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Prime Minister John Briceno delivered his first State of the Nation Address today. And to understand how we got here, you'd have to know or remember what a Throne Speech is. Traditionally, it's the speech given by the monarch or Governor General to open a session of parliament.
It was abandoned in Belize by the Musa administration back in 1999 - and then briefly resurrected by the Barrow Administration - only to be jettisoned again by the Briceno Administration.
And so that leaves us with today's State of the Nation Address - bereft of any parliamentary significance - and really just a way to let off some political steam - as you will see later in the news.
But the speech itself was newsworthy - if only for the break on income tax the Prime Minister announced for wage earners making up to twenty nine thousand dollars per year.
Jules Vasquez reports:
Controversy may stalk his administration in the evening news - but in the sanitized aura of the State of the Nation Address - there was no hint of disharmony:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "I am happy to report that the State of the Nation is stronger, more hopeful and more confident than at any time in our 43 years."
To prove that, the Prime Minister points to sustained strong economic growth:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Gross domestic production as of the end of 2023 has now surpassed 6 billion dollars, the highest level in the country's history and in the first quarter of this year by another 10 percent."
And for the continued strong economic performance, all roads lead back to tourism and the low unemployment rate:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "In the first half of this year, overnight arrivals have surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 15 percent and increased by 26.5 percent compared to last year."
"Never before have so many jobs been available and never before has the minimum wage been so high."
And the big reveal of today's speech, a political plum for those employed persons:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Effective January 1st., in support of employees, Cabinet has approved that all workers who earn less than $29,000 will be exempt from income tax."
"By increasing the income tax exemption threshold from $20,000 to $29,000, an additional 2,851 workers will no longer be subject to income tax."
"Altogether, by these income tax deduction adjustments, over 3.3 million dollars more will be placed directly into the pockets of over 3,500 employees, an average of almost 1,000 dollars increase in net take home pay to these 3,500 hard working Belizeans."
And there was also something in there for small enterprise owners:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "To further support small business, small farmers, even new homeowners, Government is making access to finance more affordable."
"And as we ring in the New Year, Government will pass legislation so that all mortgages, assignments and cancellation of mortgages for less than $100,000 will be exempt from stamp duty."
And the only nod to any difficulties at all was with the persistent problem of crime - where the Prime Minister actually suggested that constitutional protections are only an armour for criminals:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Indeed the State of the Nation is not without intractable problems. No State can be."
"Citizen safety, for example, constantly tests our mettle, especially because the same Constitution that guarantees our liberties can, at times, provide armour for disturbers of the peace."
It's a dime view of the nation's foundational document, but the PM still claimed a moral high ground:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Among the community of nations, Belize pitches in the big leagues. Not the big leagues of military might or consumptive wealth. I mean the big leagues of moral statecraft."
"Belize can mark this 43rd birthday with confidence and pride."
"Momentum is on our side. The work continues. After four years of impressive achievements, our promises shine with the aura of destiny."
And while the 20 minute speech did deliver political plums, Jomarie Lanza surveyed the scene and found that it was curated for maximum political effect. Here's what she saw:
As the BDF Army band marched towards the platform in full pomp and precision, the steel band yielded to their military cadence.
It was like a political set piece, the small crowd outside the Sir Edney Cain building, the cooing CEO's at the back, ranking ministers up front, and, of course, the dutiful school children in the background - today a prop or backdrop to The Prime Minister's State of the Nation Address.
It's a hybrid of the National Address which would normally be delivered on September 21st with a throwback to the Throne Speech of yesteryear.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Belize can mark this 43rd birthday with confidence and pride."
The state of the Nation Address started under Prime Minister Said Musa:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Under the Musa Government he used to do this having the state of report to the nation as to where we are but it was stopped obviously with the previous government but knowing that we continue that tradition."
But it has been brought back in Briceno's third year in office- because they are trying to de-politicize the 21st.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "But it was unfortunate what was happening that the leader of the opposition was going and saying some of the most outrageous stuff like you know and it was embarrassing to all of us not only to himself or to his party but to the entire country. I remember many ambassadors they are afraid to say anything but eventually when we would talk on the side they would tell us what's wrong with this person and so to avoid that to avoid that embarrassment with our, especially with our visitors we decided it was best then that we do this today and we consult with him and he is prepared to I guess he will have a press meet or a press briefing with you all supposedly to answer back but at least it's not on Independence Day."
So to keep the true meaning of Independence Day alive, Briceno says this event - and a matching one tomorrow by the Leader of the Opposition - keeps politics off the menu for that day. He says that the country can still expect to hear their speeches on the 21st, but with a little less kick than last year's ceremony.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "I've always said Independence Day should be one day and we should set our differences aside. We will always have these differences be it in politics or in relationships or whatever it is the 21st is one day I think we should leave all that aside and come together as Belizeans and be proud and patriotic Belizeans to look and see where we are what we have accomplished in those short 43 years we are still a very, we are still a baby as a nation but it's important for us to take whatever corrective measures that had to be taken where we are going wrong to fix that and that's what we are doing. So back to your question we want to avoid that travesty so on the 21st the leader of the opposition will be given the opportunity to give just a greeting a short message for the 21st and then after that I will do the same so I hope it's going to be something nice and uplifting and a sense of unity within the Belizean people."
So while the PM will deliver another address at the Official Independence Day Ceremonies on Saturday - this one was crafted for maximum political effect. And the biggest takeaway is the raising the threshold on taxable income to 29 thousand dollars.
But, there will also be an adjustment in the tax law to, quote, "remove existing anomalies so that in no instance will an employed person take home less pay when his/her salary increases."
The PM explained how he will straighten out that wrinkle and the broader plan to eliminate P-A-Y-E tax:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "What had happened is that when the then prime minister introduced the amendments for the income tax regime back in 2009 or 2010 I remember taking time out to work out some figures in the house to show him what he has done he has basically increased the tax on people because he said the threshold was at 26K I think 26,500 but once you reach that figure you start to pay taxes at 20K so that really wasn't doing much for people. Our plan is to eventually be able to get rid of PUYN. That's our goal, but how long will it take us that's depending on how fast the economy can go and revenues can grow because if we reduce the tax we have to get it from somewhere. So we hope that with growth we will be able to replace it so this is the first step we took it up to 29K and by doing that, anybody that's earning 29K or more, with less than 29K will pay zero tax and the ones above 29K will pay."
And that tax elimination talk is just what middle class voters want to hear. So, is the PM strictly using his state platform to play politics with an election year approaching?
And is he relieving tax on one side of the revenue equation - only to get it back on the other?
He denied that - saying that the tax break is a reflection of enhanced revenue:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "No, absolutely not. We said it from earlier and that that is something that we want to do, that we want to be able to see how we could give relief to the middle class. And the middle class are the ones that are paying these taxes."
"And so this is just the first step. Remember, I need to remind you, when we got into government, we got a bankrupt government. I mean, we were borrowing a million dollars a day. So there's no way we could have afforded this."
"So we had to make sure that we can grow the economy and when you see that our economy has gone from less than four billion in 2020 to over six billion dollars now, it shows that there has been tremendous growth."
"Now we have to ensure that we collect the taxes and then by doing that, then we could continue to give more and more relief to our citizens. It comes to effective January 1st of 2025, because the tax regime goes from January to December, government financials start from April to March, but taxes go from January to December. So it will start in January."
There are also going to be tax incentives for MSME's - that's micro, small and medium enterprises.
The Prime Minister said this is a key sector of the economy:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Well I have been mentioning several times when I introduced it to the house what we want to do is that many small businesses become a part of the informal sector they don't want to register with the Belize tax service they don't want to register with social security because they feel that they get nothing in return. What we have done we have made it easier for them to register through BELTRAIDE, BELTRAIDE will help them with that and made it so much easier but also as an incentive we say if you register then we can give you tax exemptions on your goods that you need to import for up to 4 years and I think for a total of 1 million dollars. So we have been saying that for some time so basically that what we've been doing. For instance if you are a small entrepreneur doing hot sauce then you could then import your bottles duty free if you are registered under the MSMEs program. We also even said that we will give you an exemption from any fees or penalties you have to pay because you are registered so we have been doing that we are encouraging to move from the informal sector into the formal sector."
Expect a very different outlook when the Leader of the Opposition Shyne Barrow presents his State of the Nation response tomorrow morning.
And he may even criticize the Prime Minister for electioneering. But, today PM Briceno rejected that and once again put to rest any possibility that there will be a general election this year:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "As I have said repeatedly that we were elected for 5 years and we plan to go to go as close as possible to the 5 years but there will be no elections in 2024. That elections will be called in 2025 whenever I believe consultations with different people will take place, when will be the opportune time to have an opportune time to not only win the elections but to believe that we have accomplished a lot not everything we are far from accomplishing. As we what promised as I mentioned plan Belize is not a 5 year manifesto it is a transformative document a living document we will continue tweaking and changing overtime so that will be there for 10-15 years so we want to believe that we have accomplished enough to go to the Belizean people and say listen this is what we have done now judge us on our accomplishments and we hope and we have every confidence the Belizean people are going to support us once again."
Ex Police corporal, Elmer Nah appeared at the high court in Belize City today and was set to be indicted for his triple murder charge but the matter could not proceed due to a number of technicalities. Nah - who was escorted by GSU officers - has been charged with three counts for the murders of Jon, David and Vivian Ramnarace and one count of attempted murder upon Yemi Alberto, that occurred on December 31st, 2022.
Nah was represented in court by attorney Lynden Jones and Godfrey Smith before Justice Nigel Pilgrim, who adjourned the matter after pointing to Nah's attorney's and the prosecutor Terrence Williams that count 5 for use of deadly means of harm was not properly before the court.
That's because under the Indictable Procedure Act, the charge of use of deadly means of harm is to be heard by a judge and jury while Counts 1 through to 4 are to be heard by a judge alone. As a result of this Pilgrim adjourned the case for September 26th in order to rectify the matter. A number of the Ramnarace relatives were also present outside of the court.
Police have been investigating the death of 26-year-old Daniel Cal, the detainee who passed away at the Western Regional Hospital last Thursday. Cal was arrested for handling stolen goods but four days later, his family found him on the floor of the cellblock.
Minister Kareem Musa said preliminary reports suggested Cal had gotten a seizure, hit his head, and was taken to the hospital before being returned back to the cell. His family says they had no idea the condition Cal was in, but the ComPol told us today that the officers at the Belmopan station insisted they did inform the family.
Still, Cal was in their care during his detention, and he was found in a semi-conscious state dressed in only his boxers. We heard from Williams about their investigation.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "The National Forensic Service had requested that an x-ray be performed on the body to be able to ascertain whether or not there were signs of him having being physically abused by the police. And so we had taken the body to Orange Walk Town on Sunday night for the x-ray to be done and again the family was notified of this because we made sure that whenever anything concerning the body is done that the family is notified so that they don't think that we're trying to do anything to cover up. And the result of that x-ray revealed that there was no sign of violence on the body. Secondly, the postmortem examination was conducted yesterday and the result of the postmortem revealed that he died from acute respiratory distress due to alcoholism, I think cirrhosis of the liver and likewise the postmortem did not reveal anything to the effect that Mr Cal was physically abused by anybody."
"Mr Cal prior to coming into the custody of police does have a long medical history. He had been in and out of hospital i believe due to the illness he was suffering from and I think this is known by the family of Mr Cal. We have viewed the surveillance footage from the station and that too did not show anything to the effect that police had done him anything wrong. And so at this time we can say with a degree with certainty that Mr Cal's death was not caused by the police it just so happens that he took to his worse while he was in police custody."
"I must say the police in Belmopan had informed Mr Cal's family members of his illness while he was in the cellblock detained and the police had facilitated him going to the hospital on one occasion prior to the second occasion when he went and subsequently died."
"The family does have that entitlement, I can't take that away from them, I can speak ill of them for doing that. If they believe that their loved on was treated in some inhumane manner or if they believe the police had something to do with the death of their loved one then they have all right to take the matter to the courts and our duty then is to defend it and I believe we have substantial proof, even medical proof that the police did not cause his death."
And while the ComPol says their investigation is showing that the cops did not assault him, the family has lawyered up and may be taking the case to court.
And today the PM added that, in hindsight, the officers should have done a better job at keeping the family informed. But he then back pedaled and repeated that Cal had been suffering from alcoholism.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "It is very unfortunate what happened and quite likely you know 20/20, I hind sight you have 20/20 vision and obviously someone should have called the family from early on to say "hey something is wrong with Mr Cal", but I am told that they have taken out the report to show that while he may show some bruises, he died from, well it seems that he was an alcoholic, and other medical issues and not necessarily from police brutality. But one hit to a prisoner is one too much and should not be tolerated."
A postmortem exam revealed Cal died from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. The report also stated that chronic alcoholism was a contributing factor.
And while the cops at the Belmopan station likely won't be facing charges for Cal's death, Inspector Christopher Martinez is serving a 5 month sentence for wounding Aaron Flowers while he was detained.
That's the Commissioner's first cousin and today he called the sentence excessive and said he's not buying Flowers' account that he was offered bribes and threatened to get him to drop the case.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "Mr Martinez took full responsibility for what he did, I believe he came to the full realization that he was wrong and he pled guilty to the charge. I personally believe that the sentence is excessive in nature. It's a matter for him to decide if he's going to appeal the sentence or not and I hope that police officers are watching. Again we're seeing a number of instances where police officers are being accused of committing different types of crimes and they will see that the court system is not playing when it comes to police. We started with Kareem Martinez, we saw an usual sentence likewise, excessively high, and then now we have Martinez. It's something for olive to look at to make sure they don't commit themselves."
"I have not seen a person in this country being sent to prison for wounding their first offense, I have not seen that happen, it's normally a fine."
Courtney Menzies: "What do you make Flowers' comments that he was being bribed to try and drop the case, they were offering him land, they were threatening his life, his family?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "I think that is BS."
Flowers has maintained that he has recorded complaints and txt message proof of the many offers made to him to drop the case.
And the police are also investigating a cop who shot at her common law husband, who is also an officer. We reported that 29-year-old Janeau Arzu pulled a gun on 23 year old Kendal Nunez and fired a shot after she accused him of having an affair. Notably, the weapon she used was his service pistol. While Arzu was charged, those were later dropped, but the ComPol explained that police are still proceeding with another charge.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "I know that the police officer was charged, the female was charged, and the charge was subsequently withdrawn by her common-law husband and I had given instructions that she must now be charged for discharging a firearm in public. We don't need."
"The evidence from the common law in terms of that and so the police will proceed in that manner."
"It might not be a matter of training. It's more a matter of knowing how to control yourself and how to control your anger. As human being, we all get excited at times about issues. We tend to overreact over incidents due to our own inner emotions at times and so we must know how to deal with those demons that live within us. It is difficult for some people to control that and as much as we brought a psychologist on board to assist in counseling and we have also been getting assistance through the Ministry of Public Service EPA, Employees Assistance Program, we're still seeing that some officers are still stressed and again, policing is a high stress job, if you don't know how to handle stress then you'll go mad. But at the end of the day, as stressful as it may be, we cannot unleash our stress on the public. We have to find a way to deal with those professionally and that's what I have been saying to police. Just this morning in my conference I echoed that sentiment to commanders, that there's a need for them to monitor more their personnel."
"I also said to them that we need to take a second look at our firearm policy in terms of who can and who cannot take firearms home and if we have any police officer who is constantly involved in domestic issues, those police officers must never have a gun at home, even if it's a licensed gun we are going to take it away until they can undergo counseling or something to be able to help them to overcome those issues that they are confronted with and when it comes to our issued firearm, we will not issue them any to take home. If they're working in an area that requires the use of a firearm, they will get one, when they come off duty they hand that firearm to the station so we're looking at that likewise to address this whole issue of police officers misusing firearms."
And a THIRD officer is facing criminal charges after he was caught pawning a stolen chain, valued at $30,000. We told you that a firefighter from the US, who had been charged for a stabbing incident, reported his chains stolen. Today the ComPol said that the officer had already pawned the item before the cops caught him.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "The police officer is Hershel Garcia. According to the complainant in this case, the same guy you spoke about, the firefighter, he was involved in an issue at Shisha nightclub in Belize City and during that process he lost two chains I think, one was valued at $75,000, an 8oz gold chain and subsequent to that, he made a report to the police and police went and checked the pawn shops and at a particular pawn shop in Belize City, the police were shown a video which depict a police officer going to the pawn shop to pawn the gold chain that belongs to the firefighter. Based on that, the police did what needed to be done and the police officer was arrested for handling stolen goods."
Courtney Menzies: "It was only the one chain he was caught with?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "Yes, well, the chain was not found with him. when he was detained by police, he disposed of the chain and we have not been able to recover it."
And on top of those cops facing various charges, earlier this month we told you about the officer who was remanded for allegedly raping a 14-year-old several times between 2022 and 2023. Today the ComPol explained that the reason the minor decided to come forward until August is because she had been threatened before.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "This is an old case. This had been with the DPP for some time and according to the complainant in this matter - who I think is… I will not go into much details, the complainant in the matter, this incident happened about couple years ago more or less and she had not come forward to make the complaint because of threats made to her and her mother. It seems like she got brave this time and she made the complaint, police did their investigation, the file was sent to the DPP's office for advice and we received advice to proceed with charges against him and so he was charged."
At the beginning of this month, you heard from survivors of motorcycle accidents and the medical professionals that care for them. You also heard from the authorities who are trying to lessen the sharply increasing number of fatal accidents. Well, since then, there have been three more fatal accidents - all teenagers. A 7 year old girl was also injured in an accident right here in the city.
Today the ComPol reiterated that there's not much else the police and the transport department can do in terms of enforcement - rather, it is up to those on the road to drive more carefully.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "Yesterday morning I watch the Beef on Channel 7 as a I normally do."
Courtney Menzies: "We know that's your favorite show."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "Well, my Bally is on it so I watch to see if I'll be incinerated or half cooked or fully cooked. But on that show yesterday I noticed that Mr Vasquez brought up that topic and he said that there may a need for more enforcement. I really and truly don't know what else can the police and the department of transport do. We'll have to have police at every milepost or traffic officers at every milepost because as much as we do enforcements, putting in place checkpoints and highway patrols, when drivers approach the checkpoint, they slow down and when they're out of sight of that checkpoint they adapt their usual bad driving habit. We find that many of these accidents are a result of drivers not paying attention, driving without due care and attention. Motorcycles continue to be an issue. How we address that, I think that we have been able to do a number of sensitization, even creating flyers on safety tips on these motorcycles and even that is not helping. It certainly will require that drivers of motor vehicles and riders of motorcycles take more responsibility in ensuring that they exercise more caution in the driving of motor vehicles and the handling of motorcycles. Motorcycle riders at times tend to operate in such a way that the rules of the road don't apply to them, they have a separate rule that applies to them which is not the case and in some cases the drivers of motor vehicles have no regard for motorcycle riders so it's a dual issue that we have to look at to see how we can address it."
And like the Chief Transport Officer, the ComPol also added that they will be working to implement legislation to try and make the roads safer for drivers.
Yesterday we told you that the man who chopped 61 year old Ubaldo Guzman to death was charged with manslaughter. According to the ComPol, 43 year old Peter August claimed he attacked Guzman in self defense, which meant the police had to charge based on the DPP's advice. Here's how he explained it.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "I will not go into specifics but I can say to you that when it comes to a person who has caused the death of another person by unlawful harm, where that person raises the defense of self-defense, the police cannot on our own charge. The criminal code dictates that we must send that decision to the DPP office for directives and in this case, the accused person raises self defense that he was attacked first with a machete by Guzman and he was chopped first and he does have a chop wound and he defended himself leading to Guzman's death. Now this is a situation where two persons are in a house. There are no independent witnesses to contradict what the accused killer is saying and the DPP office would be guided by the evidence before them in arriving at a decision as to whether to charge them with murder or manslaughter. And in this particular case, they opted to charge manslaughter based on the statement given by the killer and so the police simply carried out the instructions as carried out by the DPP's office."
Last night we told you about the King Tides swallowing the city. They arrived with September's Supermoon and may be here until November.
Today the Chief Met Officer told us what's causing these very high tides:
Ronald Gordon, Chief Met Officer "Also known as king tides, occur every so often and they happened when the moon and the sun are perfectly aligned. So that would be whenever you have a full moon or a new moon and to compound it they are even higher when the moon is actually closer to the earth or even when the earth is closer to the sun."
"So in this particular case we are approaching a full moon. In fact today is a full moon and it's referred to a super moon because in this case the moon is closest or this closest approach to the earth and we know that tides occur because of the gravitational pull that the moon exerts on the earth and also the sun of course but the moon is much closer so that has a more significant impact in terms of affecting the tides."
"So what we have right now is a perfect combination of circumstances to allow for extra or more significantly higher tides than we normally experience."
Jules Vasquez "It seems that the high watermark is getting higher. Are we facing a combination of these king tides, super moon, all these things but along with rising sea levels?"
Ronald Gordon, Chief Met Officer "That is certainly something that is possible. They appear to be higher each time or each year and based on the predictions from the climate models there is likely to be or there is going to be an increasing sea level due to climate change and global warming."
"So certainly if you add the effects of the tides along with that then you will get higher tides especially during these times and from what I understand listening to other sources is that we also have a situation where the rivers or the Belize river in particular is a bit higher than normal, so the combination of factors certainly will affect the level at which the water moves inland."
Jules Vasquez "With this particular alignment of the planets, etcetera, should we expect that we'll have king tides next month as well?"
Ronald Gordon, Chief Met Officer "Basically, from what I saw in the, again, I'm looking at also what you're seeing, they are saying that we have about, I think, three or four super moons back to back consecutively."
"So in that case, certainly, we do expect that in the following months, we will see, again, this phenomenon occurring. But again, the factors, we don't if this will be aligned perfectly in terms of the, especially when it comes to the river conditions."
"So that's something that we need to also take into consideration. But for the short term, I also want to note that from what I read, this will peak sometime over the weekend and we do expect some increase in rainfall."
"So it is a possibility that we may see further flooding."
Gordon also admitted that the MET office does not currently have a working tide gauge to see how much higher these tides really are:
Ronald Gordon, Chief Met Officer "This department in the past had had to engage, I believe one at least, at the port of Belize, and we do plan to install others going into the future. In fact, that is one area that we do know we have a lot of limitations at the moment."
"So what we plan to do in the future is to install tide gauges at least some of these stations so we can monitor sea level rise in the long term, also monitor the phenomenon like this one. And also, of course, monitor storm surge."
"So that is something that we're looking into. We do have a tide gauge at the moment pending installation. We're trying to find a perfect location to install that one."
Remember the Belize bill debate that flooded social media after the passing of Queen Elizabeth the second in September of 2022? Whether our bills would remain the same or should we swap out the monarch for our national heroes?
Well, it's the latter. We got an update from the Prime Minister today on that process, and he says we should be seeing those new bills with a new face come into circulation very soon.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "The central bank, the governor of central bank came to my office I think about 2 weeks ago to show us the new dollars. We will be using the national heroes, George Price and Phillip Goldson they are the ones that are going to be on the face and so the new dollars that we introduced probably later this year or early next year will be those ones so it will be changed but will have a lot of other features to protect against counterfeit so it is process and also we have to ease out the old dollar bills and as we get rid of some of them these are going to be introduced so it's already done it's already been approved and we have presented to the cabinet last year or earlier this year and now I am told that the governor after the 21st celebrations they will come and show the actual bills so it's coming."
Reporter- "Any insights on the color scheme all blue notes?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister "I would not object but actually it's blue and red."
Earlier in the news you heard from the Police Commissioner on several issues - many of them that occurred while he wasn't here. Williams was away for two weeks, first in Paraguay and then in the Bahamas - and he insists it wasn't a vacation. He told us about the conferences he attended:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "I first went to Paraguay, attended the International Police Cooperation Conference which was hosted by Taiwan. At that conference, we had various discussions on regional security and common trends in policing, including looking at the whole issue of cybercrime and cybersecurity. Important from that meeting is that we were able to secure a number of training for police officers to go to Taiwan and train in different areas of policing. You would know that the public and even the media houses always been on the police saying we need more training and so whenever I go out to these conferences I would normally do my best to lobby for training for our officers and we have been able to get a number of those trainings. after Paraguay I flew to the Bahamas where I attended the 26th Interpol conference of the Americas. That was extremely good."
"I did a presentation on regional cooperation at that conference. That was well received by the members of the conference and as you would know I wear three hats, as the Commissioner of Police for Belize and then as the President of the Commission for the Chiefs and Directors of Police for Central America, Mexico, Colombia and the Caribbean. And as well as the first Vice President of the ACCP. So I was there in three capacities because the president of ACCP could not attend so I was representing him at that meeting likewise. Again, I had a bilateral meeting with the president of Interpol who happens to be chief of police in Dubai, prior to his election as the president of Interpol and from that bilateral meeting, I was also able to secure a number of trainings for police in Dubai, ranging from junior middle and senior management trainings for officers, there is also a proposal for myself and perhaps the Minister to go to Dubai and look at the smart system that is used in Dubai as a part of the crime fighting strategy to see how we can perhaps replicate that in Belize."
Honduran artist "Key Key" straddles spaces between the genres of reggaeton and afropop - and he's in Belize to bring that flavor to the Rude Boy Ultra Fest on Friday in Cayo. He told us the best is what he's about:
Key Key, International Artist "I hope for the best forever and as always give you the best from me and well that it will be a good event and a nice event we can remember for history. Excited and nervous, of course, but the nerves are part of it, don't worry."
He will perform at the Victor Galvez Stadium to bring in the 21st.
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Prime Minister John Briceno delivered his first State of the Nation Address today. And to understand how we got here, you'd have to know or remember what a Throne Speech is. Traditionally, it's the speech given by the monarch or Governor General to open a session of parliament.
John Briceno, Prime Minister 
And while the 20 minute speech did deliver political plums, Jomarie Lanza surveyed the scene and found that it was curated for maximum political effect. Here's what she saw:
"But it was unfortunate what was happening that the leader of the opposition was going and saying some of the most outrageous stuff like you know and it was embarrassing to all of us not only to himself or to his party but to the entire country. I remember many ambassadors they are afraid to say anything but eventually when we would talk on the side they would tell us what's wrong with this person and so to avoid that to avoid that embarrassment with our, especially with our visitors we decided it was best then that we do this today and we consult with him and he is prepared to I guess he will have a press meet or a press briefing with you all supposedly to answer back but at least it's not on Independence Day."
Ex Police corporal, Elmer Nah appeared at the high court in Belize City today and was set to be indicted for his triple murder charge but the matter could not proceed due to a number of technicalities. Nah - who was escorted by GSU officers - has been charged with three counts for the murders of Jon, David and Vivian Ramnarace and one count of attempted murder upon Yemi Alberto, that occurred on December 31st, 2022.
Police have been investigating the death of 26-year-old Daniel Cal, the detainee who passed away at the Western Regional Hospital last Thursday. Cal was arrested for handling stolen goods but four days later, his family found him on the floor of the cellblock.
"The National Forensic Service had requested that an x-ray be performed on the body to be able to ascertain whether or not there were signs of him having being physically abused by the police. And so we had taken the body to Orange Walk Town on Sunday night for the x-ray to be done and again the family was notified of this because we made sure that whenever anything concerning the body is done that the family is notified so that they don't think that we're trying to do anything to cover up. And the result of that x-ray revealed that there was no sign of violence on the body. Secondly, the postmortem examination was conducted yesterday and the result of the postmortem revealed that he died from acute respiratory distress due to alcoholism, I think cirrhosis of the liver and likewise the postmortem did not reveal anything to the effect that Mr Cal was physically abused by anybody."
And while the cops at the Belmopan station likely won't be facing charges for Cal's death, Inspector Christopher Martinez is serving a 5 month sentence for wounding Aaron Flowers while he was detained.
And the police are also investigating a cop who shot at her common law husband, who is also an officer. We reported that 29-year-old Janeau Arzu pulled a gun on 23 year old Kendal Nunez and fired a shot after she accused him of having an affair. Notably, the weapon she used was his service pistol. While Arzu was charged, those were later dropped, but the ComPol explained that police are still proceeding with another charge.
And a THIRD officer is facing criminal charges after he was caught pawning a stolen chain, valued at $30,000. We told you that a firefighter from the US, who had been charged for a stabbing incident, reported his chains stolen. Today the ComPol said that the officer had already pawned the item before the cops caught him.
At the beginning of this month, you heard from survivors of motorcycle accidents and the medical professionals that care for them. You also heard from the authorities who are trying to lessen the sharply increasing number of fatal accidents. Well, since then, there have been three more fatal accidents - all teenagers. A 7 year old girl was also injured in an accident right here in the city.
Yesterday we told you that the man who chopped 61 year old Ubaldo Guzman to death was charged with manslaughter. According to the ComPol, 43 year old Peter August claimed he attacked Guzman in self defense, which meant the police had to charge based on the DPP's advice. Here's how he explained it.
Last night we told you about the King Tides swallowing the city. They arrived with September's Supermoon and may be here until November.
Ronald Gordon, Chief Met Officer
Earlier in the news you heard from the Police Commissioner on several issues - many of them that occurred while he wasn't here. Williams was away for two weeks, first in Paraguay and then in the Bahamas - and he insists it wasn't a vacation. He told us about the conferences he attended:
"I hope for the best forever and as always give you the best from me and well that it will be a good event and a nice event we can remember for history. Excited and nervous, of course, but the nerves are part of it, don't worry."