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Minister of Home Affairs Oscar Mira - he's been dominating the headlines ever since May 30th when police arrested prominent UDP provocateur Alberto August and charged him for cyber-bullying Mira with a Facebook post.
Since then, Mira has been taking daily floggings on social media - mocked with AI imagery, battered by comments, and increasingly exposed for allegedly enriching his family - by his former political rival John Saldivar who has made a succession of stinging Facebook posts exposing the current Belmopan area rep.
And certainly, leaks are streaming in from all sides. We're still poring over scores of entries from the Smart Stream system showing hundreds of payments to Oscar Mira's sister, Jenny between 2020 and 2025.
Tonight, in Part Two, we go inside the paperwork - where a series of cloned payment totals tell a story that defies the laws of economics, agriculture, and common sense. Jules Vasquez reports:...
On paper, the procurement looks meticulous. This tender document for 'Mira's Fresh Fruits and Veggies' outlines exactly what Minister of State Oscar Mira's Ministry of Defence was contracting to purchase to feed the army.
The line items denote precision: exactly 2,104 apples at a dollar each. One thousand pounds of bananas. One hundred and twenty-five pounds of cauliflower.
But while the products, the quantities and the prices may have varied from from month to month, the leaks from the Smart Stream ledger show an alarming number of identical payments made the Minister Mira's sister Jenny.
During the summer of 2023, the system processed four entirely separate invoices across July and August. Different weeks, different reference numbers - but every single invoice was paid out for the exact same non-rounded figure: $8,608.99. The end of July saw a double day - when the same payment was repeated twice on the same day.
The pattern might beg the question of how hundreds of pounds of highly volatile local crops add up to the exact same price four times in a row?
And our review shows this pattern was operating on a loop for years. In the early stages, the figure $5,025.74 appears at least fourteen times under entirely different invoice codes. The sum $6,876.33 repeats at least ten times.
As the operation grew, the figures simply scaled up right to the brink of the ten-thousand-dollar ceiling but the pattern remained.
The number $9,124.06 was recycled seven times. The amount $7,391.40 was replayed six times.
But the most glaring irregularity is the single-day sprees.
On May 13, 2024, the Ministry processed eight separate payments on the exact same afternoon. Every single payment was made for precisely $461.25.
On August 19, 2025, a single run at the Western Regional Hospital approved four consecutive invoices simultaneously - each one for exactly $543.25.
And remember that eighteen-thousand-dollar check that was blocked and split in late April, 2025? It wasn't the first time they used that exact blueprint.
Two months prior, the system ran the same numbers: Invoices 11448 and 11449 were pushed through back-to-back for $9,270.77 and $8,838.49.
It is the exact same pair of numbers that we saw in the April split - down to the single penny.
A striking pattern of repeat behaviors, leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments over 5 years, all under the Ministry of Finance radar. And all paid out to the Minister of State's Sister, Jenny Mira - whose vendor number was much used in the SMART Stream system - appearing as many as 898 times in 5 years - we have only seen 497 entries valued at 1.7 million dollars. We did ask Mira if the tenders were awarded based on competitive bid but he didn't respond to our queries. The Mira family is well known to own and operate a vegetable stall.
But how widespread is this practice of evading oversight by keeping the payments under 10 grand - and does it constitute fraud?
Well, in accounting terminology it's called "Structuring" - which is the deliberate act of breaking up a single, large financial transaction into multiple smaller ones for the clear purpose of evading a legal reporting threshold.
It would certainly fall under deceptive practices and clearly suggest corruption - but how widespread is it? Today we asked another Minister if he was familiar with the practice:
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport "I can only speak of things in my ministry and that I am aware of. We operate according to what the regulations are, in fact the team that's being built at NBC I can tell you, we have made it very clear that besides competence which is very important, integrity is critical. A big thing that has adversely affected the industry has been issues where we can't have people who are doing their jobs fully and properly and in the case of NBC we are trying to make sure that we build our people so they can serve our customers as best as possible."
Courtney Menzies: "But do you agree that this is a long standing practice that governments before and the current government is doing? In the case of doing the transactions below $10,000 so it doesn't have to go through the scrutiny."
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport "I am new to the government system so I don't know if that's the practice or not. We are here to do what has to be done and that's what we do. I can only speak again to what we do and we have to do what is right, it's just as simple as that."
Courtney Menzies: "There hasn't been any advice maybe from your senior colleagues like, you know you could do this or that, if you want you could send money through, less than $10,000. Maybe they mentioned it to you."
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport "I hope you record this and put this there. People know who they're talking to when they're talking with me. I have my standards that I have maintained from I came into government and by the grace of God we have maintained them until we finish our service to our people. That's how I operate and I believe and I hope that all my colleagues operate the same way because that's why we were brought in the government, because people have confidence in us that we will do the right thing and that's not hard to do if you go to work and know that you're serving people. That's not hard at all."
Courtney Menzies: "Do you think the government should open up the smart stream to be viewed and scrutinized by the public?"
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport "Well I mean everything that we have as resources is really the resources of the people so that's a better question for you to ask maybe the financial secretary because for whatever reasons, there may be issues that have confidentiality integrated into it, I don't know I don't work in the Ministry of Finance so I can only speak again for what we do and when we sit at the conference table at our ministry I remind everybody in there that the seats we are sitting on are owned by the people of Belize."
We'll keep following the story, which is now pointing to an array of Mira-affiliated enterprises that have benefited from political favour under the PUP. For his part Mira has issued a statement saying that "lies and misinformation" are being circulated by hius former political opponent.
He was accused of the murder of a 69-year-old Crooked Tree resident, but Maurice Usher pleaded guilty to manslaughter and will only spend 10 years in jail.
Justice Derick Sylvester handed down his sentence today for the death of Geoffrey Crawford which occurred on September 29, 2021.
Justice Sylvester noted the early guilty plea which took a third of the time off his sentence and when added to his time on remand, he told Usher Jr. that he only had 10 years 9 days left to serve behind bars.
Another man Patrick Young Jr. was charged for the murder last year, but his case is in the early stages.
Police took another gun off the streets yesterday afternoon. Around 4:30 officers conducting a search on Central American Boulevard stopped taxi driver Emerson West and searched his van. They found a silver and black .380 pistol and fourteen live rounds of ammunition concealed in a compartment beneath the van's center console.
The 30-year-old appeared in magistrate's court today where he was charged with keeping an unlicensed firearm and ammunition. He pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Bail was denied and West was remanded to the Belize Central Prison until August 10, 2026.
A Belize City mother is out on bail after being charged with 5 criminal offenses following an altercation that happened in a shop between her and another customer. 44 year old Anacelia Castillo appeared in court today before Magistrate Neeshad Mohammed, where she was read five criminal offenses: one count of aggravated assault upon Kaijah Flowers; one count of resistance lawful arrest, another count of aggravated assault upon a police officer, one count of wounding a police officer and one count of using certain insulting words. Castillo pleaded not guilty to all the charges and explained her account of what occurred to the magistrate. She also claims that she was injured and abused by the police officer while she was being detained.
Anacella Castillo, Made Bail for 5 Criminal Offences "I was detained because of a young lady that was in the shop. I went to buy and she came to buy too. These kids walk around and look for problems and she says I pulled a knife at her with a pepper spray."
"I didn't do that, but I had a pepper spray, but I didn't had a knife."
"The police it seems is her man, came tp pick me up and he choke me and pull one of my breats and I bit his hand. So I got charged for that and for resisting arrest."
"The female police officer step on my feet while they were detaining me."
"I will sue them. I will go make a report."
Castillo was offered bail of $4,000 plus 2 sureties of $2000 each with stringent conditions. She was able to make bail and plans to file a report against the officers who she claims used excessive force on her.
The Belize Cancer Society is a non profit NGO - so who would break in and burglarize the place? That's what police are asking tonight after their building was burglarized sometime between last night and this morning. We spoke to a representative from their board of directors today about it. She said that most of the stolen items were taken from their infusion center.
Monica Tucker, Assistant Secretary, Board of Directors Belize Cancer Society "We were very very disappointed to learn that there was a break in overnight and that the burglars came in and cut the electrical wires which totally dismantled the security system. And as a result they were able to choose meticulously what it is that they wanted. In this case they took a large TV from our infusion center which accommodates our clients for treatments and they took some petty cash we don't have, we never never have large amounts of money in the office but we had a very small amount in petty cash, they found that and they also moved around and just took small items but we don't know yet the entire inventory of items stolen because it is still under investigation."
"Well in addition to some of the items stolen was our office cell phones so we are in the process of replacing those and make sure that the office is accessible to the patients and anyone who needs to speak with us."
"There is obviously going around scouting out areas and they probably hear of the cancer society, see our fundraising efforts and think we have money here so it is kind of concerning not only for us but the surrounding neighborhood and all other companies that this is happening and it is sad that since were are here to serve the community you know and their cancer patients that they would do this."
They say a man's best friend is his dog but still we see many strays on streets countrywide. Well one 22 year old Belmopan resident is finding a solution for that and what started off with just a stray cat being taken care of at her home, is now a major mission. Tonight we take a closer look at Kathlynn Cabanas and her dream of building a full fledged animal shelter:
Most 22-year-olds are chasing careers, planning their futures, or figuring out where life will take them next. Kathlynn Cabanas is trying to figure out how to feed 77 rescued animals. While her degree is in Information Technology, her days are spent rescuing abandoned cats and dogs, finding them medical care, searching for donations, and matching them with families willing to give them a second chance. What began with one stray cat showing up at her family's home has grown into one of the most ambitious grassroots animal rescue efforts in Belize, driven not by cash or clout, just a young woman who simply refuses to look away when an animal needs help:
Kathlynn Cabanas, President - Belikats & Refugio Duky Calliu "We saw so much need in our community, so many animals that were abandoned. We started with cats, it started with one cat that just showed up in our yard and we started feeding it and one day she showed up with kittens in her mouth. We let her in and over time, more and more cats showed up. And also, so we've been rescuing cats on and off since 2015, but we officially started doing this in an organized manner, January 2025."
"So that is when we made our Facebook page and started accepting cats that the community was rescuing as well. And we do it because we really love animals. We see that they are in need and we want to help. Also, the dogs, we adopted these dogs off of Miss Yesenia, who was rescuing them since 2021. Unfortunately, she had a domestic issue and she had a stroke, so we adopted these dogs from her in October 2025. So that's how we ended up with all of these dogs."
Today, Kathleen and her family care for 53 cats, 16 adult dogs, and eight puppies, animals that were abandoned, neglected, or left with nowhere else to go. The cats stay at her home in Belmopan in rooms she has turned to cat's kingdom and the dogs were transferred to her family's property in Valley of Peace after she received a donation from Builder's Hardware which allowed her to build the 4 compartment enclosure. With that small donation she has done much and now, she is ready to build a complete sanctuary:
Kathlynn Cabanas, President - Belikats & Refugio Duky Calliu "We want to aspire to have at least another four enclosures for the dogs so that we can accept more from the community, as well as a proper cement structure with different rooms for the cats right in this area where we are, so that the cats can actually have a place where they can be comfortable and safe, where they can recover while we find them forever homes. Right now, the cats are at my house and it's very packed. There's no more space and I really want a place where they can really develop and be socialized while they wait for their homes."
Every month, thousands of dollars are needed to cover food, veterinary care, cleaning supplies, and daily necessities. A single sack of cat food lasts only a few days. Despite the challenges, Kathlynn continues moving forward:
Kathlynn Cabanas, President - Belikats & Refugio Duky Calliu "One of the greatest challenges is definitely finding food for them on the day-to-day basis. In a month, I spend about $2,000 between the cats and the dogs, their food, their cleaning supplies, materials, vet checkups, everything that I need. It does amount to a lot. So on a day-to-day basis, just finding the food. For cats, I have to buy a sack of food every four days and it's very expensive. So I'm very blessed to have a community of people that whenever I need, they do donate. So it's not all out of my pocket. I do get support in that way. Also for the dogs, sometimes restaurants give bones or chicken skin that they have left over that they have no use for and they donate it to us. So that is such a big blessing for us."
And that support fuels her to keep moving forward to a future where no animal has to be turned away because there is no room left.
Kathlynn Cabanas, President - Belikats & Refugio Duky Calliu "Not only am I passionate, my family, we're all doing this together as a team. We're very passionate about this because these are God's creatures. As humans, it is our responsibility to be stewards of God's creation and be kind and empathetic. So I do this because I want to help them and be the voice that they need and rescue as many as I can, find homes for as many as I can, and continue to inspire others to do the same."
"If you had told me 10 years ago that I would end up with this many animals, I would have laughed and said no. And then if I thought about it a little bit more, I would have said, you know what, that makes sense. I've been an animal lover since I was very young. My entire family, we have been animal lovers and we grew up with animals around us. So this just feels like a natural progression. And just knowing my heart and knowing that I can't say no and I can't push back and I just keep saying, yes, give me the cats, bring the dogs. It just makes sense that we have come to this point. And I'm very proud of the progress we have made. And I look forward to being able to make a bigger impact in my community."
And this is simply a rehabilitation program as persons in the community can adopt these animals and give them forever homes:
Kathlynn Cabanas, President - Belikats & Refugio Duky Calliu "My goal is not just to give these animals to just get them to a home quickly, but to make sure that it is a permanent home where they will actually be able to thrive, have the food that they need, the resources. So I do have a very meticulous process, how I go about seeing who will adopt these animals with the cats as well. I asked for a video of the home to see the inside and the outside to see if it is secure. My cats are indoor cats, so I need to make sure they will have their litter box and their food and everything that they need. And they also I also have an adoption form for the cats. So that is the process."
In a world that often measures success through titles, achievements and high paying jobs, Cabanas chose a different dream of canine and feline contentment. Jaleeza Roberts, 7 News.
Anyone wishing to support the initiative can donate to Atlantic Bank account # 2120054981 under Kathlynn Cabanas or contact the number 608-4630
Tonight, the National Health Insurance program is clarifying its involvement with the Belmopan Medical Laboratory following questions surrounding the business dispute between lab co-owner Dr. Naun Bonilla and his business partner, Hannah Foreman - which police believe led to a murder plot.
NHI General Manager Dr. Ramon Figueroa told us today that while the laboratory had successfully met the requirements to become an NHI service provider in Belmopan, no contract was ever finalized due to an ownership dispute between the partners.:
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI "In the process, we pay more attention to the clinics, because any support service to be able to provide a service needs to have an existing clinic issuing referrals. So, the Belmopan Medical Lab, as I said, we went in, evaluated the place, and met the standards, we informed them, as we informed everybody else. And then, subsequently, so we sent them, again, as we sent everybody else, a draft copy of a contract and an itemized list of what services we cover, lab services, with prices. Expecting them to either agree or disagree with what we're proposing. So, that was the situation with Ms. Forman. We had submitted, she had expressed that they were in agreement. But then we got requests from her, stating that they were going to change the name of the company. I believe it went from the Belmopan Medical Lab to Belmopan Diagnostic Services Limited. To make the story short, when Dr. Bonilla was informed, because we knew that Dr. Bonilla was part of the company, initial company, he said that that wasn't, it wasn't something that they had agreed on. And it was something that came out of the blues for him, and he was concerned. Actually, Dr. Bonilla came here, and verbally expressed to us the problem he had had with Ms. Hannah. Not before they had expressed an interest to become part of NHI. Problems in the management, in the financials, in accountability, and so he was pursuing a legal option. And so, I expressed to him that the only way we can stop the process is if he sent us a letter, official letter, expressing his concerns and requesting that we put a hold on any dealings. We even got a letter from his lawyer, stating that there was a legal process and that it was going to be litigated in court. So we informed, I mean, we did inform both of them that we could not sign a contract with Ms. Hannah and the company, because this was a matter for the court now to resolve. They had a business dispute between the two investors. So we could not proceed with signing any contract until such time as this was resolved in court."
And they were chosen before the legal dispute became known. So would the partnership still have been considered for service provision if the partners had sorted out the dispute? Figueroa said that they prefer to not be associated with persons in tricky situations:
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI "Well, we do a public tender, inviting support services to apply to become part of NHI. So everybody who's interested can apply. And she was one of the many that applied to become part of the NHI. We do site visits to all the applicants to make sure that, number one, they're certified by the Ministry of Health, they have the license, and that they meet the basic standards. When we went there, they had a nice, they have a nice lab. Actually, when I was there, we went to do the site visit. So we knew from the beginning that they were both working together. So she was just part of the general lab that had expressed an interest to participate."
Reporter "Okay, if the partnership were to return to a functional state free of legal disputes, would they still be able to sign the contract for the provider to be a provider?"
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI "This is something that we are discussing and that we are going to get a legal opinion because from our standpoint, we don't want to deal with anybody that has had this kind of legal issue. We have other lab providers, so the services will be there. But personally, I don't want to deal with an entity that has that kind of background."
Reporter "Is there any specific reason as to why you guys try to avoid conflicts of that sort?"
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI "Because we're a national program financed by basically public funds, and we have to be very careful how we operate. And we try to avoid as much as possible any inclusive, any notion that we're doing something wrong with, wrong individuals."
And much of the public misconception came about because not everyone knows how these NHI contracts work. One of the issues that NHI had was this media house describing the contracts as "lucrative" Dr. Figueroa explained how they work:
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI "I think one of the things that came up and we've been accused of offering lucrative contracts, I have a copy of the contract that we can share. It's a basic standard contract that states which company we're contracting with, when does it start, when is the finish of the contract, what are the conditions, and should we choose to terminate the contract? Basic standard contract. And at the end, there's a list of what, in the case of lab, what lab services we cover. And we have a list of prices. Those prices are standard across all lab providers. So that's a negotiation. We tell them, this is what we think. You agree or you don't agree. Can you provide those services or can you not provide those services? So once they agree to that, then we hold them to that contract. There is, it's difficult to say, I don't know who came up with that, that the contract is a lucrative contract because it doesn't, it depends. When you have been awarded that contract, your income is dependent on a clinic sending referrals to that particular lab. So let's say we have a clinic that's a registered NHI provider in Belmopan. They see clients, they see members that are registered with them. They go to a doctor, the doctor examines them. They need a lab test. They issue a referral for that lab test. The patient has a choice to go to any of the other labs. So at the end of the day, the income for that particular lab is dependent on what?"
"Whether they get referrals, two whether the patients decides that they want to go there. So you can't predict what the income is for that particular lab, it's a competitive environment they can go to other labs."
Dr. Figueroa explained that when it comes to labs, the payment is a little different and it is by no means a get rich quick scheme for those in the medical field:
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI "It's based on the clinics issuing referrals and the patient deciding to go to that particular lab."
Reporter "Do NHI Providers get paid on each registered person in that area regardless of whether they access the services or not within the given timeframe?"
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI "The clinics yes but you have to understand that's a mode and a method, we use a capitation payment it's an acceptable means of payment which is what you do is you register, people choose to come to your clinic and register and we calculate a per member per month payment and what that does it distributes the risk across a whole population so the basic principle is some people will come and some people will come and use the services quite a bit and some others won't use so it, the risk is spread across the population. It's used in a lot of other countries in terms of because what capitation does it does not incentivize the over consultation because if you pay by consultation, the general tendency by some physician is I will ask you to come on a regular basis and so we pay you and we increase the income. In this mode of payment it controls that kind of abuse in the system."
There was a brazen attempted robbery in Orange Walk this afternoon. Around 1:00 pm, 47-year-old Ofemio Soliz a Belizean delivery man was walking on Bakers Street when in front of Sunny's Store he was approached from behind by an armed man wearing a black and red helmet, who grabbed his hands from behind and pointed a what appeared to be 9mm pistol at him. Fearing for his life Soliz cooperated and placed his hands behind his back and continued to walk towards Sunny's store. The assailant attempted to pull him back outside but instead let him go, ran about 10 feet down the street and escaped on a black motorcycle driven by another man. Police are investigating.
One of the most common complaints - among many - about Belize's public transportation system is the prevalence of standees. This happens because drivers load the aisles of buses with as many commuters as possible - despite the discomfort and safety concerns. But the National Bus Company is cracking down on this with the use of telematics technology. Cameras have now been installed in the electric buses so that the company can monitor what's happening while the buses are on the road. Courtney Menzies got to see how it works today. Here is that story.
The National Bus Company has added two new electric buses to its fleet, but apart from the new additions, these buses - and some of the others already on the road - are now equipped with cameras.
The cameras have two main objectives: to ensure there are no standees and to monitor and track the location of the buses. Minister Dr Louis Zabaneh told us more.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport "We'll be able to monitor the bus from a control room and know where it is on the highway system across the country and be able to tell things like the speed of the bus, also to see if there are any standees on the bus, what's happening inside the bus, monitor the performance of the driver and the conductor. That is a very important innovation for us because it helps us with managing the operations of the company and also with providing better service to our commuters and our customers."
Anna Marie Loague, Chairperson, NBC Board of Directors "When we decided on implementing this initiative, it came because of the amount of complaints we were receiving. Of course there are standees as the minister had said, driving patterns, commuter safety had to be the first step so we invested in having the telematics installed so at the control center we'll be able to see driver patterns whether or not there are standees on the buses and of course it goes in tandem with our system that we have at the office where commuters can call in and say that these are the issues that we are experiencing on the road and we are able to track it based on the bus route they have."
But aside from that, these cameras also come with another futuristic feature:
Luis Verde, Special Operations, NBC "What it does also it tracks the drivers with AI so if we notice that one of the drivers might be sleepy or distracted from the system itself we'll get an alert from the company saying this driver is unfocused of he's not putting enough attention to the road as he should and then we can either call the conductor to notify the driver to pay attention but then that also works well because as soon as he gets to a terminal we are able to change that driver for somebody that may be alert."
"As soon as that bus leaves the terminal, we get a notification that it has left either the terminal, any of the stops that we have designated within the program itself and then we get a recording so from there we can see this bus left, is there any standees? Then the administrators will contact the driver immediately to let him know he's violating and to go in the norms and regulations we have as the National Bus Company."
But these aren't the only upgrades coming; the ministry plans to bring in 18 more electric buses and add a new premium service.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport "We have a new category called premium so we've had the express buses and of course the regular runs. The premium now will be for buses that are 7 years or younger meaning that we want the highest quality buses, they'll have wifi and all that. These buses are still not in that category yet but these will be for express runs and again it's just information to the public that NBC is doing what it said it would do and hopefully by August, September, we could get in most of those 20 buses we are planning to bring in."
And the minister assured the public that it's not tax dollars that are paying for the buses.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport "The buses are being paid for by cash flows generated by the National Bus Company. It is not coming from the coffers of the government of Belize. That is why we gave a model, a public private partnership model because then it has to be the company, out of the value that it creates that will be able to make it grow and be able to do things it needs to do for customers."
But what about the standees on the independent buses? Well, the CEO in the Ministry said they will be cracking down on those too.
Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport "Indeed standees is an enforcement issue and through the department of transport we are working on that. I have said to the CTO that we need to conduct more strategic operations geared at targeting these buses that continue to target standees. The law is clear that if it is you have standees then the driver can be issued a ticket. the ticket is going to cost more than what the standees are going to pay. so we're hoping that by enforcing and issuing of tickets, that it will deter the companies from allowing standees on their buses."
And while the buses are getting upgrades, when will the NBC find its new CEO? Dr Zabaneh said the board is working on it.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport "I know the board has been looking at that so again that's a question for the chair person. I suspect within the next few months all of that will be settled. We have a very good network that the NBC has put into place so I feel comfortable with who are in different regional positions and that's why things are flowing as they are."
As part of GOB's Greening Belize initiative which aims to plant 1 million trees by 2035, today Government CEOs visited Our Lady of Fatima RC School in Roaring Creek to plant trees with the students across their school grounds. Both the Cabinet Secretary and the CEO for the Ministry Of Sustainable Development participated in the activity and here's how it went.
Election activist Jerry Enriquez has penned another Freedom of Information request - this time he's asking the government for information on the re-districting exercise. He told us what's behind this latest FOIA request:
Jerry Enriquez, Election Activist "Yesterday I submitted a freedom of information request to the elections and boundaries basically to update or to provide some information as to the status of the redistricting process. The Prime Minister had promised that this would be done by the end of 2025, if not the end of 2026, so we're midway of 2026, and we're not hearing anything about the progress of the redistricting from the elections and boundaries Commission and people have a right to transparency, and people have a right to know what's going on. How far have they reach? When is the timeline? What is the process like? What kind of mapping information are they using? All of those kinds of information we need to know, and the people need to be along with the process. So this work, they're working in secrecy and I don't think that is fair. I don't think it is. Right."
Reporter "And do you at this stage, still give the government the benefit of the doubt that they will get the redistricting done within, by the end of this year?"
Jerry Enriquez, Election Activist "Well, listen, we've been in and out of court for various issues that could have been avoided had the government just follow the Constitution and this matter and all the court costs that are being, the people's money being used for court cases to fight against the people's rights to a fair and constitutional, the divided and the electoral divisions, we cannot continue."
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Minister of Home Affairs Oscar Mira - he's been dominating the headlines ever since May 30th when police arrested prominent UDP provocateur Alberto August and charged him for cyber-bullying Mira with a Facebook post.
"I can only speak of things in my ministry and that I am aware of. We operate according to what the regulations are, in fact the team that's being built at NBC I can tell you, we have made it very clear that besides competence which is very important, integrity is critical. A big thing that has adversely affected the industry has been issues where we can't have people who are doing their jobs fully and properly and in the case of NBC we are trying to make sure that we build our people so they can serve our customers as best as possible."
He was accused of the murder of a 69-year-old Crooked Tree resident, but Maurice Usher pleaded guilty to manslaughter and will only spend 10 years in jail.
Police took another gun off the streets yesterday afternoon. Around 4:30 officers conducting a search on Central American Boulevard stopped taxi driver Emerson West and searched his van. They found a silver and black .380 pistol and fourteen live rounds of ammunition concealed in a compartment beneath the van's center console.
"I was detained because of a young lady that was in the shop. I went to buy and she came to buy too. These kids walk around and look for problems and she says I pulled a knife at her with a pepper spray."
The Belize Cancer Society is a non profit NGO - so who would break in and burglarize the place? That's what police are asking tonight after their building was burglarized sometime between last night and this morning. We spoke to a representative from their board of directors today about it. She said that most of the stolen items were taken from their infusion center.
"Well in addition to some of the items stolen was our office cell phones so we are in the process of replacing those and make sure that the office is accessible to the patients and anyone who needs to speak with us."
They say a man's best friend is his dog but still we see many strays on streets countrywide. Well one 22 year old Belmopan resident is finding a solution for that and what started off with just a stray cat being taken care of at her home, is now a major mission. Tonight we take a closer look at Kathlynn Cabanas and her dream of building a full fledged animal shelter:
"We saw so much need in our community, so many animals that were abandoned. We started with cats, it started with one cat that just showed up in our yard and we started feeding it and one day she showed up with kittens in her mouth. We let her in and over time, more and more cats showed up. And also, so we've been rescuing cats on and off since 2015, but we officially started doing this in an organized manner, January 2025."
Tonight, the National Health Insurance program is clarifying its involvement with the Belmopan Medical Laboratory following questions surrounding the business dispute between lab co-owner Dr. Naun Bonilla and his business partner, Hannah Foreman - which police believe led to a murder plot.
name of the company. I believe it went from the Belmopan Medical Lab to Belmopan Diagnostic Services Limited. To make the story short, when Dr. Bonilla was informed, because we knew that Dr. Bonilla was part of the company, initial company, he said that that wasn't, it wasn't something that they had agreed on. And it was something that came out of the blues for him, and he was concerned. Actually, Dr. Bonilla came here, and verbally expressed to us the problem he had had with Ms. Hannah. Not before they had expressed an interest to become part of NHI. Problems in the management, in the financials, in accountability, and so he was pursuing a legal option. And so, I expressed to him that the only way we can stop the process is if he sent us a letter, official letter, expressing his concerns and requesting that we put a hold on any dealings. We even got a letter from his lawyer, stating that there was a legal process and that it was going to be litigated in court. So we informed, I mean, we did inform both of them that we could not sign a contract with Ms. Hannah and the company, because this was a matter for the court now to resolve. They had a business dispute between the two investors. So we could not proceed with signing any contract until such time as this was resolved in court."
One of the most common complaints - among many - about Belize's public transportation system is the prevalence of standees. This happens because drivers load the aisles of buses with as many commuters as possible - despite the discomfort and safety concerns. But the National Bus Company is cracking down on this with the use of telematics technology. Cameras have now been installed in the electric buses so that the company can monitor what's happening while the buses are on the road. Courtney Menzies got to see how it works today. Here is that story.
Anna Marie Loague, Chairperson, NBC Board of Directors
"What it does also it tracks the drivers with AI so if we notice that one of the drivers might be sleepy or distracted from the system itself we'll get an alert from the company saying this driver is unfocused of he's not putting enough attention to the road as he should and then we can either call the conductor to notify the driver to pay attention but then that also works well because as soon as he gets to a terminal we are able to change that driver for somebody that may be alert."
But what about the standees on the independent buses? Well, the CEO in the Ministry said they will be cracking down on those too.
"Indeed standees is an enforcement issue and through the department of transport we are working on that. I have said to the CTO that we need to conduct more strategic operations geared at targeting these buses that continue to target standees. The law is clear that if it is you have standees then the driver can be issued a ticket. the ticket is going to cost more than what the standees are going to pay. so we're hoping that by enforcing and issuing of tickets, that it will deter the companies from allowing standees on their buses."
"Yesterday I submitted a freedom of information request to the elections and boundaries basically to update or to provide some information as to the status of the redistricting process. The Prime Minister had promised that this would be done by the end of 2025, if not the end of 2026, so we're midway of 2026, and we're not hearing anything about the progress of the redistricting from the elections and boundaries Commission and people have a right to transparency, and people have a right to know what's going on. How far have they reach? When is the timeline? What is the process like? What kind of mapping information are they using? All of those kinds of information we need to know, and the people need to be along with the process. So this work, they're working in secrecy and I don't think that is fair. I don't think it is. Right."
