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
There was a murder in Bella Vista Village in the Toledo District today - and it saw one brother kill another. Full details are not available yet, but around 11:30 am - John Bo was allegedly stabbed to death by his brother Mathias Bo.
The Commissioner says they were fighting over alcohol - and, this afternoon, he described the murder as "annoying":
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "These are the types of murders that really and truly are annoying. There was an issue where five persons were socializing together drinking alcohol, two of them were brothers, and it seems like they were sharing the alcohol around and when it was time for one brother to share the alcohol with the other brother, the one who had it refused to share the alcohol with his brother and his brother took a screwdriver and stabbed him in the chest. He died of that of that stab injury. Police responded quickly and were able to detain the brother who did the stabbing so the suspect is in custody and is expected to be charged hopefully today or tomorrow."
Courtney Menzies: "Over the weekend there was a similar incident where a brother stabbed another brother however that brother survived, has the assailant been charged as yet?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "I'm not sure if that person has been caught and charged but police are looking at that matter as well and again these are issues… in the domestic setting. They are frustrating, I don't understand why a brother needs to stab another brother over alcohol, it makes no sense, but it happened and we have to deal with it now."
The surviving brother was immediately arrested and is in police custody.
Reports say the deceased John bo was released from prison about a year ago.
And before the Bella Vista murder, there was the fatal stabbing in Orange Walk, except that's been downgraded from possible murder to a case of self defense. The ComPol told us today that the deceased, Alwyn Arnold, was the aggressor in this case. He taunted and chased the man who killed him, who responded by stabbing him. But what started the altercation? Williams gave us the details:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "We have that person in custody and the persons that were with him when the incident occurred and indeed Alwyn Arnold was the aggressor. The victim was walking in the company of two hispanic women and Alwyn Arnold shouted out to him that he's a Spanish, he can't handle the two women and the young man answered and Alwyn chased him for whatever reason and there was a scuffle, the young man was able to get away and he was chased again by Alwyn who caught up with him and that's when the young man inflicted the stab wound to Alwyn so by all indications, he's the aggressor so we have put together the file and we have submitted it to the DPP office for guidance on that matter."
Just before news time, Williams confirmed that as per the DPP's instruction, there will be no charges levied against the man who killed Arnold.
And that stabbing wasn't the only one in Orange Walk over the weekend. We told you there were several violent incidents across the town. The crush of people from different villages, towns, and cities across the country and the flood of alcohol made it difficult for the police to maintain law and order. But according to ComPol, while they had the Carnival itself under control, the true problem was later in the night when various after parties were at their height. Here's how he explained it.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "We have to do our postmortem to see what we can do to enhance the security for the carnival. You would know that nothing happened during the carnival, the incidents occurred after the carnival so we have to do what can be done to make sure there is adequate security around Orange Walk for the after carnival events, which is going to be extremely difficult because the influx of people in Orange Walk for the carnival is extremely huge and you find people scattered all over the place and that's the reason we had said to the town council when we had our meeting prior to the carnival that we would want the after bash to be central at one location. We were hoping that only the Central Park would have had license to do anything, all the other places would have been closed, that way we would have one area that we could concentrate on but our recommendation was not accepted, other places did get licenses and so we had that issue where people had to be in different areas where the police could not have been there to ensure that there was proper security."
Courtney Menzies: "Do you feel that the event on a whole, the day on a whole, needs to be scaled back?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "It's a time of celebration, people want to enjoy themselves and so I wouldn't want to be the grinch of September so I wouldn't say to scale it back but as human beings we need to be more responsible and take account of what we do. People tend to consume alcohol and forget that they have a civid duty, forget that they have to respect their peers and just do what they want and violate people, it cannot be."
But while the Carnival was mostly peaceful, there was one incident that landed an American Belizean before the court. Jevon Mckay pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after he pushed the Commissioner of Police. He was fineed $1,500, which the ComPol called a slap on the wrist, and a slap in the face of the police. He believed that there should have been harsher penalties considering that he was dressed in his police uniform so Mckay could not claim ignorance.
Yesterday you also heard him say that Mckay should have been punished as severely as Inspector Christopher Martinez was. That inspector is sifting a 5 month jail sentence for wounding. On Sunup on 7 this morning, our hosts ventilated the opinion it was a bogus comparison, since Martinez is a police officer and is held to a higher standard.
The ComPol didn't exactly agree with us.
Courtney Menzies: "Sir let's talk about Jevon Mckay and why you believe he should have gotten a more stiffer penalty, a more stiffer sentence."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "It's sad that you are the only one who doesn't believe he should, it seems to me that you are gratified when police are beaten but when police do things you want police to go to jail. Nonetheless the issue with Jevon Mckay is one that I consider to be of a serious concern. We can't have a society where police abuse or take advantage of law enforcement officers when they're doing their duties. This morning in your show, I heard you found excuses for him, one you all said the man is an Iraqi vet and PTSD and when a man approach you and want to take- that was not what happened. I'm not an idiot. I discharged my duties with utmost professionalism. I saw him with the bottle, I walked up to him, I spoke to him nicely, sir you cannot consume alcohol out here in the bottle, kindly give me the bottle. I don't know how best I could have said it. When I reached for the bottle, he pushed my hand, I tried to reach for it again, saying to him, you need to surrender the bottle, he pushed me again and he grabbed me in the shirt. He held me for about a minute, pulling my shirt until the zip tore open. What else could I have done? I had a baton, I could have used it, and justifiably so too. But I always believe in deescalating issues differently and we did so without any kind of violence against him. He was taken to the station, I made my report, and he was charged. I believe that the sentence of $1,500 is a slap on the wrist and the fact that he resides in the US, to give him time to pay is a further slap in the face of the police and this country. It ought not to happen. The same way I agree with you this morning on the show where we can't have a system where police believe they can do people what they want. We must be strict with police to make sure that they do not violate the powers they have, but equally, we must be strict with the public so they understand that they cannot abuse or assault the police when the police is doing their duties, that can't happen."
And we asked him whether he believes that Inspector Martinez's "excessive" sentence was because is a cop who attacked a civilian, while a civilian isn't held to the same standard despite assaulting a cop.
Courtney Menzies: "In the DPP's summation in the Inspector Martinez, she went to lengths to make the point that he should be held to a higher standard because he is a police officer who went to assault a person who was in police custody. Do you not see this point that his sentence should be more than somebody attacks the police, who pushes the police?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "No, it should not be more. I agree with the DPP's summation and I'm sure if the DPP were prosecuting this case against Mckay she would say the same thing. The fact that you have a public officer performing a public duty, to have someone assaulting that public officer should be viewed as a grave crime against the state and anybody who did so should be held to account, it's as simple as that."
"And do you know that the penalty for aggravated assault, by law, is a heavier sentence than wounding?"
Courtney Menzies: "But this is a police officer who committed this crime."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "It doesn't matter, the fact is that we're saying that the penalty for aggravated assault is a heavier penalty than wounding."
Tonight, the Vital Statistics Unit is under scrutiny after it was revealed that fake birth certificates were used to perpetrate passport fraud.
7news has confirmed that the use of fake birth certificates has resulted in the issuance of at least two fake passports to persons born in the US. Those passports have now been cancelled. Reports say fake social security cards were also issued based on these fake birth certificates.
And, the Vital Statistics Unit is confirming that they are indeed fake. A press release this evening says Police have been investigating and, quote, "None of these documents were issued or printed by the V.S.U. This was confirmed by our IT Department, which scrubbed the documents to determine whether they were generated from the V.S.U. System."
The release adds, quote, "Persons are being interviewed, statements have been given, and charges are forthcoming."
But, in the meantime the release says "The V.S.U., Ministry of Immigration and the Social Security Board assure the Belizean public that further measures have been taken to preserve the integrity of the systems in place."
Reports say the fake birth certificates used to process these two passports were obtained for five thousand dollars each.
Earlier this month, the River Valley area saw the murder of Dornell Talbert only months after mediation and increased police presence. The incident happened while the ComPol was out of the country, and today he made his rounds to the different villages in the area. We caught up with him in Double Head Cabbage, where he explained that some of the feedback he has been getting has been complaints against the officers, which he hopes to rectify soon. He added that it's tough to levy charges for the incidents since many witnesses fear for their lives.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "When I was away two weeks ago, we had a murder in the River Valley area and the people had shared with me a number of information in terms of what was happening in this area. I subsequently send those messages to Mr Gabourel and Mr Barrow who are the people in this area where policing is concerned with instructions to address the concerns of the people. I had also promised them that upon my return to country, I would come into the area and make a visit to see what I can do from my office to be able to allay some of their fears where security is concerned and so I came in today, I met with the people, basically there was a PTA, parent teachers meeting, and the principal invited me to be a part of the meeting so that I could convey my message to the people as well as to hear from them what the issues are and so that was done. I am extremely happy for that opportunity and more happy for the feedback of the people in terms of the efforts of the police, yes, some of the complaints are about the police being non-responsive to the security needs of the people but in some areas we also hear that the police is doing well so it's a matter for us to look at the negative aspect of what has been said to see what we can do to correct those issues."
"We continue to get information from people in the area but not to the extent that we can arrest. These people who may have seen what took place are afraid to come forward and give statements to the police. I am hoping that we will be able to convince them very shortly and get statements from them and once that is done then we can move forward in terms of making arrests. The police do have a basic idea in terms of who the perpetrators are and it's just a matter for us to make sure we get the evidence in writing and then we can take it from there."
And yesterday we told you about the four teenagers who were killed in separate motorcycle accidents over the last two weeks. The most recent victim was a 16 year old - who was not even old enough to have a driver's license. Today the ComPol told us that they have regular checkpoints and patrols to check for those very same things, and in this case, they are investigating who permitted the teenager to drive the motorcycle.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "Those are things that the police do regularly on the highways and in the municipalities. I had directed the Western Regional Commander to look more into the matter with the 16 year old, I am upset over it. The 16 year old ought not to be driving or riding a motorcycle so I told her to look to see who gave the 16 year old the motorcycle to ride and that person must be held to account because the law is that if you allow a person who is not the holder of a driver's license to drive a motor vehicle then they commit an offense so whoever gave him that motorcycle to ride must be held to account."
The government says it has already turned the corner on the 6.9 million dollar land purchase for the Belmopan Tertiary Hospital, but the social partners are just fully getting involved.
On September 20th, the Belize Chamber of Commerce, the Belize Network of NGO's, the National Trade Union congress of Belize and the Belize council of Churches sent a Freedom of Information request to the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Health and Wellness.
They are asking Minister Hyde for all information related to the purchase of two parcels of land from Kenny Zheng and Annie Zhu.
And they ask Kevin Bernard for a copy of the much discussed technical report and the minutes of the Working Group's meetings related to the Hospital.
They write, quote, "The Social Partners of Belize are committed to transparency and accountability, and we believe that the requested information is crucial to our understanding of the processes and decisions that affect the socio-economic development of our Nation." End quote.
Under the law, the Government has two weeks to provide the documents.
And, the Prime Minister has written back to the NTUCB after they sent him a long letter demanding answers on the compulsory acquisition of 23 acres on Stake Bank Caye. They question how it can be acquired in the public interest for a private company.
The response is nowhere as long or detailed and first points to live litigation and the Prime Minister says he can't say much.
But he stresses, quote, "Completing a berthing facility in the Belize District is uncontestably in the public interest...To reverse the current decline of cruise tourism arrivals...the completion of the Stake Bank Project is essential." end quote.
The Prime Minister also points to. The 270 million invested in the still incomplete projects and says, quote, "there is the obligation to safeguard the investment climate....any investment in the amount of almost 4% of current GDP demands judicious attention from Government. Failure of such a project has grave, long- term implications." End quote.
In other news, September's King Tides are over for now, but flooding in the city meant that the route for the Independence Day parade had to be changed.
However, next year, the full moon is slated for early September - around the same time Carnival is hosted in Belize City. And the King tides always occur in September.
Today we asked the mayor if they're already planning ahead, and if the new Carnival route along Marine Parade will have to be changed - again.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "The King Tides is here to stay, climate change is here to stay and so we have to be proactive, we have to recognize quickly that this is out of our control and the proper provision in the event it does occur and clearly you can see the devastation of King Tides having to shift, you have to change your route and I'm certain that the National Celebrations Commission could be looking at how they can alleviate that uncertainty."
Courtney Menzies: "With the debris that came up, the flotsam that came up during this King Tides, how's the clean up for the city looking?"
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "Man, I just want the residents continue to try to work along with us. Those bags of garbage didn't get to those canals on their own. It has to be somebody that goes and drop those bags of garbage, throw the fridge in the canal, throw the mattress in the canal. I plead to our residents to practice the civic pride. Our team will continue to clean, we clean the north creek canal every so often, and as we clean it, we find debris and garbage in it again so it's a work in progress and hopefully we reach some point in time where the residents stop throwing and stop littering."
But the flooding caused by the tides are worsened by drains that are backed up with grass and mud. Around the city, there are several areas with overgrown grass in the drains - the maintenance of which is one of the basic tasks for the City Council. Today the mayor conceded that the system to which the drains are tended to needs to be upgraded. He also explained that while LIU members are supposed to clean the streets as well, it doesn't really help that much.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "What we are doing, I will admit it, and so since I came into office in 2018 we have noticed that the sort of system we have in place to address maintenance of drains, maintenance of streets is not working and so we are currently putting in place a new system, it's a grid system, it will powered by GIS mapping and being able to map out the entire city and have the city divided up to grids and we are currently looking at 31 grids across the city, we will have teams assigned to the different grids and the teams will have cutting team, patching team, drainage team so that when we look at our console, if a complaint comes in on grid 14, we will immediately be able to look at grid 14, who is the team there, who is the captain, who is the manager there? This is your area, this is your grid, please attend to it. I think that would be more efficient, I've seen it work in the Los Angeles area."
"That has always been a challenge with the LIU program, we have had challenges where we don't think we get sometimes value for our money but it's not the city that runs that program, it's - what's the young lady's name?"
Reporter: "Yeah but I don't know that they are the ones, I thought it was in conjunction with the city."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "No, they have their own liaison, we had a team that was doing chopping and maintenance, we shut it down. LIU has their own system, management system, all we do for LIU is essentially serve as a conduit for payment."
And while the pumping station in Yarborough can't help with the very high tides, it does help with flooding from the rain. And the mayor explained that by the end of the year they'll be taking it over fully, and other areas may soon see their own stations.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "The pumping station, initially pilot project, it's now fully commissioned, we are supposed to fully take it over ending of December here from MIDH. Our people have been trained, our engineers are in place, it's a model that can work in the city because there's no longer this system, I was reading a report, of drainage being able to address climate change, it has to be something similar to pumping stations and the report that I received from the IDB that they were supposed to look at pumping stations in the Holy Emmanuel area and in the Belama area as well. And they were supposed to work in unison, the three of them working together. So I believe at sometime down the road we'll have to look at those sort of facilities in those other two areas as well."
The Peace Corps Service Summit was held this morning at their Headquarters in Belmopan. It was an event for volunteers currently serving in Belize and partners who work alongside them. I was there and here's my report:
You see them in our schools and communities working with students and partnering with government entities. The Peace Corps has been in Belize for the past 62 years volunteering, and today in Belmopan the organization hosted its Peace Corps Service Summit. Their director told us more:
Nadine Rogers, US Peace Corps Country Director "So we've called it our service summit and the key audience was our volunteers and the partners that we work with here in country we saw it as a unique opportunity to bring together everyone who's got a stake in the work we do and to put some fuel into those folks feed them with good keynotes opportunities to have workshops and talk about current issues and just really kind of fuel up this partnership network."
"The mission of the US Peace Corps in world peace and friendship it's quite easy actually. Easy to say not so easy to do. We've been in over 60 countries for over 60 years we have actually been in Belize for 62 years and we bring people we don't bring money we don't bring things we bring human beings and we put them in communities they stay for up to 27 months they learn the language they learn the food and they understand what the communities needs are and then they try to be a technical resource for communities so we do grass roots development."
So far, 2,000 peace corps volunteers have passed through Belize, and these 45 active members got a chance to learn more about the country by partaking in discussions led by key Belizean representative.
Nadine Rogers, US Peace Corps Country Director "So this afternoon we will have two sessions of workshops; each session three workshops will run concurrently. So volunteers and our counterparts will have an opportunity to attend two workshops this afternoon one in each session and we've got some great leaders. Minister Habet is going to lead a conversation on climate change, Senator Coye is going to lead a conversation on transformative partnerships. Deborah Seawell from Love foundation is going to talk about grassroots ownership and inclusivity so there are just all kinds of things people are going to talk about our partners from UNICEF are going to talk about generational impact so it's just an awesome set of conversations and the volunteers will break up so each group might have 20 people in it at a time but it will be an opportunity for digging deeper into some of the themes that got raised today."
And aside from today's presentations we learned more about the work of the Peace Corps from the Program manager for Youth Empowered By Sports Project. She told us more about how they have partnered with the Ministry Of Education and the National Sports Council to make this initiative possible.
Lynelle Williams, Program Manager Peace Corps Belize "So for the Ministry Of Youth Development And Transport one of the things that they had expressed to us is the desire to create a whole athlete so not just athletic skills but also life skills and so we are trying as much as possible with our yes project to implement sports clubs at schools that incorporate life skills so things that young athletes need so like team work conflict resolution being leaders, leadership. We support the staff at primary school that they can enter the national sports council tournaments and perform not only as great athletes but children of character. On the ministry of education side they have a physical education Curriculum that our sports clubs do support in terms of teaching skills but also supporting those schools in entering the primary school tournaments."
The Ashcroft Alliance has been commissioning a foreign firm named Viking Strategies to conduct political polling in Belize since 2010. And while it used to be a not so well kept secret in political circles - Ashcroft went public with it last year In June.
And he has again released this year's polling which was conducted frOm June 17th to August 6th 2024.
It's a lot to unpack, but the key findings about political perceptions are that only one in five persons support Shyne Barrow as UDP Leader, the Briceno Administration gets good reviews on its education and healthcare initiatives, while respondents questioned the government's competence.
For the 2025 Election Outlook it concludes, quote, "While the PUP is expected to win the next election, the margin is likely to be narrower than in 2020 due to concerns over crime and economic pressures."
The findings say that Crime Remains Top Concern, Economic Hardship Persists with Inflation and high costs of living continuing to be major concerns, and that Corruption Remains a major issue. In fact the poll notes that Public dissatisfaction with corruption has not changed significantly since 2017, with 13.9% of respondents naming it as a critical problem.
All this has fueled mass Voter Disillusionment - with the percentage of persons identifying as swing voters rising from 25% in 2017 to 37.6% in 2024, quote, "indicating declining loyalty to the PUP and UDP."
Notably, the poll found that relative poverty has decreased significantly form 2019 from 57% to 26%
In terms of the political leaders, almost half of the respondents had warm feeling towards PM Briceno, while less than a fifth felt that way about Shyne Barrow. Briceno was ranked as one of the most favorably viewed politicians, ranking 6 out of 36, while Shyne Barrow ranked 34th out of 36.
And according to the poll, the most favorably viewed politicians are Cordel Hyde, Kevin Bernard and Kareem Musa, while Tracy Panton at fourth is the only UDP in the top. 10.
And, the politician with the highest unfavourability rating is John Saldivar, who is way ahead of the man in second, Port Loyola's Gilroy Usher followed by Michael Peyreffite in third.
968 people were polled and it has a 3.2% margin of error.
And the poll didn't only sample political perceptions. One of the questions asked to the interviewees was about their greatest concern.
33.1% of them said crime is #1, which is an increase from 2017, when it was 24%. But the ComPol has said that major crime is down, so why do people feel less safe? We asked for his view.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "It's natural, people feel fear for different reasons and from a law enforcement standpoint we have to look at it objectively. We know that we are not and will never do all we can to keep people or to make people feel as safe as they would want to be."
"But if we were to judge by how people behave, you would think that they are safe because you see them go into every event that are held. You don't see people staying in, they are always out celebrating."
"So that goes to show that sometimes they are not really afraid. They just tend to, for the spur of the moment, say that they are fearful of certain things. And again when you look at the trending of social media now as opposed to before, more and more people have a phone in their hands."
"And on that phone they get all the information with the touch of a finger. So there are more privy information now than back in those days, 2017, 2018. And with more information coming to you about crime now than before, then certainly you will feel that crime is up because you are getting more information now."
"From my standpoint as a Commissioner of Police, I don't think you have had a Commissioner who has been so open to the media, sharing with you everything that I can share with you. In the past Commissioners were mute, so they don't know what happens in the Police Department."
"I have tried my best to be accountable to you all, or to the public through you all and sharing information in terms of what happens. So all of those things would tend to lead towards people having that sense that you know what, crime is up."
"We have a weekly press brief with you and the media, sometimes two times a week we share information with you about crime. And for me it is important to share this information because when you hide crime, you make the public more unsafe."
"When you broadcast crime, it makes the public know that certain things are happening and they can put things in place to make sure that they don't become a victim of crime. So that is how I see it and that is the reason why I would never hide crime from the public or the media."
And, apart from crime, one of the major societal worries is the ever increasing cost off living.
Today the Statistical Institute of Belize held its quarterly; y press conference where they presented August's inflation figures which was sent up by more expensive food and non alcoholic beverages:
Melvin Perez, Statistician II "The cumulative inflation rate for the first eight months of the year 2024 compared to the same period of the year 2023 stood at 3.8%. So now looking at the measure categories affecting the cumulative inflation rate of 3.8%."
"First we had the food and non-alcoholic beverages category increasing by 6.1%. Now I must mention that this category contributed the most to the overall increase. And this was mainly due to increases in vegetables, dairy products, meats, cereal products, fruits, sugar, fish and other food items."
"Now looking at the average price of selected food items, we can observe that several of the items went up by almost 20% specifically grapefruit, grapes, cabbage, okras, black beans, red kidney beans and sugar."
In other statistics, the revised gross domestic product for 2023 was revised down to just 1.1% - while earlier estimates had it at 3.5%, here's why:
Christopher Hulse, Statistician II "Goods and services produce total $5.119 billion. This is an increase of 53.5 million, or 1.1%, when compared to 2022. Then we saw decreases across some of the crops, including the big tree crops, which led to a 6.6% decline from $521.5 million in 2022 to $486.9 million in 2023."
"And we also had a decline in electricity. So secondary went down by 1.9%. However, tertiary went up by 3 .5%, and taxes went down by 0.9%."
And while 2023's GDP was almost flat, the second quarter of 2024 has shown strong growth at 10%.
Here's why:
Christopher Hulse, Statistician II "What quarter two of 2024 was, it's an overall increase of 1 .5 percent with increases across all three sectors. Primary went up 5.6 percent as we see the big tree crops rebounded and of course that leads to an increase in manufacturing and then we had high increases for electricity and water consumption so that went up by 8.4 percent and of course tertiary went up by 10.5 percent driven by the increases in accommodation, transportation and wholesale and retail trade."
A big part of that growth was strong activity form the water and electricity utilities where demand for locally produced power and water was driven by a very warm summer:
Christopher Hulse, Statistician II "During the second quarter, we had the load shedding. So there was a decrease in imported electricity, which led to a rise in local production, as it was coupled with peak demand surges, with May being the highest on record for demand."
"So this led to a significant 35.5% increase in electricity production from 92.5,000 megawatt hours to 125.3,000 megawatt hours in quarter two of 2024. From 669.8 million gallons of water consumed in quarter two of 2023, that went up to 820.6 millions of gallons used in quarter two of 2024."
"And again, we stated that during that quarter, we were still in that intense heat. So naturally, the hotter it is, we will have spikes in water consumption. And we also see some expansions in water infrastructure."
Citrus Exports Not Factored Into Total Citrus Production
As you heard, the primary or agricultural sector also showed improvement. That's including citrus which had almost flatlined last year. But even the increased figures to not reflect all the oranges that went across the border:
Best Expo Booths Awarded
While you may have enjoyed the Expo earlier this month, some of the hard working exhibitors were just awarded today for their booth presentation. Every year the BCCI rewards those that participate in the expo, and the public relations manager explains what this year's categories were and what they were looking for.
Andrew Usher, Public Relations Manager, BCCI "Every year for expo we do a best booth competition and sometimes the categories change throughout the years, this year we did best overall booth, best micro booth, and best up and coming entrepreneur, which is similar to our youth award as well but we do it to recognize the hard work that these exhibitors have done over the past couple of months to ensure that their presentation is the best, their representation of professionalism, of creativity, of innovation, of efficiency, they've done a great job in terms of being out at the expo, putting on their best show that they could put whether it's decorating their booth in a specific or fancy type of way, if it's their presentation and they're all in uniform, if they're all in the same shirt, and of course customer service, being out there and calling people to your booth, giving them a one of a kind experience that they can only get at the expo."
Most outstanding up and coming entrepreneur went to Little Ceramic Painters, while HEY ABBZ won best micro booth and Smart Belize won best overall booth. We spoke to all three winners today.
Aaliyah Herbert, Owner, Little Ceramic Painters "Basically we provide blank canvas, the ceramics and whether people have the creativity where they can go ahead and paint it however they wish or if they wish to follow a specific design and we provide them a little template to give them an idea to do so."
"It's such an honor, it feels incredible because it's a testament that our passion and hard work does pay off and this definitely encourages us and we're excited to see what's next for us."
Abigail Budd, Owner, HeyAbbz "We are participating for the third year and this is the second year we're walking away with a little award. It is quite a journey honestly to see all the hard work and dedication that we've had to put into the expo. I remember sitting on one of the shows and telling other entrepreneurs that when it comes to the expo, it's a lot of work and to be able to really and truly bring our best self forward, really and truly grinding and doing all the work that a lot of people don't see behind the expo to see it come to fruition, to see the results of it have been quite a blessing."
Tristian Coleman, Marketing Manager, Smart "I think the main thing that stood out was the way we innovated, our physical display as well as the services we had to offer, we made sure that we wanted to build an experience for our customers where they'll be in the sun hot, we looked at different factors that we wanted to emphasize on customer experience, that's the main thing and then we accompanied that with the bells and whistles that we had out there so we had different artists, we reached out to BCCI and we're very happy to collaborate with the Chamber of Commerce to make sure that the event for everyone that attended was an experience that they'd want to come back next year."
1,500 Call Center Jobs Available
And finally tonight, Peak Outsourcing, one of Belize City's call centers, today inaugurated their new building on Coney Drive. It's expected to host 1,500 employees, who will work three shifts in groups of 500. That's a lot of jobs for city residents and the CEO said they hope to keep growing.
Charles Harmonick, CEO, Peak Outsourcing "This is a huge milestone for us because we had filled the facility across the street with 100 FTE's which shows that there is great commitment for the North America clients and the UK clients to be positioning business in Latin America and Central America so there is a great demand for doing business within Belize."
"So obviously we had building number one across the street, this is building number two. Our plans are to eventually go into tertiary cities and possibly have satellite offices where we can bring work to folks that may not have the means to travel to large cities like Belmopan or Belize City."
"We're different that the other BPO outsourcers, we're not looking to come in and have people come and have a job, we want them to have a career, we want them to make impact, we want them to be able to grow with the company and because we're a global company, we have opportunities for people to grow, not only here in Belize but we have the opportunities to go into other countries."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "It means that clearly Peak Outsourcing is demonstrating that they have confidence in the local economy of the country of Belize City. Whenever you have enterprises investing in buildings, in acquiring land, in fixed assets you know that they have to have some measure of confidence in the direction the economy is going in the country and the city and so we are so excited about playing a role in driving jobs to our young people."
"It's a great opportunity given the fact that in the past we have seen where following graduation many of our young kids coming out of high school, coming out of sixth form didn't have opportunities, didn't have jobs. This sort of enterprise provides that shift, that change and being able to, as Chuck said, he's looking at 1,500, three shifts of 500 so clearly that is a lot of jobs for our young people."
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There was a murder in Bella Vista Village in the Toledo District today - and it saw one brother kill another. Full details are not available yet, but around 11:30 am - John Bo was allegedly stabbed to death by his brother Mathias Bo.
"These are the types of murders that really and truly are annoying. There was an issue where five persons were socializing together drinking alcohol, two of them were brothers, and it seems like they were sharing the alcohol around and when it was time for one brother to share the alcohol with the other brother, the one who had it refused to share the alcohol with his brother and his brother took a screwdriver and stabbed him in the chest. He died of that of that stab injury. Police responded quickly and were able to detain the brother who did the stabbing so the suspect is in custody and is expected to be charged hopefully today or tomorrow."
And before the Bella Vista murder, there was the fatal stabbing in Orange Walk, except that's been downgraded from possible murder to a case of self defense. The ComPol told us today that the deceased, Alwyn Arnold, was the aggressor in this case. He taunted and chased the man who killed him, who responded by stabbing him. But what started the altercation? Williams gave us the details:
But while the Carnival was mostly peaceful, there was one incident that landed an American Belizean before the court. Jevon Mckay pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after he pushed the Commissioner of Police. He was fineed $1,500, which the ComPol called a slap on the wrist, and a slap in the face of the police. He believed that there should have been harsher penalties considering that he was dressed in his police uniform so Mckay could not claim ignorance.
Tonight, the Vital Statistics Unit is under scrutiny after it was revealed that fake birth certificates were used to perpetrate passport fraud.
Earlier this month, the River Valley area saw the murder of Dornell Talbert only months after mediation and increased police presence. The incident happened while the ComPol was out of the country, and today he made his rounds to the different villages in the area. We caught up with him in Double Head Cabbage, where he explained that some of the feedback he has been getting has been complaints against the officers, which he hopes to rectify soon. He added that it's tough to levy charges for the incidents since many witnesses fear for their lives.
And yesterday we told you about the four teenagers who were killed in separate motorcycle accidents over the last two weeks. The most recent victim was a 16 year old - who was not even old enough to have a driver's license. Today the ComPol told us that they have regular checkpoints and patrols to check for those very same things, and in this case, they are investigating who permitted the teenager to drive the motorcycle.
The government says it has already turned the corner on the 6.9 million dollar land purchase for the Belmopan Tertiary Hospital, but the social partners are just fully getting involved.
And, the Prime Minister has written back to the NTUCB after they sent him a long letter demanding answers on the compulsory acquisition of 23 acres on Stake Bank Caye. They question how it can be acquired in the public interest for a private company.
In other news, September's King Tides are over for now, but flooding in the city meant that the route for the Independence Day parade had to be changed.
Courtney Menzies: 
And while the pumping station in Yarborough can't help with the very high tides, it does help with flooding from the rain. And the mayor explained that by the end of the year they'll be taking it over fully, and other areas may soon see their own stations.
The Peace Corps Service Summit was held this morning at their Headquarters in Belmopan. It was an event for volunteers currently serving in Belize and partners who work alongside them. I was there and here's my report:
"The mission of the US Peace Corps in world peace and friendship it's quite easy actually. Easy to say not so easy to do. We've been in over 60 countries for over 60 years we have actually been in Belize for 62 years and we bring people we don't bring money we don't bring things we bring human beings and we put them in communities they stay for up to 27 months they learn the language they learn the food and they understand what the communities needs are and then they try to be a technical resource for communities so we do grass roots development."
Lynelle Williams, Program Manager Peace Corps Belize
The Ashcroft Alliance has been commissioning a foreign firm named Viking Strategies to conduct political polling in Belize since 2010. And while it used to be a not so well kept secret in political circles - Ashcroft went public with it last year In June.
Melvin Perez, Statistician II
"Goods and services produce total $5.119 billion. This is an increase of 53.5 million, or 1.1%, when compared to 2022. Then we saw decreases across some of the crops, including the big tree crops, which led to a 6.6% decline from $521.5 million in 2022 to $486.9 million in 2023."
While you may have enjoyed the Expo earlier this month, some of the hard working exhibitors were just awarded today for their booth presentation. Every year the BCCI rewards those that participate in the expo, and the public relations manager explains what this year's categories were and what they were looking for.
"Every year for expo we do a best booth competition and sometimes the categories change throughout the years, this year we did best overall booth, best micro booth, and best up and coming entrepreneur, which is similar to our youth award as well but we do it to recognize the hard work that these exhibitors have done over the past couple of months to ensure that their presentation is the best, their representation of professionalism, of creativity, of innovation, of efficiency, they've done a great job in terms of being out at the expo, putting on their best show that they could put whether it's decorating their booth in a specific or fancy type of way, if it's their presentation and they're all in uniform, if they're all in the same shirt, and of course customer service, being out there and calling people to your booth, giving them a one of a kind experience that they can only get at the expo."
"Basically we provide blank canvas, the ceramics and whether people have the creativity where they can go ahead and paint it however they wish or if they wish to follow a specific design and we provide them a little template to give them an idea to do so."
it's a lot of work and to be able to really and truly bring our best self forward, really and truly grinding and doing all the work that a lot of people don't see behind the expo to see it come to fruition, to see the results of it have been quite a blessing."
And finally tonight, Peak Outsourcing, one of Belize City's call centers, today inaugurated their new building on Coney Drive. It's expected to host 1,500 employees, who will work three shifts in groups of 500. That's a lot of jobs for city residents and the CEO said they hope to keep growing.
"So obviously we had building number one across the street, this is building number two. Our plans are to eventually go into tertiary cities and possibly have satellite offices where we can bring work to folks that may not have the means to travel to large cities like Belmopan or Belize City."
