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
Tonight, the Prime Minister says that if Hugo Engineering-the company partially owned by his brother, Javier-is implicated in any wrongdoing regarding its Belize Defence Force meat contracts, then baby bro will have to answer for it.
This comes as auditing continues inside the Ministry of Defence following explosive leaks revealing procurement irregularities. When the story broke last week, the Prime Minister told us he had not yet spoken to his brother. We pressed him on that issue again today, but he didn't want to talk about what he and Javier discussed:
Reporter "PM, when we spoke to you last week, you had not yet spoken to your younger brother Javier, have you spoken to him since and what have you found out about him being a BDF supplier?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister "I have spoken to him and there is nothing more to add."
Reporter "For the tender period we have seen Hugo engineering Company co-owned by your brother supply."
John Briceno: "I won't answer that. You really want me to?"
Reporter "It's an engineering company PM, why is an engineering company providing that?"
John Briceno: "What I said again and I will repeat again, allow the auditor general to do their job and if Hugo Engineering did anything wrong they have to answer. Punto final, there's nothing more to add."
In the 2023/24 fiscal year, Hugo Engineering and Construction Services Limited supplied beef patties, beef steak, chicken breast, ground chicken, lamb chops, and pork chops to the BDF.
And the Prime Minister and new Minister of Defence Briceño, also didn't have any answers when it came to the BDF boots which our sources say were being purchased at highly inflated rates, far exceeding the best available local price. The PM says that if that is the case, he is sure that the Auditor General will pick it up in her ongoing review:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "If that is the case, then the, the, uh, the Auditor General will pick it up."
It's quite a big task for the Auditor General to pick up all the discrepancies.
She will likely have to get help from the BDF Stores Manager.
One whistleblower who came forward was the former BDF Services and Support Battalion Commander who indicated that even basic procurement services, after 2020, were re-routed through Belmopan.
The PM rejected this expert account and said that what he is saying is false:
Reporter "The former commander of the BDF Services and Support Battalion told us that after 2020 even basic procurement was sent to Belmopan and taken away from them, does that show any signs of corruption?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister "That is not true, that started in 2018, when there was a problem with the very same procurement within the BDF and what that person is not, if that person was being fair enough he would also tell you that even the things that we buy, whether it's essential or the ministry's buying it is in consultation with the soldiers. The soldiers tell you what they want, for instance in a meeting again with them and also the ministry of finance, the people at finance were pointing out you're buying this I think it was Dak but you can get a cheaper one from another supplier but they said that this is the brand that the BDF soldiers are asking for, so we go all down to that detail as to ensuring that we get that which is best as we possibly can."
When it comes to the ongoing audit, the PM says he doesn't know anything about it, because the audit is independent. It will go all the way to 2015, which was before the time of Oscar Mira. Is this a way to distract from the activities specifically under the PUP?
The PM explained the rationale:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "No, we can't. We can't. I don't talk to the auditor, to the auditor general. She's independent and she's doing her own job. She has been going meticulously through, I mean, it's a lot, a lot of files, because invoices and the POs, what they refer to as the POs, the purchase orders and the contracts, it's a lot of work and they have to compiling them."
"That's what the last I know from the CEO and whenever she has a report, she makes it available. I think it's important for us, for Belizeans to know, we're looking at what has happened during war time, but it's also important to be able to take a look back."
"And I believe that we can go back as far as 2015. I don't think that has been officially said to the Auditor General, but I will ask the Financial Secretary to speak with her and answer to requests that we go all the way to 2015."
"I think that a lot has been said, you know, and there's this impression as if this money has been paid and the soldiers and the Coast Guard are not getting food. If you want to be objective, every soldier will tell you that today they're getting way better than they did before we came into government."
According to Smart Stream leaks sent to our newsroom, in late 2021, the Ministry of Defence seems to have bought a pickup in ten installments of 9,603 dollars each from FT Williams, an electrical contractor-which is connected to Oscar Mira by marriage.
According to the PM, any questions about that we need to ask the company:
Reporter "Would you be able to why in December of 2020 the Ministry of Defence bought a pickup."
John Briceno: "December of 2020?"
Reporter "Yes, a pickup in 10 installments from FT Williams, that was under Oscar Mira ofcourse, can you speak on that?"
John Briceno: "I have absolutely, you have to go and talk to them, I mean how could I, I don't know, December 2020."
We have reached out to FT Williams for comment but the company has not yet responded.
The video of a tourist, we have come to know as Ruben Stoll, following and petting a wild jaguar cub has sparked widespread public outrage.
But will Stoll face any consequence for tampering with an animal in the wild?
The Minister of Sustainable Development-who is also responsible for biodiversity-told us that a team was deployed to look for Stoll but they have not found him yet.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development & Forestry "We were informed about what occurred a video was shared with me and we frowned it to the department luckily they department had seen it from the night before and so we tried to find the location of where they were because according to the video itself it seemed they were going to be around the country looking at wildlife and doing other visits including birding. so our staff were informed and we got some information that they were going to be by La Milpa. Our staff went out there but unfortunately we could not locate them yesterday and accordingly they had gone birding and sod we could not find them so what we did yesterday was to produce a report sort of so that then people can see the damages that is being done and to inform them that if they saw it then they should come into the forestry department otherwise if we get to them before with the police then we would have to bring them in and so the press release was basically saying you should not interfere with the animals, quote the legislation saying they should not and then also informing that there is a fine there is a penalty, but more on the side of information and education so that the public can know the wildlife is there it is fine for us to just look at them and enjoy the scenery, the beauty, and we should not interfere and touch them because it is also dangerous because those cubs certainly had their mother close by and that could have been very dangerous it could have been fatal and the person could have been attacked."
And until forestry gets a hold of Stoll, we asked an expert, a wildlife veterinarian, about what these tourists should have done or should do if they encounter a wild animal.
Dr Isabelle Paquet-Durand, Director, Belize Wildlife Referral Clinic "As much as those people were fascinated and passionate about nature it was definitely not okay and definitely harassment because the proper way to respond to such. Sighting is to freeze and let the animal move away without any interaction whatsoever no running after it no, talking to it and definitely absolutely no touching."
"So we actually present that as a common myth that if a human has touched baby mom will absolutely not take it back because many times the moms may take it back but in some species it is a huge problem if there is human scent on it it is nothing necessarily described fro cats but the problem is that it stresses the animal terribly and that stress can cause serious harm and it is of course a huge risk to the human too because the mama must be somewhere close by and she would defend her cub so there is a huge risk to the human from that interaction as well as to the cub."
So while Stoll plans to continue his bird watching and tour of Belize for the time being, we asked Habet whether they have put up any notices for him at border crossings in case he leaves the country without being charged. But according to the minister they have not gotten around to doing that:
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development & Forestry "I don't think we have done that no so possibly that would have been something we would have had to do but we haven't gotten to that point as yet."
Jo: "How seriously is your Department taking this in terms of what kind of manpower or resources have you put behind the search for this individual or is it just an administrative matter?"
Orlando Habet: "Not only administrative but I think the concern is basically to educate the public because if one person does it then others might do it if they see it so I think that this is an incident, far fetched because it has not happened for a long time or at least it had not been observed. This now because of social media it has been put out there and so I believe that for us more importantly now is to educate our public about the dangers about the safety but also for them to know that there are laws that govern the protection of wildlife and also for their own protection."
And even if Stoll is charged, the most he would face is a small fine of $500. But these laws and the fine will be revised. We asked Habet about the new legislation that they are proposing and how much a fine would be under those new laws.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development & Forestry "If I recall correctly the old laws speaks about a $500 fine and so the amendments are trying to see how we can scale it up to something that is more substantial so it really deters people from doing such things. I believe the proposal right now is for ten thousand dollars abut it is going to be go to the office of the attorney general for them to look at and for them to review it and they will amend it some recommendations as ti the scaling up of that fine."
A tropical wave sweeping across Belize today brought a wet and windy start to the morning with heavy gusts damaging wooden docks in St. George's Caye and a thatch structure in Hopkins Village.
This morning after 8:00, tropical storm-level winds above 40 mph whipped into communities along Belize's coast.
In Belize City, winds surpassed 40 miles per hour, and in St. George's Caye, the reading was 45 miles per hour.
No heavy flooding was reported. The Met Office says that moist and unstable weather conditions continue to prevail over most areas.
BEL is sourcing additional local power sources to assist with the ongoing issue of load shedding. Within the past few days you might have noticed a text, email or release circulated regarding designated load shedding times across various parts of the country.
We asked the PM on this and he says that they are looking at ways to directly address Belize's continuing energy issues:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Well that has always been a problem from since 2024, as we know Belize has been, the demand for electricity has been growing exceedingly fast and likewise in the southern part of Mexico they're having the same problems. They should have had a 1.2 gigawatts of electricity already online but they seem to be having a lot of problems, I think the plants have been built in Mexico but now they're having problems on how they can get the natural gas to power and fire up those plants. So we're in conversation with them but at the same time we are also taking our own precautions. We're happy that it's raining so the dam is starting to full up again so we will be able to get some more electricity from them. We also, BEL had signed on with a company to be able to have a standby generator, the generator should have been here towards the month of May I think but because of the war in Iraq it has messed up you know the shipping and that is why we have not gotten it by now. We are hoping by the end of the month or sometime next month that standby generator will be here. Once that standby generator is in Belize so once there's any kind of load shedding then we will be able to fire that up for us to be able to ensure that we don't have any load shedding in Belize."
Reporter "So these short term measures can potentially eliminate load shedding altogether in Belize and prevent these blackouts?"
John Briceno: "Well that is the expectation, and also as you all know we have already have called for or have done the requests for proposals for solar and we expect that sometime by the middle of next year at the very latest the end of next year we're going to have a lot more solar into the system."
He has accused the Chief Forest Officer of extorting him for bribes. A little over a week ago businessman Cesar Godinez put his complaint in writing when he sent a formal letter to the Ministry of Sustainable Development addressed to the minister. In it he details allegations of bribery involving Deputy Forest Officer John Pinelo.
The minister today told us he did receive the letter and so did his CEO.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development & Forestry "Yes I have seen it I was forwarded a copy by my CEO because I think the letter went to my CEO it was a brief shot letter of about 2 or 3 paragraphs not much, not very extensive so we looked at it and based on that report then that is where we are going to be basing our investigation based on those accusations."
Jo: "His allegation contains credible elements and proof including electronic transfers of money to Pinelo and screenshots, and of course a document of company incorporation with Pinelo as shareholder. All this casts an adverse light on the management of the Forestry Department which has long been associated with allegations of corruption. Will there have to be further review of Mr Pinelo's decisions?"
Orlando Habet: "What you mentioned I guess is your opinion on the severity of the situation, we will have to look at it entirely and then see where it goes from there but I think the office the CEO has a process that is being established for the investigation to be don't. I can't bias whatever will happen I cannot say what is going to happen because it is under investigation."
And when the story of the allegations first broke, Pinelo chose to go on one month's leave.
That was a month ago-when the PM said he had tasked the CEO to conduct an investigation.
But Pinelo's leave finishes soon, and when it does, will he return to act as Chief Forest Officer? Habet says that is still in limbo until Pinelo tells his side of the story.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development & Forestry "So it Is at the point where he has already sent in his letter telling the office what is his side of the story that is still under consideration and then an internal investigation is being done and he is suppose ti return on Monday because he was practically on vacations and the consideration will be on where he fits in when he returns. I don't have any specific information as to what will happen yet because the investigation still has not been completed but if he returns he will still be as acting, he won't be acting chief forest officer but he will be deputy officer until the investigation is completed and the decision is made."
And until Pinelo presents his case to the ministry, there are other allegations of corruption hovering over the Forestry Department. We have heard more than a few alleging suspect behavior on the part of Forest Officers.
When we asked Habet about this he says that until there is evidence to back the accusations nothing will become of it.
Jo: "Do you understand the public's and especially stakeholders ' concerns that the Forestry Department is a hotbed of corruption and that there may be a culture of bribery?"
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development & Forestry "With the department? Hmmmm, you hear things and we have to be based on evidence and if people don't come out with the evidence then we cant really do much about it but I think that we have a process where officers if they are found doing something illegal they have a process that they go through legally because they are public officers and usually that is headed by instructions from the public service if they are public officers, established public officers and if they are just open vote then I think the ministry itself can make a decision on what happens. But accusations of corruption have to be done with evidence so that then something can be done."
About half a mile up the road from where they treat rescued wild animals, the Belize Wildlife Referral Clinic will also be hosting workshops and training educating the public on wildlife conflict and conservation. This is their newly inaugurated One Health Education Lab. Jomarie Lanza was at the ribbon cutting ceremony today and here's how it went.
Rapid population expansion and infrastructural development across Belize mean citizens are encountering wildlife more frequently than ever before. Helping communities navigate these encounters is the Belize Wildlife Referral Clinic, which hosts essential workshops on coexistence and environmental stewardship. That mission received a major boost today with the inauguration of their new Wildlife and One Health Education Lab. The dedicated facility will serve as a hub for future public training, a move the clinic's director says will significantly elevate the impact of their conservation work.
Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand, Director, Belize Wildlife Referral Clinic "The workshops started in 2018 and then were taken nationwide in 2021 and since then we have been going for 5 years doing these workshops."
"It is very significant for us because now people can come to us and we can do way more trainings with less cost because it can be right here on site as opposed to going everywhere we will still continue to go to the more rural communities that cant come to us but we hope that a lot of people will be able to just come here."
And for the persons leading these trainings, like Giann Vasquez, he says it makes it easier for them now that they have the space instead of constantly traveling from district to district to teach.
Giann Vasquez, Wildlife & One Health Educator "So my role as an educator is mainly going out and doing workshops, however before we had a very small space in our old rented facility and we also used to travel all over the country finding a space for conducting these workshops, now we can we are free to invite participants from all over the country and have them here in United Ville where our facilities are and we have the space for them in doing these trainings."
"So it is 2 days of intensive workshops everything from wildlife conflict, illegal wildlife trade, we do look a lot into the legislation that protects wildlife as well as wildlife rehabilitation and the simple very basic veterinary things that we would recommend people to do when they find a hurt animal and overall what to do when you have an emergency with wildlife."
According to Dr. Paquet-Durand, these training sessions are highly effective, equipping participants with the fundamental skills needed to safely manage encounters with injured wildlife.
Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand "So it seems to us that these workshops have been really effective because most people that we train and that is across all fields don't really know much about wildlife and what is normally in wildlife and what common problems we may encounter and how we can simply prevent them or mitigate them and many persons make mistakes with very good intentions so there come in really handy because they can learn how to protect themselves and animals and it is a win win."
"As we develop we will encounter more and more conflict because truthfully in some ways we are expanding into wildlife habitat and whenever we do that we are going to displace animals and those animals may show up in our backyards and then our training may come in handy to educate people on how they can coexist with these animals because we don't want to displace them but we want to share this environment because of course they are also important to us for the income that they bring through tourism and much more."
Belize's judicial system is advancing its use of technology by employing artificial intelligence.
And to get everyone on the same page, a two day workshop is being held to help judges and attorneys become more efficient in their AI usage. The first day of the workshop was facilitated by Scott Wiles, who told us more about the training.
Scott Wiles, Dir, Trade and Export, LexisNexis "I think it just saves times so it doesn't matter, as far as the different judges that I've spoken to from different jurisdictions, they've got a lot of work and any way that we can help streamline that process and reduce bottlenecks has been a really big impact for them so even if it's summarizing cases, whether it's actually helping them with workflows and draft judgements, that's some of the ways they've been using it so far."
"Lexus Protege is an AI solution and it really helps to supercharge the content, there are many uses in the Caribbean, including the Supreme Court use within their day to day workflow so the AI sits on top of that and really just supercharges that content to be able to provide authoritative, legal content and help them in their day to day."
Courtney Menzies: "Over these next two days what one thing you're hoping the participants take away?"
Scott Wiles: "Don't be scared of using it, don't be scared of trying it I think my own personal experience of using AI is that the more I use it the more effective I become at using it, I understand how it interacts and how it can help me and I think that's the biggest challenge, people are scared of it or think I don't have the time to invest in using it so I'll do it another day, just use it."
Derek Sylvester, Judge, Senior Courts of Belize "As part of the court's strategic plan, the judicial education institute which is the training arm of the court headed by the president, the Honorable Chief Justice Louise Esther Blenman, she has embarked upon a series of training, not only training but also technological development for the court. Training in AI because AI is now a major factor in terms of technological development with greatly assist the judiciary, both in terms of judgement writing, legal research because gone are days when you rely on books and coursing through pages, now you turn to the computer, tell it what you want, and create all your material. Legally, it would assist the court, secondly it would tremendously reduce backlog because the issue with the courts is time."
Not everyone gets the chance to step aboard a luxury ocean liner, but today, high schoolers from across Belize City were given the full passenger treatment. From sampling gourmet cuisine to exploring world-class amenities, the students got a rare, firsthand look at what a career on the high seas actually looks like. Courtney Menzies spoke with them after they returned to shore, and has the story:
Residents of the King's Park area in Belize City didn't know what to think yesterday afternoon when they saw two helicopters steadily hovering over their neighborhoods. Not too far from the Municipal Airstrip, the helicopters appeared to be hovering in some kind of formation. Residents had never seen anything like it before and didn't know what was happening. They sent us their videos-and we linked the Civil Aviation Department. Director Nigel Carter told us "they went through all the procedures for approval of helicopter operations in the municipal area. Everything was coordinated."
But even he didn't know what they were doing.
The answer for that came yesterday evening when someone in the local film industry confirmed that it was a camera and helicopter test for an international unscripted TV show being shot in Belize this month. And while this was just practice, they plan to do the real scene on Thursday from the same spot. So, don't be surprised if you see two whirly birds hovering over your neighborhood.
Guatemalan security forces in Melchor de Mencos intercepted a major shipment of contraband cigarettes over the weekend and it likely originated from Belize.
Officers from Guatemala's division of border security, DIPAFRONT, made the discovery along the banks of a river in the El Arrollito neighborhood of Melchor, a known transit area immediately adjacent to the Belize border. The abandoned cargo consisted of 180,000 individual cigarettes with an estimated street value of 180,000 Quetzales, equivalent to roughly 46,000 Belize Dollars.
The seized cargo features prominent Chinese-manufactured brands, including "G.L. Supremo," "Elephant," and "Richman." These specific brands are highly sought-after on the regional black market due to their low cost and high profit margins.
We note that Chinese cigarettes are smuggled out of the Benque Viejo Free Zone in high volumes almost daily.
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Tonight, the Prime Minister says that if Hugo Engineering-the company partially owned by his brother, Javier-is implicated in any wrongdoing regarding its Belize Defence Force meat contracts, then baby bro will have to answer for it.
"I have spoken to him and there is nothing more to add."
And the Prime Minister and new Minister of Defence Briceño, also didn't have any answers when it came to the BDF boots which our sources say were being purchased at highly inflated rates, far exceeding the best available local price. The PM says that if that is the case, he is sure that the Auditor General will pick it up in her ongoing review:
It's quite a big task for the Auditor General to pick up all the discrepancies.
The video of a tourist, we have come to know as Ruben Stoll, following and petting a wild jaguar cub has sparked widespread public outrage.
But will Stoll face any consequence for tampering with an animal in the wild?
"We were informed about what occurred a video was shared with me and we frowned it to the department luckily they department had seen it from the night before and so we tried to find the location of where they were because according to the video itself it seemed they were going to be around the country looking at wildlife and doing other visits including birding. so our staff were informed and we got some information that they were going to be by La Milpa. Our staff went out there but unfortunately we could not locate them yesterday and accordingly they had gone birding and sod we could not find them so what we did yesterday was to produce a report sort of so that then people can see the damages that is being done and to inform them that if they saw it then they should come into the forestry department otherwise if we get to them before with the police then we would have to bring them in and so the press release was basically saying you should not interfere with the animals, quote the legislation saying they should not and then also informing that there is a fine there is a penalty, but more on the side of information and education so that the public can know the wildlife is there it is fine for us to just look at them and enjoy the scenery, the beauty, and we should not interfere and touch them because it is also dangerous because those cubs certainly had their mother close by and that could have been very dangerous it could have been fatal and the person could have been attacked."
"As much as those people were fascinated and passionate about nature it was definitely not okay and definitely harassment because the proper way to respond to such. Sighting is to freeze and let the animal move away without any interaction whatsoever no running after it no, talking to it and definitely absolutely no touching."
He has accused the Chief Forest Officer of extorting him for bribes. A little over a week ago businessman Cesar Godinez put his complaint in writing when he sent a formal letter to the Ministry of Sustainable Development addressed to the minister. In it he details allegations of bribery involving Deputy Forest Officer John Pinelo.
And when the story of the allegations first broke, Pinelo chose to go on one month's leave.
About half a mile up the road from where they treat rescued wild animals, the Belize Wildlife Referral Clinic will also be hosting workshops and training educating the public on wildlife conflict and conservation. This is their newly inaugurated One Health Education Lab. Jomarie Lanza was at the ribbon cutting ceremony today and here's how it went.
"So my role as an educator is mainly going out and doing workshops, however before we had a very small space in our old rented facility and we also used to travel all over the country finding a space for conducting these workshops, now we can we are free to invite participants from all over the country and have them here in United Ville where our facilities are and we have the space for them in doing these trainings."
Belize's judicial system is advancing its use of technology by employing artificial intelligence.
"Lexus Protege is an AI solution and it really helps to supercharge the content, there are many uses in the Caribbean, including the Supreme Court use within their day to day workflow so the AI sits on top of that and really just supercharges that content to be able to provide authoritative, legal content and help them in their day to day."
Derek Sylvester, Judge, Senior Courts of Belize