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Former Belize Prime Minister Injured in Traffic Accident

March 31, 2009 By Belizean Leave a Comment

manuel-esquivel-belize.jpg30 March 2009 – (Belizean.com) The former Prime Minister of Belize Rt. Hon. Dr. Manuel Esquivel age 69 is in a serious but stable condition after being involved in a traffic accident between mile 31 and 32 on the Western Highway between Belize City and the capital Belmopan. Mr. Esquivel as leader of the United Democratic served as Prime Minister of Belize from 1984 to 1989, and again from 1993 to 1998. He is currently a senior adviser with ministerial rank in the government of Prime Minister Dean Barrow.

Mr. Esquivel was on his way to work in the capital Belmopan when the
driver of the Nissan Pathfinder in which he was traveling lost control
of the vehicle. Eyewitnesses say the vehicle ran off the road, hit a
culvert, went up into the air and rolled over several times.

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Belize Government Refuses to Pay Privy Council Award

March 22, 2009 By Belizean Leave a Comment

dean-barrow-1l.jpgBelmopan, Belize 22 March 2009 – The Belize Government has officially announced that it does not intend to to honor the BZ$ 77 million dollar awarded by the London Court of International Arbitration this week in its dispute with Belize Telemedia Ltd. The decision  by the Belize government has raised serious concern among investors who have for some time now been worried about the validity of contracts and legal certainty in this former British colony located in Central America.

Asked by Channel 5 reporter Jose
Sanchez whom the LCIA award of $77 million will benefit, BTL's
executive chairman, Dean Boyce, said it is the charities and the BTL
employees trust that own 95% of BTL and the 800 Belizean shareholders
who own the remaining 5%.

According to Telemedia, a significant part of the Award relates to the
treatment of taxes, but additionally includes the recovery of legal
costs and other outstanding Government debts. The release further states that in many ways it is very much business
as usual, and Telemedia will continue as before on the basis that the
Accommodation Agreement is fully in place. 

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Belize Supreme Court Grants Judicial Review to former P.M.

March 12, 2009 By Belizean Leave a Comment

said-musa-belize-prime-minister.jpgBelmopan, Belize 12 March 2009 – (Belizean.com) The Belize Supreme Court has today handed a significant victory to former Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Said Musa in granting him leave for judicial review against a charge of theft lodged by the newly installed United Democratic Party government.

Belmopan Magistrate Earl Jones had comiitted Rt. Hon. Musa to the Supreme Court for theft but Chief Justice Hon. Abdulai Conteh agreed with the defense that magistrate Jones' lower court order was rife with fallacies, inconsistencies and errors in law and jurisdiction as to warrant a judicial review.

The current Belize government has been engaged in what is widely regarded as a politcal witch hunt against its political rivals since it took office a little over a year ago.

To date the U.D.P. government has not been able to employ a Solicitor General following the resignation of the substantive official appointed by the U.D.P. – a highly regarded professional trained in the U.K. – and the subsequent flight of two imported crown counsels from Canada who abandoned their appointments amidst allegations of a politicised executive legal branch.

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Minister Kicked Out of Belize Cabinet

March 11, 2009 By Belizean Leave a Comment

marcel-cardona-belize.jpg

Belmopan 10 March 2009 (Belizean.com) Mininister of Youth, Sports and Culture Hon. Marcel Cardona has been kicked out of office by Prime Minister Dean Barrow following a spat over a a multi-million dollar tourism contract. Hon. Cardona tangled with Barrow National Institute of Culture and History appointee Dianne Haylock over the award of a license to establish a restaurant and tourism trinket shop within a protected conservation area.

Belize Telemedia reports that "For weeks speculation had been rife that a Cabinet reshuffle would be imminent after the municipal elections. Well today, the first order of business, even before Cabinet met, was the announcement of the anticipated reshuffle, the first for the Barrow Administration. It did not amount to a major shake up in Belmopan and the loser is Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Marcel Cardona, who has been removed from Cabinet and will now sit in the back bench."

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