out of poverty, make we be owners of something."
"The local tourism industry will lose from this deal. Nobody will bring an island close to us and share the pie. It doesn't work so. When a Belizean company boss, a Belizean family boss, wwho a;ready linked with us boss."
"People no linked with we boss. You think when the white man comes from Miami on a plane he links with us? You think they want to see David Almendarez owns 10 buses? You think they want to see Yhonny owns 10 busses? You think they want you all to get jobs?
"You all will get jobs if we work that Dark Night or work at Chukka. That is how they are shoving us down. They are not creating entrepreneurs, they are creating more slaves and the decision makers who are there for a very limited time, affecting us for the rest of our life."
"You all are dogs. No mein, because you all rob my children and you all put my life at danger, and put Mr. Luke's life at danger, put Mr. Sankey's life at danger, put Mr. X's life, because we just want the truth and we want good for our company and our country."
Yhonny Rosado, FECTAB "We oppose the PUP in totality. We oppose BTB Antony Mahler in totality. You have heard the testaments. He was going to be a businessman retirement plan. We were granted entrance to the island. We have a record that the Feinstein's helped FSTV before they sell the property which we did not know that's their business."
We were inside, just before they came, we were eating sandwiches and drinking Belikin Beer and nice margaritas inside of the tourist village. When they were sold to the Royal Caribbean, they black us out."
"I know that if the government lay it down, commit adultery with MSC, MSC will abstract Carnival. Royal Caribbean and all the other small lines that come and MSC will charge them like extra charges and they will pull out from Belize."
The president of the NTCUB was at today's press conference. His trade union umbrella group has also written to the PM demanding answers on the compulsory acquisition. Though he did answer them - today President Martinez said that was no answer at all -and they are still waiting:
Luke Martinez, President NTUCB "We're still waiting for the Prime Minister to answer our questions that we sent him and we're pressing for him to give us a reasonable response. He sent us a page of nothing a few weeks ago and so we're still waiting for him to respond to us."
"As a matter of fact, we're still waiting to get around the table with him and his team to meaningfully discuss this issue. For the National Trade Union Congress, this is beyond those who are securing their investment."
"We are securing our democracy. We are ensuring that we secure tax payers dollars right, your tax money, all tax money, everybody's tax money. Right, so for us it's a tax issue as well as a very serious governance issue."
We also asked Martinez as a labour leader about government's plan to hire a new Auditor General on a contract basis. It's a constitutionally enshrined post and filling it with a contract officer does not bode well for independence. Here's what Martinez had to say:
Luke Martinez, President NTUCB "So the quicker the government ensures that we have a competent auditor general the better it's going to be for us right so we will see the results quicker."
Jules Vasquez "But do you agree in principle with having a constitutionally enshrined post filled with a contract officer?"
Luke Martinez, President NTUCB "So that is something that we are exploring as a matter of fact you'll see the national trade union congress popping up with several interest groups and so we are mounting support to get the feedback from other interest groups including our social partners to wrap our heads around this and to see what is going to best fit how we will get all of this done we know that the previous auditor general was pushing for an auditor general app and pushing for autonomy. We are saying sometimes how of course the autonomy is important because you can't audit yourself. As is right now the government is auditing itself how it is structured so it comes right back to the governance structure. How we strengthen the governance structure collectively to ensure that it works for us right until then it won't work out brother it's not working out for us."
Are you a tap water drinker, or a bottled water drinker? For Caye Caulker residents, they didn't have a choice. Their tap water simply wasn't suitable for drinking, so families were forced to purchase purified water.
But BWS' Reverse Osmosis Plant has changed that. Now, the water that comes out of the tap is fresh, clean, and potable. And they're ensuring that the villagers never have to worry about running out of water - at least for the next decades.
Courtney Menzies traveled to the island today and has this story.
For years, Caye Caulker residents were forced to buy purified water to drink because they didn't trust the water coming out of their taps - and for good reason. But now, BWS' Reverse Osmosis plant is up and running on the island, and that smelly, salty water is now potable.
This will now go a long in assuring that the islanders have more than enough water for consumption - which had been an issue BWS had had in the past.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Water is life and here in Caye Caulker, La Isla Carinosa, there were two issues. One there was a shortage of water, there was not enough, secondly the water didn't taste good so people don't want to drink it and it was forcing a lot of people to buy water when they don't need to buy water. BWS has been seeing the projections, the growth and now as we go into the north and we're having some fairly big investments and hotels, they figured that we need to start to plan for that so that the next 7, 8, 10 years from now."
Cornelio Acosta, Executive Chairman, BWS "The island consumes about 201,000 gallons per day and what we could have previously met was about 190,000 gallons in other words, we're meeting 95% of the daily demand of the island. The board management and of course the government have prioritized the need in meeting these scarcities that we've been facing so we had done more analysis and had proceeded to purchase $150,000 desalination plant which would then give us a capacity now of up to 300,000 gallons per day, meeting well enough what is the demand, at least from now to the next 10, 15 years."
And the cleaner water has already start making an impact with the locals and the tourists:
Seleny Villanueva Pott, Chairlady, Caye Caulker "The water wasn't the best quality, it had a smell and you could actually taste the chlorine, but since the technology has changed there's no smell, there's no taste. I know a lot of tourists are now complimenting the quality of the water. It's drinkable, I think you guys tried it this morning so we're happy to say that a lot of families will be saving on drinking water since that is now available to us."
"Here, most people, and still to date, a lot of people are still [buying] water, BWSL is just launching their campaign that the water is now safe and you could drink it and this morning was one of the tests where people are saying that, wow, I didn't realize that the water has improved significantly."
John Briceno, Prime Minister "That project now through an IDB loan that we've been working on, we're going to go into more communities to be able to install that so that they could also use the potable water to drink and not just to bathe and wash dishes and so forth so to me that's groundbreaking."
But BWS didn't just inaugurate the RO plant in Caye Caulker today, they also broke ground for another water plant, which will serve as a backup when necessary.
Cornelio Acosta, Executive Chairman, BWS "One of the strategies that BWS has undergone is looking at redundancy and contingency plans. A lot of the time we rely primarily on a single source, for example, Belize district, on the river, and we have several systems that are direct production to distribution. Caye Caulker has a storage facility but if something were to happen to the plant like last year we had some challenges, the plant went down during the Easter period and it created challenges for us and we said, you know what, it's time to have a redundancy plan, having an alternate site that could also provide storage in the event that there's a natural disaster occurring or that the plant may need to undergo, sometime it would be going down, that we'll have enough capacity to withstand and provide to the caye."
"We have recently acquired some land on the southern tip of Caye Caulker and that is where we plan to invest another 8.5 million dollars in having a second site, $150,000 storage tank along with a 150,000 gallon per day reverse osmosis system."
And while the PM, Minister Michel Chebat and Andre Perez, and the BWS team were out there, they also visited the two island schools, where they donated thousands of dollars to students in need.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "What BWSL did, they gave a grant of $5,000, they spoke with the principal to point out those that need that can't make their fees and so the principal will be paying those fees on behalf of BWSL for both primary school and high school. I've also made a commitment, I'm going to give them another $5,000 through the chairlady of the village, Ms Pott, and she will work with the principal to ensure that they get it to the children and so it's important for us to be able to give the proper support to our children to be able to learn and not have to be worrying if they're going to be sent home because they can't pay their fees."
So with school fees paid, and potable water in their taps, the residents of Caye Caulker have a lot to celebrate after today.
And aside from some of the students not being able to pay their school fees, their schools are also facing infrastructural issues. Both the primary and high school have more students that the buildings have capacity for, and enrollment numbers are only growing. More than that, they're also facing effects from climate change. The chairlady told us some of their concerns today.
Seleny Villanueva Pott, Chairlady, Caye Caulker "I think with Climate Change we've seen a drastic increase, tidal increase and we've have a lot of challenges primarily here at Ocean Academy where the school had to build a ramp inside the school to navigate from classroom to classroom not to get their feet wet. There are days when they have to call school off, the water is so high. The building isn't really made for a school of this size, there's 190 students but as we explained to the prime minister, an education is important. The principal and the teachers have been doing their best with what they have and we'll continue to see how we can make things work but it needs to be addressed soon."
"The primary school, there's now, for the first time we're going to have 3 infant 1's which means that every class after this is going to be three. There's no more room, some of the classrooms have been split in half so we need additional funding for classrooms. As we speak, the kitchen is being used for a classroom. The principal had explained that she needed a building for the incoming so since we didn't get that building, the kitchen is being used. She told me that the cost of the construction for the classrooms would be $190,000 so we're kind seeing where we're going to get that money from, fundraising, again we're asking the Ministry of Education to where they could assist us but education is important across the country, even more so on Caye Caulker and whatever assistance we could get from the government, we'd be very appreciative of that."
And like many other classrooms across the country, the Caye Caulkers students are forced to learn under the sweltering heat. The PM agreed that cement and zinc - materials most schools are built from - exasperate the problem. However, he added that a complete overhaul of classrooms is a huge undertaking.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "That's a massive problem. As I've said earlier, many people don't know but I grew up for a few years in a thatch house with my mother and it was made out of pimento and also sascab and straw, we had a cement floor and it was always cool. The Mayas knew what materials to use to be able to keep us cool. Cement holds on to heat, zinc translates heat, and we have to find a way now to be able to try to move towards that. Probably put more insolation into roofs but even the types of windows that we have. If you look in the rural areas in Mexico and in Guatemala, they don't have louvers, they have these huge rooms, they opened up the entire side of the room so that air can flow in easier. That's what we have to do. So how these are, something similar to this, but we have to do to the other side so that the air can circulate so there are certain things that we need to do, I wish I could tell you we have the money to do everything but we have to start to think, we need to adapt."
And while we're hopefully headed into cooler months, next year's dry season - particularly the months of April, May and June - are expected to be blistering. There is concern that an extended drought can lead to rolling blackouts due to load shedding. There's also speculation that the PM might get ahead of the game and call the elections early to secure their seats before the power goes out. We asked him about it yesterday.
Courtney Menzies: "There are may speculations that you may call elections before that."
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Looks like you know more than I do. But the point is we understand that and we know that these are the three critical months that we have to address and we're working on a plan. once we get the GT generator going, we're going to be right on the edge but also when that time comes, should that time come, and God willing, it does not come because, again, the last time around, after I spoke to President Lopez Obrador, he increased the energy that we could have gotten and then the price went down censurably. At one point, it was at a dollar per KW, US and now it has gone down considerably. We expect and we hope that they're not going to cut us off. They've increased from 55 to 60MW, they've never sold 60 to us and now they are. That is one. But secondly, we have enough time to do planning because what we do - it ends up being more expensive - but what we do, well, BEL will speak to its big customers and many of its big customers have their big generators so he would tell them get off the grid, generate your own, and then we pay you for that. It's more expensive, mind you, but then the grid has more energy to share with everybody else. That's what they did in San Pedro during the load shedding, they managed to get the bigger- I know for instance, Grand Caribe and the others got off the grid, produced it, and then they had to be paying more so that the rest of the island could get. We're doing a number of things to avoid any kind of load shedding."
In October, you heard the Minister of Agriculture say he was onboard with the idea of BSI/ASI selling packaged sugar. Of course, that would come with an increase cost, but it would de-incentivize smugglers from taking the sugar across the border, which would mean more bags would be on Belizean shelves.
And while the public might not enjoying hearing that another household staple will be seeing a price increase, the PM said as it is, the cost of sugar is already too low.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Well, the reality is that our sugar has been smuggled into Mexico and Guatemala, and no matter what we do, it's going to continue if we can kind of remove the incentive. Really, we are selling our sugar way, way too low."
"One of the, again, the ideas that we've been talking about is we will not allow the price to go up a lot. We're considering and raising just a bit so we could disincentivize the people that are taking this on contraband."
"You could full a chocolate of sugar, and you could get to the border, and they can't do nothing. It's when you cross the border. So we have stopped trucks going down south full of sugar, but you can't do them nothing."
"They are in country. So I use that to say it's very difficult and when you cross the border, you can't go and arrest them on the other side. So that's the challenge. One of the ideas that, again, cabinet has said is to keep it in bagged, but also then to remove the control in packaging."
"What used to be called a marketing board. They are looking at the possibility of starting to package it, and so off to be able to offsell, and that then will be able to raise the price a little bit because it's going to be packaged."
"But we can't leave things as they are because we're going to continue running out of sugar, and then when we run out of sugar, you Courtney will be the first one on TV. Oh, no sugar in Belize, when we are producing sugar."
"We need to find a balance. I understand the challenges, Belizeans are still facing with inflation. Despite that the numbers are going down, it goes down compared to last year, not to 2020. So we understand that we live that every day, and we live the challenges of that, not only in Belize. Worldwide, there is not a country in the world that is not facing that challenge, and we're doing as best as we can."
And yesterday we also asked the prime minister about the lagoon in the Pasadita area of Orange Walk. It serves as a water catchment for the town which mitigates flooding. However, there are reported that the area has been surveyed. We asked the PM about the proposed development, and he said, it ain't gonna happen.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Well I want to make it very clear that that will not happen. I have already asked the DPM to stop it and whosoever the person is that's surveying has to stop. I believe that the government should acquire that land, because it's privately owned. I think maybe we have bought a little piece but I think we need to acquire that whole area and do some work, fix it up, so that it could be a natural pond because what we have done, is that we have connected that pond onto the Yo Creek road and going north behind the housing site, the San Lazaro Housing Site, I dealt with that, built a big drain so that when water fills up, it runs off into there. Mr Burns was gracious enough to allow us to put a big drain onto his pastures and to put fencing so that the cattle could not go in. And then connect it there, it goes all the way around the San Lorenzo Housing Site, it goes into another big creek that goes all the way by - you know the dangerous curves outside of Orange Walk, it goes all the way and hen it goes into the river so we need to protect it and I want to make very clear we need to stop it and I've asked DPM and maybe I need to find out what he has done so far."
And while the prime minister is cracking down on that development, he's also cracking down on Belizeans who don't show patriotic pride by belting out the national anthem. Twice this week, the PM has voiced his concern about it - first at Muy'Ono's Philanthropy Program Ceremony, and then today at the BWS inauguration. When the anthem began playing, he stopped the ceremony and asked that the Caye Caulker students go to the front of the crowd and that everyone join in on the singing.
Today he told us it's a real pet peeve when people don't proudly sing about the land of the free.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "But if there is one thing I think we could improve is singing the national anthem. I wish more of us would be proud enough to be able to sing. I am a terrible singer, please. I don't do karaoke.
"I sing in my mind. And it's not good, by the way. But I don't sing out in public. But I wish that when we speak, I heard of many of you speaking and singing, but if more of us could sing loudly about this, it is a beautiful anthem and to show how proud we are about our country and have that pride."
"Once you have that pride, it oozes out, you know, like osmosis and attracts people to feel excited about Belize."
John Briceno, Prime Minister "It really upsets me that people don't want to sing our national anthem. We always say we love Belize, well show it, sing the national anthem, pick up the garbage, practice how much you love this country and it's important to inculcate this into our children. That's why, if you noticed, when they started, I said stop, let's start again. We have to do this at all times and you the media should call us out whenever that's happening, hey, you need to sing the national anthem show how proud you are of this country."
And in other news, yesterday we asked the Minister of Education for an update on the issue of teachers not receiving their salaries for months. According to the BNTU president, it's a reoccurring problem, and some teachers go up to six months without a cent being deposited in their accounts. Minister Fonseca explained that a lot of the issues are being caused by the digitalization of the process, and if they have to take the heat while the kinks are being worked out, they'll do so.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education "We're trying to change the system, reform the system modernize the system, update the system and so whenever you're doing that, whenever you're moving from these manual records to digitalization, there are challenges, we acknowledge that. And yes we've been having constant discussions with the BNTU about this issue so obviously, there's nobody at the Ministry of Education or at the government of Belize that doesn't want teachers to get their salaries, I mean, obviously that's a priority for us. More than 70% of the budget of the Ministry of Education is about teachers' salaries so there's no question about our commitment to ensuring that our teachers are paid. It's a process and it's a bureaucratic process and we've been trying to address that. I don't want to cast blame on anybody, the reality is that it involves not only the Ministry of Education, it involves managing authorities and it also involves some personal responsibility as well on the part of teachers submitting documents to their managing authority, it's a process that you have to follow and so in some of these cases, there was a lack of documentation because we didn't get the information from the managing authorities, when you check with them, they say well we're still trying to get it from the teacher, so my point is that we have to fine ways of streamlining that process and I'm very optimistic and very hopeful that with the digitization taking place, meaning we are entering all this manual records into stored material, data, that yes, we're going through some difficult times not, teething pains, but once that process is completed for future teachers and future administrations."
And we also asked him about More Tomorrow. Last we told you, they had two teachers now, but still needed one more. The principal suggesting that some type of housing be built on the compound to make it easier for teachers.
We asked Fonseca is this is something they're looking into.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education "I think that's a valid point, but again, it's a school with about 50 students, 2 teachers. For a long time, the teachers were sort of like a mother and daughter so they were very comfortable. Something happened I think with the daughter, they're trying to fix that. They actually lived in the community, so there was not this issue. But yes it's being addressed, I think the two points that you mentioned, the housing, I think that's something that's being looked at, how can we address that in a way meaningful way, quickly, and then the road. So we got Ministry of Infrastructure to look into that issue and deal with that issue so that it's easier to access the place so we're working on those issues and I believe we will have that sorted out shortly."
As Taiwan celebrates its 113th National Day on October 10th, they also celebrate 35 years of diplomatic ties with Belize, and so their annual 3 day expo commenced yesterday. It featured both Taiwanese and Belizean Booths with products from food to skin care on sale. Jomarie Lanza stopped by this morning and here's what she saw.
Why The Indigenous People Resisted
And finally tonight, this weekend Belize will be observing Indigenous Resistance Day. As we pay homage to our indigenous groups in Belize, it is important to recognize the history and role that they play within society, and the true significance behind why we celebrate this day. Jomarie Lanza took a deeper look into that history today and here's what she found out.
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Since September 20th, the business tax on cattle has been waived, allowing more cattle to be exported to the Mexican market. As the PM explained, trade through the Guatemala border hasn't been formalized, so it is sometimes more convenient for farmers to sell their cattle to Guatemala. So he called the waiver "good business sense." But is it a conflict of interest since his family also has a cattle ranch? Here's how he explained the reasoning behind the decision.
"What has happened is that for a long time the cattle was being exported into Guatemala. Now here in Belize it breaks no law to export it into Guatemala, obviously we're negotiating an agreement with Guatemala to be able to formalize that. But the people they need the meat and they go with it so there's no taxes that is being paid. Mexico came in, when Mexico came in, they want to have a long terms agreement with us to buy, they need a minimum of 2,000, that's just for them to breakeven. They want to be 5, 10,000 heads every month. Now because of the competition and I also have a cattle ranch and I remember in 2006, 2007 when we started off, we were being paid 40 cents on the hoof, that means live, they pay you 40 cents and they take the cattle. Today because of the competition because of them coming in, the Mexicans, now the price has gone up to over $2.50 so you imagine how much more, especially then we have over 5,000 small cattle ranchers. 80% of them only have 50 heads or less so that's having a tremendous impact on their lives and helping them. But when you export to Mexico, you're at a disadvantage, you have to pay the business tax so they can't compete. It makes it easier for the Guatemalans to say, well, I'll pay you a little extra more if you sell it to me. They want to drive the Mexicans out of business, obviously, because once they do that, they don't have to pay $2.50 or $2.75, they could go back and pay 80 cents. So it's just good business sense for us as a country to be able to protect the Mexican market and that is why we removed the business tax to give them as best as possible a level playing field."
And the media also asked the PM about the alleged election fraud in Cayo North. As we told you, no determination was made in the court case, and it was moved to the high court to determine whether the Magistrate breached the constitutional rights of the voters by even hearing the case. But filling the registration lists with phantom voters is a PUDP ploy, and today Briceno said we should start with the names on the other side.
The Camara family from northern Belize is breathing a huge sigh of relief tonight. That's because the father and son, 48 year old Louis and 19 year old Johan Cámara who had been abducted in Subtiniente Lopez on Tuesday were found early this morning.
On Wednesday, we told you the city saw its first murder in two months. It seems that the cops are eager to make arrests because a woman is claiming they broke down her door to get to her surveillance camera.
"Like 5 minutes we saw a truck load of police come and they brought a piece of white paper I was like you know what I don't have time for this so I went back into my house and lock my door, so now they jump the fence, the entire police truck that came they all jumped the fence. When they jump the fence I open the front door back and I am like what are you guys doing outside of my house."
A truck smuggling fuel, presumably from Guatemala, was intercepted in Independence village late last night. The covered truck was loaded with barrels and tanks containing a total of 1500 gallons of fuel.
You may remember her story back in February when Ana Toro first appeared on Sunup on 7 to talk about how she was being framed by an unknown facebook scammer using a profile for Minister of Natural Resources, Cordel Hyde. She said the scammer was using the account to scam people out of money by using her bank account to collect the funds.
For the past few nights, we've been reporting on the possibility that MSC shipping, which is a huge global cruise and Port company, may end up buying over the Take Bank cruise project.
"The local tourism industry will lose from this deal. Nobody will bring an island close to us and share the pie. It doesn't work so. When a Belizean company boss, a Belizean family boss, wwho a;ready linked with us boss."
Yhonny Rosado, FECTAB
The president of the NTCUB was at today's press conference. His trade union umbrella group has also written to the PM demanding answers on the compulsory acquisition. Though he did answer them - today President Martinez said that was no answer at all -and they are still waiting:
"We're still waiting for the Prime Minister to answer our questions that we sent him and we're pressing for him to give us a reasonable response. He sent us a page of nothing a few weeks ago and so we're still waiting for him to respond to us."
And in other news...
John Briceno, Prime Minister 
"The island consumes about 201,000 gallons per day and what we could have previously met was about 190,000 gallons in other words, we're meeting 95% of the daily demand of the island. The board management and of course the government have prioritized the need in meeting these scarcities that we've been facing so we had done more analysis and had proceeded to purchase $150,000 desalination plant which would then give us a capacity now of up to 300,000 gallons per day, meeting well enough what is the demand, at least from now to the next 10, 15 years."
"Here, most people, and still to date, a lot of people are still [buying] water, BWSL is just launching their campaign that the water is now safe and you could drink it and this morning was one of the tests where people are saying that, wow, I didn't realize that the water has improved significantly."
And aside from some of the students not being able to pay their school fees, their schools are also facing infrastructural issues. Both the primary and high school have more students that the buildings have capacity for, and enrollment numbers are only growing. More than that, they're also facing effects from climate change. The chairlady told us some of their concerns today.
And like many other classrooms across the country, the Caye Caulkers students are forced to learn under the sweltering heat. The PM agreed that cement and zinc - materials most schools are built from - exasperate the problem. However, he added that a complete overhaul of classrooms is a huge undertaking.
And while we're hopefully headed into cooler months, next year's dry season - particularly the months of April, May and June - are expected to be blistering. There is concern that an extended drought can lead to rolling blackouts due to load shedding. There's also speculation that the PM might get ahead of the game and call the elections early to secure their seats before the power goes out. We asked him about it yesterday.
"Looks like you know more than I do. But the point is we understand that and we know that these are the three critical months that we have to address and we're working on a plan. once we get the GT generator going, we're going to be right on the edge but also when that time comes, should that time come, and God willing, it does not come because, again, the last time around, after I spoke to President Lopez Obrador, he increased the energy that we could have gotten and then the price went down censurably. At one point, it was at a dollar per KW, US and now it has gone down considerably. We expect and we hope that they're not going to cut us off. They've increased from 55 to 60MW, they've never sold 60 to us and now they are. That is one. But secondly, we have enough time to do planning because what we do - it ends up being more expensive - but what we do, well, BEL will speak to its big customers and many of its big customers have their big generators so he would tell them get off the grid, generate your own, and then we pay you for that. It's more expensive, mind you, but then the grid has more energy to share with everybody else. That's what they did in San Pedro during the load shedding, they managed to get the bigger- I know for instance, Grand Caribe and the others got off the grid, produced it, and then they had to be paying more so that the rest of the island could get. We're doing a number of things to avoid any kind of load shedding."
In October, you heard the Minister of Agriculture say he was onboard with the idea of BSI/ASI selling packaged sugar. Of course, that would come with an increase cost, but it would de-incentivize smugglers from taking the sugar across the border, which would mean more bags would be on Belizean shelves.
And yesterday we also asked the prime minister about the lagoon in the Pasadita area of Orange Walk. It serves as a water catchment for the town which mitigates flooding. However, there are reported that the area has been surveyed. We asked the PM about the proposed development, and he said, it ain't gonna happen.
John Briceno, Prime Minister 
"We're trying to change the system, reform the system modernize the system, update the system and so whenever you're doing that, whenever you're moving from these manual records to digitalization, there are challenges, we acknowledge that. And yes we've been having constant discussions with the BNTU about this issue so obviously, there's nobody at the Ministry of Education or at the government of Belize that doesn't want teachers to get their salaries, I mean, obviously that's a priority for us. More than 70% of the budget of the Ministry of Education is about teachers' salaries so there's no question about our commitment to ensuring that our teachers are paid. It's a process and it's a bureaucratic process and we've been trying to address that. I don't want to cast blame on anybody, the reality is that it involves not only the Ministry of Education, it involves managing authorities and it also involves some personal responsibility as well on the part of teachers submitting documents to their managing authority, it's a process that you have to follow and so in some of these cases, there was a lack of documentation because we didn't get the information from the managing authorities, when you check with them, they say well we're still trying to get it from the teacher, so my point is that we have to fine ways of streamlining that process and I'm very optimistic and very hopeful that with the digitization taking place, meaning we are entering all this manual records into stored material, data, that yes, we're going through some difficult times not, teething pains, but once that process is completed for future teachers and future administrations."
And we also asked him about More Tomorrow. Last we told you, they had two teachers now, but still needed one more. The principal suggesting that some type of housing be built on the compound to make it easier for teachers.
