national perpective july 19,2009

Sunday, July 19, 200947th Edition Vol. 1 - Week 47

MAYA goes Regional

Continued on page 4

Dean Fuller Mike Singh

Continued on page 12

See story on page 14

FIU Trawler Making BIG Fish get away

Zenaida Moya

REALMADNESS! !

Dean Barrow

Youmol McNab

Prison Guard fined

Heads will roll are empty words that have become a figure of speech with no apparent bearing or meaning since Prime Minister Dean Barrow have used them as his choice of words. It is only used to make him appear to be a no-nonsense leader and to give the impression that he will have zero tolerance for corruption within his government. The UDP Gov-ernment barely seventeen months old has started out there mandate with the wrong foot forward, with lies, conspiracy and bad faith. They have never come forward with a development strategy to move the country’s economic growth further into a progressive dimension. Instead, they have been more successful at tearing down the little economic stability that was achieved by the previous government over the last ten years. It was always hinted that the UDP had no real sense of direction to govern effectively and move the country forward; and as a result most Ministries were doing their own thing. Ministers

are trafficking in influence to build their personal wealth instead of putting the business of the people as their number one priority. During their first year in office, absolutely nothing was achieved

because they were so drunk with power; they fooled the people into believing that they needed to win the municipal elec-tions to do more as a government. The people gave them the municipal elections, but the neglect and abuse on the people’s good-will continues and what we have is

a failed government that is dragging Be-lize into a failed State. Corruption cannot be defined; it cannot be seen even though it is obvious and stinks within the UDP government.

The allegations of corruption were

A former prison officer who was caught red handed smuggling a little over a quarter pound of weed into the Hattieville Correctional Facility was ordered by Magistrate Dorothy Flowers

to pay a fine of $10,000 dollars by De-cember 31st, 2009 or serve a sentence of three years in the Correctional facility, where he once served as a prison guard. Youmol McNab was a prison guard up to the time of his arrest on February 2nd this year, when to his surprise, he walked into a sting operation, as he arrived into the prison compound as he reported for guard duty.

At the same time as he arrived, he was put in a line up and subjected to a search. In his testimony, Police Con-stable Ramirez told the court that as he searched McNabb together with all his belongings that he had with him, he found the quantity of weed stashed in one of the pockets of the jacket he had on his shoulder.

In his unsworn testimony, McNab contended that the jacket was not his, but the Magistrate did not believe him and was found guilty as charged.

The case of money laundering is yet to garner credibility other than it being just another case of this current admin-istration’s persecution of its enemies and

one of selectiveness. The case has been meandering for months since the Coye family was first picked up and detained

Erwin Contreras

THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Sunday, July 19, 2009

UDP POISED FOR IMPLODING, PUP POISED FOR EXCLUDING

A few weeks ago, we heard the rhetorical chant “HEADS WILL ROLL” by the Prime Minister after the House of Representatives meeting when he was asked what he will do about the allegation of rampant corruption at Karl Huesner Memorial Hospital. Weeks later and “NO HEADS HAVE ROLLED”; however, what the people of Belize got was a spectacled press conference UDP style, that was filled with bulls__t. What we mean is that nothing was said and many believed nothing will be done.

Ordinarily, we do not spend time listening to what the Prime Minister has to say because it has been proven since February 2008, that there is nothing sincere in what he says. Many believe that Dean Barrow compares well with the late great Michael Jackson because both are showmen. Both of them have acts containing gim-micks and imagination. The only difference is that Barrow’s legacy will contain very little accomplishments, but sacks full of disgrac-es.

Over the past seventeen months, Belizeans have come face to face with the reality that Dean Barrow is completely disingenuous. Many try to revere the post of Prime Minister, but when there is an individual like the present P.M. who says one thing in sensational fashion and then does the exact opposite, every Belizean, including UDPs, becomes hopeless. On Friday last, the Prime Minister’s hate overtook his good and legal judgment and he launched an attack on Zenaida Moya, Mayor of Belize City, accusing her, her council, and staff of doing something illegal. The Ministry of Finance Auditor, Patrick Tillett was the one that reported that Mayor Moya and the City Council are doing something that smells “fishy”. In a television interview, Mayor Moya and Finance Officer Dwayne Davis said that they were not doing anything wrong, but due to the circumstances, they were forced to practicing a system they appropriately called “UNDER DEPOSITING”.

Barrow came out to the media on Friday with one intention, which is to ensure that the Mayor has sleepless nights. What the Prime Minister did on Friday was petty and disgraceful. The way he handled the issue of the City Council showed clearly he was being bias.

The allegation at City Council pale in comparison of what has been taking place at KHMH. It is clear that criminal activity oc-curred at KHMH and this fact was established by a simple inves-tigation, but Barrow did not call a press conference, he did not threaten jail time, he did not bring in the Police, many believed he was trying to catch Moya with her hands in the “cookie jar” that is why he ran to the media so ill prepared.

Any investigator wants to feel that he has earned his high salary and Patrick Tillett, the overseer who is representing P.M. Barrow as Moya’s watchdog, is no exception. Tillett created a huge bonfire with the limited information he had and a gullible and gung ho Prime Minister who bit the bait and embarrassed himself. He now owes Mayor Moya an apology as the Mayor has since shown publicly that she can account for all the monies claimed to be missing. No pity was given for the pregnant condition of the Mayor, which shows how callous the UDPs are to their own.

At a time when a huge supporter of the UDP, Dean Fuller and his companies are being hauled in front of the courts for money laun-dering and disclosures of shareholders in these infamous companies

who are high ranking, card carrying UDP’s such as Michael Singh, the millionaire Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Tourism and Ruth Esquivel, daughter of former Prime Minister Manuel Es-quivel. Incidentally, Mike Singh has been accused of being the de-facto Minister of Tourism and Ruth Esquivel has been known to be associated with “boys from the hood”.

Michael Singh is also associated with the Border Management Au-thority that is also tainted with allegations of missing money.

So you see readers, the UDP government has more important things that should be treated with urgency, but instead attacking the Mayor and the City Council fitted into the UDP hate mold. It ap-pears that the goal of the UDP executives is to destroy Mayor Moya, because she is an independent thinker and a fighter.

We now turn to the Opposition PUP, who has a ton of issues to address created by the UDP government. The UDP is a government that is designed to implode. Many members of Cabinet have been complaining that in the Barrow Cabinet he is lord and master, and everyone else is his subject. This is becoming extremely frustrating for Ministers who want to be turned loose. With a good campaign, the PUP could accelerate the meltdown of these greedy UDP poli-ticians that govern Belize. But with the PUP being divided, they cannot develop any traction. In the meantime, Hon. John Briceño is losing what little ground he gained from his stance in the last House sitting.

Over the months through this medium, we have advised the Leader of Opposition of the way forward and how he can create a check and balance for a runaway UDP government. The UDPs are cocky and arrogant and have been constantly claiming that they have tons of political capital and are not afraid to squander it. Similarly, the PUP is taking their supporters for granted, they truly believe that when the election is called, PUPs and PUP supporters will be only too happy to vote for them. That is so far from the truth, it is not even funny.

This publication has always stood for Belize and Belizeans, not UDP, PUP, VIP, etc. This newspaper survives through the assistance from sectors of the business communities and its loyal readers who applaud the fresh perspective that they get on a weekly basis.

Last week, the editor was summoned by the Leader of the Op-position and it was agreed that support for the publication can be considered. Certainly, the fact that we are an impartial publica-tion does not bode well with the Party Leader, but we will say this: it felt that the Party Leader was prepared to turn a new leaf and chart a course forward for the benefit of poor Belizeans. So with or without the PUP’s help, this publication will continue. It is clear the PUP is not serious about making life better for Belizeans, other-wise why would they be giving the UDP a free pass to continue give the “dry bukut” to the hard working man and woman.

In closing, this is not a joke Mr. Party Leader, you can take for-ever to make up your mind, but that will not deter us from shout-ing from the roof tops to ensure that Belizeans get their fair share. There is utter disappointment among UDPs and PUPs about the leadership of both parties and there is no sight of any other party evolving to national status so Belizeans are trapped between the “devil and the deep blue sea”. OPEN YOUR EYES, THE PEOPLE ARE AWAKE!!!

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Sunday, July 19, 2009 THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE


MY TAKE ON BCCby Marshall Nunez Sr.

Last week I believe I got the attention of some of the executive members of the P.U.P. Of coarse they were not very happy with the tone of the article that I wrote. But I can categorically state that I have absolutely no apology for writing what I did, since that was my firm belief and my opinion.

People can disagree with my opinion if they want, but it doesn’t mean that I will change the way I feel. As I said last week, if it takes me sacrificing my-self to ensure that my party moves more expeditiously in its rebuilding process and planning out a strategy or purpose on which they will govern that will take the country towards the future, then by all means I am more than prepared to sacri-fice “I and I.”

Before I outline some of what transpired after this newspaper hit the streets on Friday the 10th of July, I feel a little obligated to tell a little bit about my-self and my journey as an elected mem-ber of the Belize City Council from 1996-2006. During that time I participated in four City Council Elections. One of the beauties about campaigning for the Belize City Council is that you get the opportu-nity to meet voters from all 10 constituen-cies within Belize City. In the 1996 City

Last week I promised to do a story on the continued situation at City Hall. Little did I know that by Friday July 10, no other than the Prime Minister would have unearthed such gross miss-appro-priation of Council’s funds and even sug-gested criminal activities at City Hall? While this situation has been thoroughly exhausted in the media, I would like to give my prospective on the issue.

The city evidently is bankrupt, and it would be foolish of the City of-ficial to try and blame the current situa-tion on the previous P.U.P City Council. This U.D.P City Council has lost much litigation and owes numerous people in damages that add up to millions of dol-lars, which they are unable to pay. The Council owes Belize Waste Control in excess of a million dollars; they owe S.E.L for damages in the millions. Last week they tried to broker a deal with B.M.L for a contract extension in lieu of millions of dollars owed to them. They have lost in court and owe payment to Mrs. Pauline Wade and Ms. Sharole Sal-divar. They have not been spending on infrastructural work in Belize City; the suppression of the fire at the dump site was paid for by the Ministry Of National Emergency. Their proclaimed accom-plished paving of Albert’s and Regent streets were paid for by the Ministry of Works. The private sector has supported them and paid for many of the street up-grades in the City. If the Council claims that the taxes are being collected in high percentage, how can the City be broke? The City streets and drains are in a state of disrepair. For the life of me, I cannot understand how come the City is broke!

Anyway, on Friday after the Prime Minister made the bold announce-ment that there was miss-appropriation of the Council’s money and their will be eminent arrest. It is grossly disrespectful that on the subsequent work day, mean-ing Monday, Belize City Mayor and her senior managers at a stage press confer-ence can come and publicly refute and even disrespect the Prime Minister Ob-viously it is no holds bar the battle be-tween Mayor Moya Flowers and Prime Minister Barrow. We’ll elaborate on the battle between the Mayor and the Prime Minister but let us reflect on the press conference itself. At the press confer-ence the Mayor the City Administra-tor and the Director of Finance boldly and disrespectfully admitted to 1. Not adhering to ethical accounting proce-dures, and 2. Completely contravening the Belize City Council’s act, which is the law, enacted to guide the functions of the City Council? Goodness that is criminal; hens the reason why the finical director Mr. Dwight Tillett advised the Prime Minister and reported the crime to the police. At the press conference the Mayor and her team had no justification to be transacting hundreds of thousands of tax payer’s money in cold over the counter cash when it is stipulated by the Belize City Council Act that any transac-

tion over the value of $50 must be done by check. You can twist and turn this all kinds of ways but that has crimes written all over it.

Now I don’t know what it is that this Mayor has over the Prime Minister. This would be the fourth time at least that the Mayor has publicly disrespect-ed the Prime Minister. Several things, considering the City’s financial situa-tion this fight between the Mayor and the Prime Minister will defiantly affect the goods and services to Belize City. I don’t think the Mayor realizes that the Prime Minister who is the Minister of finance has significant influence over her financial position. Maybe the Mayor is interpreting representative democracy to have given her greater authority than to that of national elected reps. Remem-ber that the Mayor is directly elected by the residence of Belize city From all 10 divisions including Queen Square, the

division that elected the Prime Minister. But the Mayor doesn’t seem to realize that under the structure of Government that the National Government has by far greater power. Similarly, the Mayor doesn’t seem to realize that the Belize City Council act is not enshrined in the Belizean constitution. We all know that the Prime Minister is very fund of con-stitutional amendments, so madam May-or Look out.

It is very interesting to see what position the Prime Minister is going to take, but this is defiantly one of the big-gest heavy weight matches of the cen-tury. This extravaganza will have a lot of hype leading up to the big clash. This U.D.P exclusive will appear on radio or a television near you, get ready.

Council Election, I did extremely well at the poles, in 1999 and 2003 I was able to top the poles on successive City Council Elections. As you know in 2006 when I was the Mayoral Candidate for the City Council the P.U.P slate lost and that was, I think, my worst performance in an elec-tion. In many of those elections results, I did exceptionally well in the South Side constituencies and in many cases topping the poles in many of them.

For those voters in Belize City who have given me the overwhelming support, love and respect, it has always been my moral obligation to reciprocate, respect and love for the residence of Be-lize City. Now while I am out of political office, I continue to share a respectful re-lationship with Belize City residents. The relationship that I share with the residents of Belize City is important because as politicians there is always the lingering thought in the back of your mind that you may need to call on those many many supporters from time to time especially during the time of elections. I continue to maintain presence especially on the South Side of Belize City and in terms of the numbers for election I keep in close con-tact with many many supporters, friends and the numerous family members that resides on the South Side of the Belize

City and in the South of the Country. This is important for me to state

because some of those arrogant, disre-spectful people within the P.U.P believe that I am totally insignificant and can be dispelled as nothing. Well my message to them is very simple, people vote and elec-tions victory depends on numbers, and even though the numbers may be small- I have people who maintain loyalty to me. So if you think you can f… with me, and get my support, think again.

Back to the issue of the article of last week; it is my understanding that some people who were aggrieved and of-fended by the article, found the time from Friday to have numerous meetings to discuss me and my article. Well I must say that I am happy, that at least I can get their attention. But I am extremely disap-pointed that senior members of the party can waste valuable time discussing me while the government continues to self-destruct. I also understand that they met with the editor of this newspaper and tried to lay down conditions, how petty? You want to tell me that the K.H.M.H situa-tion, the Money Gram money laundering situation, the border management situa-tion, the Cane farmer situation, the Maya land rights issue, the Belize City Council


Continued from page 1REAL M A DNESS! !

According to a reliable source in Belmopan the medical treatment for the former UDP leader will more than likely end up costing Belizeans well over a million dollars. This is because the former Prime Minister chose not to continue paying his insurance premium under the National Assembly Group In-surance policy. So now taxpayers will have to pay for Manny’s cosmetic sur-gery!

Following his party’s defeat in the 1998 general elections and his own loss of the Caribbean Shores constituency to Jose Coye of the PUP, Esquivel retired from politics and attended to his busi-ness “Price & Co.” on Daly Street.

After the UDP return to power on February 2008, Prime Minister Barrow appointed Esquivel a “Senior Advisor” in the Ministry of Finance.

ESQUIVEL’S MILLION DOLLAR MEDICAL BILLS

On March 13th the former UDP Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel sus-tained serious injuries when his gov-ernment vehicle driven by William Schnarr overturned near mile 31 on the Western Highway. Esquivel was rushed to Belize Medical Associates and later flown by air-ambulance to Jackson Me-morial hospital in Miami. According to his daughter Councillor Laura Esquivel, the 68 year old Esquivel has undergone major surgery for broken bones to the shoulder, ribs and feet as well as major cosmetic surgery to his fractured face.

The medical bills are now coming in and the Government of Belize (i.e. tax-payers) are having to pay (so far) over $800,000.00. This matter has been kept “under wraps” by Mr. Barrow and his Cabinet. So much for all the talk about transparency.

first made a month ago in the House of Representatives when the Leader of the Opposition bravely outlined the al-legations involving the KHMH and the string of irregularities in the purchases of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals at escalated prices, which was facilitat-ed by key Board members. Most of the purchases point towards a UDP political brand name in Orange Walk Town, but also included the trafficking of influence and the conflict of interest by some key-members of the Board who also operate shadow companies that sells medical and pharmaceutical supplies. Prime Minister

Dean Barrow has been very reluctant to get to the bottom of the allegations, per-haps because he knew it will just be the beginning and the opening of Pandora’s Box.

Today, we don’t only have the KHMH saga, and if we think that was the only thorn in their shoe, we have the accusa-tions of missing money allegation and under deposits explanations at the Belize City Council, we also have huge amounts of missing money from the Border Man-agement Agency at the western border where the site Manager of the BMA, Julio Santos, was silent, but unceremoniously was terminated after over a $100,000 dol-

lars allegedly went missing. Santos is the first cousin of ‘Border Management Min-ister’ Erwin Contreras and it is believed to be one of the reasons for the cover-up. Santos already said that if the BMA Gen-eral Manager, Gonzalo Rosado, allows the police to investigate and he is dragged to Court, he (Santos) will drop the bomb-shell where Rosado himself will be ac-cused because he had three letters that will substantiate the accusation against Rosado.

But there are more allegations of cor-ruption and missing money and we are talking about your hard earned money that is supposed to support your way of life in your senior years. We are referring to alleged missing money from your pen-sion fund at the Belize Treasury Depart-ment located within the Belize Central Bank building in Belize City.

The amounts could exceed well over five hundred thousand dollars and may even approach a million dollars mark. The hurtful thing here is that although the pension fund payment deposits started to balloon as far back as December 2008, the Barrow administration kept it under the wraps and allowed the scam to con-tinue further until now. The scam is said to include a female employee at the Trea-sury, but for sure others are involved. The confidential source reveals that there was a double depositing mechanism carried out where payment deposits were made to hundreds of genuine pensioners to their respective bank account, but then there was another ghost account in another banking institution under the pensioner’s name, but with different photo identifi-cation. It is understood that police have been questioning several Treasury em-ployees at the Central Bank regarding the scam, but at least one person has been de-tained. That person, the source revealed, has a hefty bank roll in his Atlantic Bank account.

But it doesn’t end there either, and many believe it is just the tip of the ice-

berg that will eventually bring the UDP government down. Confidential sources reveal to us that the police are also in-vestigating the Belize City Traffic De-partment where missing thousands of dollars and municipal infraction ticket books have allegedly gone missing. This is nothing new at the Traffic Department as you will recall that between 2006 and 2007, there were allegations of a large quantity of license stickers that had been unaccounted for.

All this is happening before our very eyes because of the gross neglect and hands off approach of this UDP govern-ment with regards to the general affairs of the people. They have spent all this time and effort and are also spending millions of dollars in legal fees prosecuting their political rivals, infringing on the sover-eign rights of citizens and amending the Constitution, of course, the only one ben-efiting from legal fees is Barrow’s first wife, Lady Lois Young Barrow.

Belize was named earlier this month to the ‘2009 Failed State Index Report’ pub-lished by the US based ‘Fund for Peace’. The Organization contends to rank one hundred and seventy seven countries based on their social, political and eco-nomic indicators. Belize has been dragged to this level by the same UDP Govern-ment we chose to bring ‘CHANGE”, but we prefer to keep on dreaming and be-lieving that the promises made by Dean Barrow will be realized. We have closed our eyes and remained silent about the incompetence of this government, hoping for the better while seeing the worst.

Well, in closing, I can’t help but refer to the quote found in the book ‘Open veins of Latin America’ a Revolutionary Proc-lamation of the Junta Tuitiva in La Paz, Bolivia- July 16th 1809 which states:

“We have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity”.

--From the Revolutionary Proclama-tion of the Junta Tuitiva, La Paz, July 16, 1809


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Get out of CARICOM now!To THE EDIToR

Technology is also undergoing a com-plete transformation, impacting whole life aspirations. The People’s United Party is aware of this. The reader recalls the PUP vision of: “computer in every prima-ry school pupil’s hands.” Elections have consequences; we lost, they won, and with them died the vision. Transformation as a concept should neither be strange nor novel. From the beginnings, humans have always attempted to fashion tools and ma-chines to improve their living conditions and to make their work more efficient – from age to age, era to era. In its most positive aspects, this desire basically had three primary goals: to enable humans to create things which they could not fabri-cate by hand alone; to spare them effort and fatigue; and to save time. Of course, for centuries, technology was only used to help humans with manual work, and phys-

ical activities, while today it also assists us in the intellectual sphere. Moreover, for a very long time technology was limited to mechanical processes requiring direct hu-man intervention and causing little or no harm to the environment.

Today, technology is omnipresent and constitutes the core of modern societies, to the extent that it has become almost indispensable. Computers - cyber space, Twitter, I-report, blackberry, blog, etc., are functional values in communication universally. (Iran’s post election revolt was a cyber space transmitted event to the world. The wider implication, of course, is the live transmission of events – beyond Iran’s government’s powers or permis-sion). Computer technology use are many


Anonymous Contribution

The idea that Belize must join CARI-COM to propel it to: development, prog-ress, better education systems, greater and deeper enhancement of Capitalism, freedom, democracy, economies of scale, expanded GNP, increased employ-ment and generally, to arrive at Nirvana – or union with the Supreme Spirit, is cynical, insidious, scurrilous betrayal of the people by a bunch of scoundrels and quislings.

This betrayal of Belize by its leaders since independence; this betrayal on all fronts of our economic survival is just as mind bending as the Anschluss or the rape of Austria by Hitler and the Nazis, who on March 11-12, 1938 caused Aus-

tria to cease to exist. So Belize is ceasing to exist!

The previous governments were mis-led intentionally into this agreement be-cause of their ignorance and the lack of the intellectual prescience to see around the curves due to lack of competent qualified economic agents who would have identified the CARICOM agree-ment right away as a Trojan horse. This Barrow Administration sees it as a gift, as manna from heaven (and one doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth) to do and achieve what the people of Belize reject-ed when they rejected “Federation with the West Indies” back in the nineteen fifties.

Some pseudo intellectuals may postu-late that CARICOM is equivalent to the

European Economic Union. But nothing is as disparate. The European Economic was formed in 1958 because of the (US) dollar shortage to pay for the reconstruc-tion of European countries after WW ll.

On the other hand, CARICOM is wag-ing a war on Belize; CARICOM wants to destroy our Central American way of life; CARICOM wants to Africanize our way of life by dumping their excess, non productive citizens on our shores.

As I see it, they from CARICOM want to migrate here; we Belizeans don’t want to migrate there. So they should line up like all the others: Chinese, Ar-abs, et al to apply on an equal basis to come here. But CARICOM people want to come here as the colonial and impe-rial power replacing the dreaded English Empire. And you know who pays for their dominance? The people of Belize with their hard earned tax dollars, and the transfer of remittances, of Belizeans living in the USA.

We reject this; we reject previous gov-ernments sucking us into this malevolent union, and we reject the present Barrow Administration continued acceptance of CARICOM without going to the people of Belize for continuance of this dastard-ly heinous Anschluss of Belize.

Let’s look at some facts and move away from emotions!!

Comparison Belize CARICOM

1. Belize Dollar Stronger than Jamaica Dollar, Guyana Dollar St Lucia, Nevis, St Kitts Barbados etc. 2. Quality of life in Belize much better Jamaica crime rate exceed-ingly even with our crime rate high as other islands are.3. Education: Our Belizeans have more Education: Byzantine or narrow oppor-tunities to be educated in the U.S., Cana-da view of the world and Mexico. Differ-

ent philosophies and views of life. 4. Geography: Belize can drive to ma-jor Industrialized Geography: The Island Nations Nations to purchase whatever. We don’t need to go are limited by natu-ral Barrier- Through CARICOM for anything. Water. Go there if you like, Alcatraz! 5. Trade: We can trade cheaper for better Trade: Logistics too expensive for qual-ity products in the millions with oth-er trade! Toothpaste, clothes, sugar neighbouring contiguous nations than with rice, food-stuff, bananas, fashion etc, CARICOM. are all too expensive to trade.6. We don’t have to give up our With CARICOM, we give up sovereignty to trade with any nation. sovereignty, pass-port, Invite open Don’t Rape Belize! emigration where Belizeans lose the comparative advantage of all kinds.

This is just a small sampling of some commodities. We want trade with the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central America where one billion people live and play. Why Belize should be stuck with failed states and have to help to pay their way?

Finally, it will be a blessing if Belize is banished from CARICOM, Please Banish Belize!

The Present Prime Minister thinks that he is Prometheus Unbound because his party trounced the previous adminis-tration and gave life back to Belizeans; however, he will bound Prometheus again by inviting CARICOM takeover of Belize, then, indeed Prometheus will have to strive a million times harder be-cause there won’t be any Heracles to free him from being chained to the rock and the vulture will surely eat his liver with no replacement.

Wake up Belizeans; Demand to know more about CARICOM! Stop CARI-COM!

No CARICOM! No CARICOM

To THE EDIToR

by G. Michael Reid


If Education Minister, Patrick Faber, had not lost his cool the debate surrounding the introduction of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), would have been a completely different one. The minister’s confrontational behavior and veiled threat of withdrawing funding from SJC, is what precipitated the climate of hostility and set his ministry on this unnecessary collision course with the church. Clearly the minister was on firm grounds when he put the SJC Principal, Mr. Garbutt, under manners for going against the ministry’s instruction not to increased school fees, however, in hind-sight, the whole matter could have been handled more intelligently, if the min-ister, who has the power, had picked up the phone and handled this case quietly; call it being magnanimous, diplomatic, or just plain common sense; we may be at a different space in the debate. The public row between Minister Faber and Mr. Gar-butt, in the media, muddied the waters and created a confrontational climate with the largest church management, just at the time the ministry was about to do consul-tation for the roll-out of the TSC. Surely the minister must have known that he had the introduction of TSC on stream and needed the support of the churches for its acceptance. For him to get into an unnecessary back and forth with the Catholic church management was counter-productive indeed; he diverted the debate from larger issues to smaller ones and now a perfectly workable initia-tive is threatened with becoming a back burner issue. While there are other aspects to this Commission the major sticking point is that the proposed TSC takes the final au-thority to hire/fire teachers away from the church management. Section 17 (3) of the draft revision of the Education Act says “…Commission shall be the sole body….to regulate the appointment, conditions of service, discipline of and termination of service of teachers..” The question of qualification as a basis for employment has always been a major sticking point. Which are the major crite-ria for hiring a licensed teacher --- their academic/experience background or their moral, religious, ethnic or political views? The ministry is insistent that the TSC will minimize unfair discrimination in hiring practices. It is long known that teachers have com-plained of the arbitrary, indiscriminate and prejudicial way they have been treated by their local managers. The files of the BNTU are filled with legitimate, docu-mented cases of constitutional violations of teachers and there was a call by teach-ers, through their union for something to be done to protect their constitutional rights. Part of the rationale of the TSC is to address the question of bias treatment of teachers and bring it under the regulation of the ministry through a regulatory body like TSC. The TSC according to Faber is an at-tempt to bring fair play into a system that has too long been left to local manage-ment whose prejudices have sometimes infringed on the constitutional rights of their teaching staff. He claims that the

TSC will resolve this problem when it takes the right of hire/fire out of the hands of the church management and into the hands of the TSC. The fundamental question goes back to the role of the Ministry of Education in the debate over church and state partnership in education. The minister was at pains to explain away any suspicion that he was against the church/state system. His claimed that the state has the grater role to play and that the church must comply with the state’s demands since, in pursuit of its educational goals, it is the responsi-bility of state to protect the constitutional rights of every citizen. But many other questions arise. To what degree can the state dictate to the church management how they run their internal affairs which include the collection and administration of fees? Can the state, by virtue of their financial contribution to the school direct the administrative deci-sions of the church management? Can the state threaten withdrawal of funds (as was done by Faber) for non compliance to the instruction that will affect the internal af-fairs of the church management? On the other hand, if church manage-ment is governed by the Education Act and receives substantial amounts of state funding to expand its educational out-reach, then some compliance is already built into that arrangement. Church man-agement, after receiving substantial fund-ing cannot come later and cry foul. The Education Act, for nearly a de-cade now has become the secular bible of the education system in Belize to which all government and government-aided schools must adhere. The Act gives enor-mous power to the Ministry of Education as a regulatory body in directing the mac-ro-plan of education in Belize. By virtue of the fact that over ninety percent of its budget goes to teachers’ salaries tells you how intricately the ministry is tied into the life blood of every school’s management. The ministry has always been an awe-some force in the lives of every teacher even more so than their local management and the TSC now makes that a confirmed reality. There are several other aspects to the implementation of the TSC. Here are a few: How will it function; how efficient will it be? Critics say if it takes upward of a year to resolve current disputes through the Public Service Commission how long will it take through the TSC? Are we building an unnecessary lair of bureaucra-cy in the already largest ministry? Some principals and managers complain that if their influence in the National Council for Education, (NCE), is already minimal what will change if it comes through the TSC? What about the discipline clause forbidding corporal punishment of stu-dents? What is the reaction of parents and teachers to this? What about the absolute and final of the “Minister”? These and many more questions have come up since the on-going consultations but unfortunately, because of the failure of Minister Faber to choose his battles expeditiously, the consultation has been sidetracked by the debate over church/state partnership in Belize. (Comments welcomed at [email protected])

Reid Between the lines

By Nuri Muhammad

CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES, MINISTER

THE BELIZE CITY COUNCIL

The Belize City Council once again finds itself in one hell of a mess. Does it ever end with this council? And in particular, with this mayor! No other than Prime Minister Barrow himself dropped this latest bomb when, at an impromptu press conference called last Friday, he revealed that “The financial regulator…in the course of his work had uncovered what he deemed to be some serious financial irregularities.” The timing of course, could not have been better for the PM since he was at the time, addressing another report of even more serious “financial irregu-larities”.

Mr. Barrow had called the press conference to announce that he was appointing a commission of inquiry to investigate the alleged wrongdoings at the KHMH. This of course, not with-standing the fact that the Prime Minis-ter has already received a report from a quick-audit team solidly confirming the allegations made. According to PM Barrow, this next audit will take time, “several months” actually. Does anyone see a pattern developing here? The doctors are insisting that board chairman Ricardo Fabro be at least suspended until the investigation is complete. Makes a whole lot sense but Fabro seems untouchable. As of press time, negotiations remain deadlocked and Fabro remains firmly in place as head of the board at KHMH.

Meanwhile back at City Hall, Mayor Moya called her own press conference to “hold the horses” and to introduce a new term to the Belizean public. Ac-cording to the mayor, the whole issue was an apparent misunderstanding and was the result of a procedure that she described as “under deposit”. I went first to my dictionary and not find-ing anything there, booted up the old pc and googled the term. As anyone familiar with the internet will tell you, if you can’t find it at “google”, it prob-ably does not exist. I got a few results that had the two words “under” and “deposit” used in the same sentence but the only result that showed the two words in compound form was from our own local news sources discussing this very matter. Back to where I started and apparently what we have here is an exercise in neoterism.

The concept of “under deposit” is an interesting one and could just as easily have been termed “theft”. For accounting reasons, the amount de-posited at the bank must match the amount collected for any specific day. What the council was doing was to say for argument sake, collecting $50,000

but actually depositing only $23,000. Had the amount been a few hundred or even a few thousand, Mayor Moya’s excuse might have had held some wa-ter but $27,000 in one month?!! Inter-estingly enough, while the figures in question deal primarily with the month of April ’09, reliable sources sug-gest that there are many other months which will eventually show an imbal-ance of funds. The very fact that it was April’s audit that exposed shortfalls is cause for concern since April is con-sidered safe season at the council. In other words, it is one of those months when the council is usually in the black from taxes and yearly licenses and fees that are rolling in. If they were short in April, most likely they were short in every other month of the year.

Of course, with every new scandal that emanates from the Belize City Council, the name that keeps coming to mind is Mark King. Remember him? Leading up to the last municipal elections, King presented to the people of Belize, solidly documented proof of Zenaida Moya’s crooked shenani-gans at the council. For his reward, King was ostracized while Zenaida was awarded with another term in of-fice. Is it any wonder that she can still laugh in the face of her accusers and appear confident that it will probably just “blow over like a little breeze”? The person who must really be getting a bellyful of laughs is the now vindi-cated Mark King.

Now it is common knowledge that for a long time, there has been no love lost between the Prime Minister and the Prima Donna of Belize City. There are a number of possible scenarios here. Number one, the Prime Minister might have been too eager to expose Moya and jumped too soon when the hint of misappropriation presented it-self. Number two, Moya might be just bluffing and buying time by present-ing to the media a bunch of useless in-voices and sticky paper. Number three might be the most interesting scenario of all. Could it be that all this was just a ploy to detract from the KHMH fiasco that was on the verge of turn-ing from serious to critical? Could the Prime Minister have known that the whole matter would be cleared up eventually but knew that the port town based and focused media would drop all other bones and dive into the smoke and mirror for the shadow that loomed so large?

At the end of the day, whether Moya can wiggle out of this one or not, the al-legations are becoming just too succes-sive and numerous to ignore. The past city council had its share of scandals, in particular in its later days but when compared to this crowd, David and crew are beginning to look like altar boys. This city council is out of order and if nothing is done and soon, it will be setting a serious precedent for other officials that will be elected along the way. How long will this woman be al-lowed to make fools of us all?


BTL


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www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Soldiers stand guard outside the Honduras’ Congress in Tegucigalpa

St. LuciaMarketing initiative

under fire

Passenger boat capsizes off Haiti

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Hon-duran authorities on Sunday lifted a curfew imposed since the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya two weeks ago — a sign the interim defacto gov-ernment is trying to restore normality to life in the crisis-gripped country.

In a nationally broadcast announce-ment, the interim government said the curfew had reached its objective to “re-store calm” and curb crime. The de fac-to administration of Roberto Micheletti imposed the curfew after soldiers es-corted Zelaya out of the country at gun-point on June 28, plunging Honduras into political turmoil. Hondurans were ordered to stay in their homes from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. nightly. The govern-ment briefly extended it from sunset to sunrise when Zelaya attempted to return to Honduras and the military blocked his plane from landing by park-ing vehicles on the runway July 5. Daily demonstrations both for and against the forcibly exiled leader, have disrupted transit and prompted many businesses to close. Since then, many governments have withdrawn their ambassadors to protest the military coup. In their broadcast lifting the curfew, the interim government told Hondurans nationwide can go out at night starting Sunday. Juan Barahona, leader of the Zelaya support base, said officials were under pressure from bars and other businesses hurt by the curfew.

“This is to give the world the im-pression that there is an environment of

Haiti

Caribbean news briefs

Peru president reshuffles cabinet

Honduras lifts curfew after military coup

freedom in the country,” even though that is not the case, he said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been the most vociferous de-fender of Zelaya, said Sunday that Mi-cheletti was behind the brief detention of journalists for two of his country’s state television channels, VTV and Telesur. Venezuela’s ABN state news agency reported that the seven were de-tained Saturday and later released after Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro made a stern warning in his ef-forts efforts to secure their freedom.

ABN later reported that a crew working for VTV was expelled from Honduras.

Ariel Vargas, an official at the Vene-zuelan Embassy in Honduras, told ABN the TV crew was escorted to the air-port. Honduran authorities threatened the journalists at gunpoint earlier and confined another TV crew from Telesur to a hotel in Tegucigalpa, according to ABN. The interim government’s min-ister of information, Rene Zepeda, told The Associated Press he had no infor-mation about the alleged detentions. He denied authorities are trying to censor the news media, saying “what we want is peace” in Honduras. Zepeda com-mented prior to the report of the VTV crew’s alleged expulsion.

Chavez also called on President Ba-rack Obama to withdraw troops from an air base in Honduras to protest the new government. Chavez accused Obama of “wiggling” around the political crisis

and warned if he does not take action, “he will end up worse than Bush,” a ref-erence to former President George W. Bush.

The United States has maintained the Enrique Soto Cano air base in Hon-duras for 23 years. The base houses about 350 U.S. soldiers.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, an ally of both Chavez and Zelaya, con-tended on Sunday that the coup was a warning from the United States to stop the growth of governments opposed to U.S. “imperialism.”

“This threat doesn’t scare us; on the contrary, with more force, we will be stronger,” he said.

The United States has spoken out against the coup and supported efforts to restore Zelaya to power. U.S. of-ficials hope mediation efforts led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias will ease Zelaya back into the presidency while resolving the concerns of Hondu-ras’ Supreme Court, Congress and mili-tary, which say they legally removed the president for violating the constitu-tion. They accuse him of trying to ex-tend his time in office, though Zelaya denies that.

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged Hondurans to pursue dialogue and rec-onciliation after following the situation with “great concern.” Both claimants to Honduras’ presidency met separately Thursday with Arias but they refused to talk face to face.

Representatives of Zelaya and Mi-cheletti met again with Arias on Friday and agreed to hold future talks, but no date was set. Arias won the 1987 No-bel Peace Prize for his role in ending Central America’s civil wars. About 300 Zelaya supporters held a peaceful demonstration in a park in Tegucigalpa on Sunday. “Mr. Micheletti lifted the curfew, but be careful because we are living in a tense climate and without true democracy,” said Esly Lizardo, 65, a protester.

Zelaya’s supporters fear the interim government will drag out negotiations so it can remain in power through No-vember’s presidential elections. But for-mer Honduran Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez, a delegate of Micheletti who participated in the talks, said his side has not ruled out the possibility of early elections.

Trinidad & TobagoT&T AG resigning

Peruvian President Alan Garcia has overhauled his cabinet appointing a new prime minister, Javier Velasquez Qu-esquen, and replacing seven others.

The move comes a month after the worst political violence Peru has seen in years, when at least 33 police officers and protesters were killed in clashes.

The violence came as security forces tried to end a blockade of roads and fuel pipelines by indigenous people. They were protesting at what they see as ex-ploitation of ancestral lands.

The changes at the top of Peruvian politics are intended to breathe fresh air into a cabinet which has been widely dis-

credited. It was criticised for its handling of protests by indigenous groups over Amazon land rights.

Protesters had demanded changes in

governmentThe new Prime Minister, Javier Ve-

lasquez Quesquen, is an insider in the governing party, and the president of Congress. He replaces Yehude Simon, a former leftist who was chosen to build bridges with groups opposed to the gov-ernment. The controversial Interior Min-ister, Mercedes Cabanillas, who denied responsibility for last month’s deadly police operation, has been replaced by

former national police chief, Octavio Salazar.

The defence, commerce, work, jus-tice, agriculture and industry minis-ters have also been replaced. President Garcia said he would make the changes earlier this week ahead of a three-day national strike. Critics say Mr Garcia’s government is in the midst of its worst political crisis since he took office three years ago.

Much of the discontent stems from an economic slowdown and rising un-employment. Poorer Peruvians say they have not benefitted from Mr Garcia’s free market policies.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning has confirmed receiv-ing a letter of resignation from Attorney General John Jeremie. But Mr Manning hasn’t said what he’ll do about that offer of resignation.

The country’s Law Association passed a no-confidence motion against the attorney general last week. Its rea-sons included an alleged attempt by Mr Jeremie during an earlier stint to pres-sure the Director of Public Prosecutions into bringing corruption charges against a businessman and the opposition leader Basdeo Panday.

Saint Lucia’s Tourism minister has defended a controversial plan for the government to join Sandals in a tourism marketing initiative.

The Pitons, one of St Lucia’s tourism attractions. The plan, part of a govern-ment stimulus package to the flounder-ing hospitality sector, has caused some raised eyebrows among hoteliers.

In a bid to allay fears, the Minister has scheduled a meeting with the local Hotel Association next week to discuss the matter.

Five people are dead and dozens are missing after a 9-metre (30-ft) boat cap-sized off Haiti, officials said, revising an earlier toll of six deaths.

Rescuers saved 26 people and a search is continuing for the others aboard the vessel, which emergency services be-lieve may have been overloaded.

The boat was reportedly en route from Anse a Pitre to the southern city of Jacmel when it overturned.

Survivors were taken to a hospital in Jacmel, AFP news agency reports.

Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti’s civil protection agency, said some 60 people had been aboard the boat when the accident happened between the towns of Belle-Anse and Marigot.

The local rescue coordinator, Jean-Michel Sabbat, told AFP the boat was old and may have been overloaded with passengers and goods.

Local authorities and the UN mission in Haiti were helping with the search and were requesting help from local fisher-men, Ms Jean-Baptiste added.


LATIN AMERICAN & REGIONAL NEWS

The US is offering a $5m reward for JoaquinGuzman’s capture

Mexico’s Chapo Guzman, Forbes Billionaire


Constitutionally Elected President Manuel Zelaya and DefactoInterim Roberto Micheletti

Talks to restore Zelaya endswithout accord

Honduras: talks to restore Zelaya ends without accord

Two days of talks in Costa Rica aimed at ending the political crisis in Honduras have ended without agreement.

Constitutionally Elected President

Manuel Zelaya and Defacto Interim Ro-berto Micheletti

Mediators from the host country said the two sides had agreed to resume talks shortly but some regional leaders said they saw little sign of progress. Ousted President Manuel Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti had refused to meet but held separate talks with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. Correspon-dents say the former allies’ positions re-main far apart.

Mr Zelaya, who was removed from Honduras at gun point in a coup last month, continues to describe Mr Mi-cheletti as a criminal, while Mr Mi-cheletti’s interim government has said Mr Zelaya will be arrested if he tries to

return to the country.Both men left the talks on Thursday,

leaving delegations behind to continue the discussions.

Mr Zelaya flew to the Dominican Re-public, where he is hoping to gather more support, and Mr Micheletti has returned to Honduras. On arriving back in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, Mr Mi-cheletti said: “We are in agreement with his [Mr Zelaya’s] return here - but to be sent directly to the courts.” Shortly af-ter his return, Mr Micheletti announced he had accepted the resignation of his de facto Foreign Minister, Enrique Or-tez, for using racially offensive language about US President Barack Obama. Mr Ortez was reported to have described Mr Obama as “negrito” - meaning “little black man” - which Mr Micheletti said was “a scandalous epithet”.

‘Timid measures’On Friday, Hugo Chavez, the Presi-

dent of Venezuela and one of Mr Zelaya’s key supporters, said the talks in Costa

Unión Europea defiende respeto de instituciones en Honduras

Rica were dead and that it was “horrible” to see the “usurper” Mr Micheletti being treated with deference by Mr Arias. Mr Chavez also criticised what he said were “timid measures” by the US in response to the crisis and demanded to know why they had not recalled their ambassador imposed sanctions.

The US has already cut some aid to Honduras but has not exerted its full eco-nomic and diplomatic muscle, but there is need for decisive action on the part

of the U.S. political analyst says. The political crisis erupted after Mr Zelaya attempted to hold a non-binding public consultation to ask people whether they supported moves to change the constitu-tion.

Opponents said that could have led to the removal of the current one-term limit on serving as president and so paved the way for Mr Zelaya’s possible re-election. He was forced out of Honduras at gun-point on 28 June.

Mexico gunmen attackpolice bases

The arrest of a key drugs suspect is thought to have sparked the raids

At least six cities were hit - all in the western Michoacan state, a stronghold of Mexico’s drug cartels.

Three police officers and two soldiers are reported to have been killed when the attackers, armed with grenades and as-sault rifles, opened fire.

In one incident, in the state capital Mo-relia, 40 gunmen arrived in a convoy of vehicles to carry out the raid.

The arrest of a key drugs suspect is thought to have sparked the raids

There had already been prolonged gun battles in the city on Friday, during which suspected drug boss Arnoldo Rueda - a senior member of the La Familia Michoa-cana drug cartel - was arrested.

The co-ordinated raids are being seen as a revenge attack for that arrest.

As well as Morelia, the cities of Ap-

atzingan, Lazaro Cardenas, Patzcuaro, Zitacuaro and Huetamo were targeted.

Mexican President Felipe Calde-ron - who comes from Michoacan - has launched a major operation to try to stem the country’s drug violence, deploying

tens of thousands of extra troops and po-lice officers.

Some 6,000 people died in violence re-lated to organised crime last year

Forbes magazine’s latest list of the world’s billionaires includes Mexico’s most wanted man - Joaquin Guz-man.

The 54-year-old, who is said to be the head of one of Mex-ico’s most powerful drug cartels, is 701st on the list with an es-timated fortune of $1bn (£722m).

Mr Guzman, who escaped from a Mexi-can prison on 2001, is understood to be at large in Mexico or Central America.

Mexican officials blame much of the recent violence in the north of the coun-try on Mr Guzman.

Forbes estimates that last year Mexi-can and Colombian traffickers made be-tween $18bn (£13bn) and $39bn (£28bn).

Mr Guzman’s slice of that pie comes from his assumed control of the Sinaloa cartel, which is named after the Mexican state in which it is based.

For over a year the Sinaloa Cartel has been trying to oust a rival gang from the border city of Ciudad Juarez; the turf war has left more than 2,000 people dead.

Those who have met Mr Guzman, who stands at just 5 feet tall (152cm), describe him as a man of extraordinary

charisma and intelligence.In 2001, he escaped from a Mexican

jail in a laundry truck, having apparently charmed, and bribed the entire prison staff.

His wedding in 2007 to his 18-year-old wife was so heavily guarded that the Mexican army did not attempt to arrest the groom.

Mr Guzman is not the first alleged drug runner to have made it into the il-lustrious ranks of the Forbes list of bil-lionaires.

In 1989, Colombia’s Pablo Escobar was ranked the 7th richest man in the world, with $25bn (£18bn) to his name.

There is no sign that global drug con-sumption is falling. And as long as the demand remains, fortunes will be made.

Understanding Anemia - the Basics THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Sunday, July 19, 2009

The PEOPLE’s REJECT

Businessman accusedDean Fuller, majority share holder

and executive director of Fultec and Omni Networks Limited appeared in Belize City Magistrate Sharon Frazer Court on Tuesday, accompanied by his defence attorney, Michael Peyrefitte, where he pleaded not guilty to two-counts of money laundering charges involving the above mentioned business establishments.

According to the ‘Charge Sheet’ which details the information and com-plaint regarding the allegations brought about by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), states that Dean Fuller, through the use of his two companies, laundered some $6,588,702.21 (six million, five hundred and eighty-eight thousand, sev-en hundred and two dollars with twenty-one cents) from October 9th, 2007 to January 1st, 2009. It is understood that the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Be-lize Central Bank have retained the ser-vices of Attorney Antoinette Moore to prosecute the money-laundering charges before the Court.

Dean Fuller was offered and met bail in the sum of $100,000 dollars plus one surety in the same amount to which no other preconditions were attached to his

bail. He was not required to surrender his travel documents, nor does he have to make a weekly physical presence to the court until his next court date. The case of the FIU vs. Dean Fuller was then adjourned to September 24th, 2009.

Meanwhile, the money laundering charge against Ernest Raymond Jr. was withdrawn this week after prosecuting attorney, Antoinette Moore, informed Senior Magistrate Dorothy Flowers that the FIU was dropping the case.

Ernest Raymond Jr. was one of the seven persons along with the Coye fam-ily to be charged earlier this year with money laundering of $1.5Million dol-lars through the Money Gram money transfer facility located at the corner of Mahogany and Central American Bou-levard in Belize City.

The remaining six defendants which includes James Jerou, his live in com-panion, Melonie Coye, her parents and brother, Michael, Marlene and Jude Coye together with Money Gram’s of-fice assistant, Athlee Matute will return to Court on September 24th where the FIU will seek to establish a prima-facie case in a Preliminary Inquiry set for that date.

The PUP’s LIABILITY A PAID AD

What Is Anemia?

Anemia is a condition that develops when your blood lacks enough healthy red blood cells. These cells are the main transporters of oxygen to organs. If red

blood cells are also deficient in hemoglo-bin, then your body isn’t getting enough iron. Symptoms of anemia -- like fatigue -- occur because organs aren’t getting enough oxygen.

Anemia is the most common blood

condition in the U.S. It affects about 3.5 million Americans. Women and people with chronic diseases are at increased risk of anemia. Important factors to re-member are:

• Certain forms of anemia arehereditary and infants may be affected from the time of birth.

• Women in the childbearingyears are particularly susceptible to a form of anemia called iron-deficiency anemia because of the blood loss from menstruation and the increased blood supply demands during pregnancy.

• Seniorsalsomayhaveagreaterrisk of developing anemia because of poor diet and other medical conditions.

There are many types of anemia. All are very different in their causes and treatments.

Iron-deficiency anemia, the most common type, is very treatable with diet changes and iron supplements. Some forms of anemia -- like the anemia that develops during pregnancy -- are even considered normal. However, some types of anemia may present lifelong health problems.

What Causes Anemia?There are more than 400 types of

anemia, which are divided into 3 group-ings:

• Anemiacausedbybloodloss• Anemiacausedbydecreasedor

faulty red blood cell production• Anemia caused by destruction

of red blood cellsAnemia Caused by Blood LossRed blood cells can be lost through

bleeding, which can occur slowly over a

long period of time, and can often go un-detected. This kind of chronic bleeding commonly results from the following:

• Gastrointestinalconditionssuchas ulcers, hemorrhoids, gastritis (inflam-mation of the stomach) and cancer

• Useofnonsteroidalanti-inflam-matory drugs (NSAIDS) such as aspirin or Motrin

• Menstruation and childbirth inwomen, especially if menstrual bleed-ing is excessive and if there are multiple pregnancies

Anemia Caused by Decreased or Faulty Red Blood Cell Production

The body may produce too few blood cells or the blood cells may not work properly. In either case, anemia can re-sult. Red blood cells may be faulty or de-creased due to abnormal red blood cells or the a lack of minerals and vitamins needed for red blood cells to work prop-erly.


Continued from page 3

PUP hypocrisy?

FIU Trawler Making BIG Fish get away

MY TAKE ON BCC

It is obvious that Prime Minister Dean Barrow has been dragging its feet for almost a month now and hesitant to act decisively to address the scandalous allegations of corruption at the KHMH which involves key members of the Board, in the facilitation of purchases of medical and pharmaceutical supplies at ridiculously inflated prices from busi-nessmen with their part affiliation. With the mounting allegations popping out loudly, Barrow was forced to appoint a Commission of Inquiry.

He called a press conference last Fri-day afternoon to announce that he will be appointing a three member Commis-sion of Inquiry to investigate which ac-cording to him, “will get to the bottom of allegations of corruption” , but he is the same one that has tried to down play the situation allowing it to have gone from bad to worse.

Indeed, his decision to act only came after the former Finance Director of the KHMH, Cecil Knowles, told the press last Thursday that Dr. Fabro did had firsthand knowledge of all the un-derhanded deals being transacted at the KHMH to which he was claiming igno-rance. Barrow had no other choice but to try and salvage his own credibility and announce a Commission of Inquiry. However, the Leader of the Opposition, John Briceño, called for an Independent Commission of Inquiry when he pre-sented allegations against the KHMH in the House of Representatives almost a month ago. The arrogant PM Barrow took time out to emphasize that he would make no pronouncement on the merit or otherwise of Mr. Cecil Knowles latest allegation to which he added, that no one must take it as if though he was giving validity to the charges made by Cecil Knowles. The Prime Minister however accepted that Knowles allegations did added fuel to the fire. He admitted for the first time that the KHMH Corrup-tion Allegation was a blazing fire.

Since the allegations of corruption in the purchase of pharmaceuticals par-ticularly regarding pharmaceuticals pur-chased from the De La Fuente Pharmacy in Orange Walk Town, was very much alive. The Prime Minister appeared to be naïve when he said that he only became convinced that a great deal of explana-tion would be needed to justify some of the purchases at exorbitant prices which they got from De La Fuente Pharmacy Financial miss-management, the Marion

Jones Stadium situation, The Ministry Of Lands issue among all the other negative things erupting within the government are less important that an article I wrote that could be used to create insight and motivation for the party. Folks to me it seems obscene that this party’s leadership is more intent on having internal fights or exhibiting hate against each others rather that trying to unite the party and act as a Government in waiting.

There were some people within the party who personally attacked me, calling me names like hypocrite, but I don’t want to be guilty of the same thing that I am accusing them of so I will re-frain from calling their names and get-ting into a personal battle; at least for this week. As was indicated last week one

of the arrogant, disrespectful executive members wanted to know when the elec-tion for the chairman of the Marshall’s Community Corp is. My answer to him is there needs not to be an election; you can keep that position now. I said that for this week I will refrain from calling names and taking it on a personal level, but I will watch the movement and actions of some of their flunkies who will continue this week to cut eye, throw phrase and just act like b….

Let me state this very clearly I don’t go around looking for fights, but if you punk me; make sure that you are ready for anything. I will say this with no reservations, “nobody, absolutely no-body, will commute to Belize City and try to punk me, that is bs.” Anyway as I said, I don’t pick fight, but sometimes you defiantly have to fight to be a man.

Commission to probe Corruption at KHMH

after examining the revelations of the preliminary audit he ordered.

Like Pontius Pilot, he washed his hand and threw the weight of the respon-sibility back to the Board stating that it was precisely the reason why he had called on the Board of the KHMH to do something about what he said was in the absence of a satisfactory explanation. He said that the Board may well have been preparing to do something, but didn’t. With the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry every aspect of the investiga-tion is now completely out of the hands of the KHMH Board, something that the BMDU was calling for since the begin-ning of the negotiations.

Both parties in conflict seem to fa-vour the pronouncement of the Prime Minister for a Commission of Inquiry even though the BMDU still believes that Dr. Fabro ought to have removed himself from his position within the KHMH Board of Directors to give way for a more transparent view of the inves-tigation by the Commission.

The three members of the Com-mission of Inquiry will be chaired by a member of the judiciary who will be recommended by the Chief Justice. The other two members will include and be nominated from the Trade Union Con-gress of Belize and from the Ministry of Health, and it is expected to be a public commission of inquiry.

PM Barrow concluded by saying that if at the end of the findings of the Com-mission of Inquiry and it turn out that there was corruption, the light would be shone on it, it would be fully disclosed to the public, and whoever is guilty of it will be punished. But he has often said one thing in the hype of his press confer-ences then turn around to do the com-plete opposite.

At the end of the day, any finding by the Commission of Inquiry regarding corruption will still depend on his inter-pretation of what really transpired with the purchases of these medical supplies and pharmaceuticals at ridiculously high prices. He might even come out and say that although wrong doing was com-mitted, the Board acted in good faith or good intentions as he did regarding the Diane Haylock /NICH contact.

If we expect any one to be punished as Barrow stated we must not hold our breath since he is a person that has fre-quently gone back on his word.

on money laundering charges in January of this year. Last month Atlee Matute, an employee of Coyes was also arrested and charged for money laundering. Matute’s arrest was subsequently followed by the eventual arrest of Dean Fuller, Director of director of Omni Networks and Fultec Systems, thereby giving the investiga-tions some steam.

Today the financial industry is abuzz with stories of who should and/or who will be arrested next. “Dean Fuller’s ar-rest is merely the tip of the iceberg,” one person asserted to the National Perspec-tive. Fuller who is the Director of Omni Networks (we cannot establish what type of service Omni provides) and Fultec Systems has peaked interest in money-laundering investigations. Questions continue to swirl about why the other directors of Omni Networks and Fultec Systems were not arrested along with Fuller. Those directors are UDP Chair-man, Michael Singh, Diane Fuller (Dean Fuller’s wife) Susan Fuller According to the Financial Intelligence Unit, the drivers’ license data base was being used to transfer money via Moneygram to pay off bets won on the internet gam-bling site, Sports Book. Even the prob-able originator of the drivers’ license database was glaring, the FIU seemed reluctant to move to arrest Dean Fuller whose company developed the database.

The buzz is about the alleged direc-tors of Omni Networks where it seems most of the attention is directed. Channel Seven news reported on Friday, July 10, that Ruth Esquivel, daughter of former Prime Minister, Dr. Manuel Esquivel left the country a day prior to the arrest. She sent an email to Channel Seven ex-plaining that Omni whose operations are clandestine, to say the least, Omni was only in the e-pin business and that she has only earned $17.00 off her six shares that she owns in Omni. The total amount of shares apparently is 14,000.

National Perspective has been try-ing to confirm the names of the other Directors in Omni Networks, said to be one of the Singhs. Again, according to Seven News, those directors have dis-tanced themselves from the company. Although Ruth Esquivel’s email denied her as being a director in Omni, she is listed as such in the company’s register. Another name that surfaced is that of a Fred Shyu.

Shyu said that he has not gotten a dime on his investment of Twenty-Thou-sand dollars and even worse, he is unsure of the company’s activities. More than answering to the courts and the FIU, seems Mr. Fuller has much to explain to his share holders and directors. Other names floating around are those of the Singh brothers, Doug and Micheal, who were the target of similar investigations in recent years.

Our information is that star witness for the FIU is a woman by the name of Shaun Oliva who has quite a history in-ternet business and more so with Money-gram from its start at Omni to its climax at the Coye’s operation at the corner of Mahogany and Central American Bou-levard.

In fact our information is that this mystery lady Shaun Oliva has gotten the necessary credential and has been given the nod to open her own Moneygram operation in the very near future. This is yet to be seen. Ms. Oliva we are told once worked at Fulton Datapro when that establishment came under fire for pur-ported illegal business via the internet.

For whatever reason the FIU’s in-vestigative trawler has not hauled in all the fish involved but this recent case has much attention focused on it and there are people in the industry who are talk-ing and calling names. Perhaps this may also warrant a commission on inquiry by the Prime Minister, who it seems his only job these days is chasing after the thieves he has brought to government.


Contributed: Gordon SmithThe action displayed lately by the

New PUP in light of criticism in one of the local Newspaper, highlighted the hypocrisy practice by this self righteous so called group called the New PUP’s and lead me to join the other PUP’s that are frustrated to write. The Ar-ticles “People’s Reject, PUP’s Liability, Marshal Nunez Impartial View and the DODO Bird Cartoons were timely and accurate.

The reaction from the Party Chair-woman on the vibes morning show when one of the show few callers called in and ask her to response to one of the ar-ticle, shows that the article really hurt as she dedicated the remainder of the show to the article and, as I understand, had to be calm down at one of her over regular independence hall meeting as she even try to find out the identity of the caller. At one time during the show, she was trying to convince herself that when she is on the ground that such issue was not important to the voters, that led one to ask what ground DODO bird? The collet

constituency would love to get a glimpse of you, I was told that they go all the way to the Party headquarters and cannot see you. I was told you spend more time in the south of the Country doing your per-sonal business and bad mouthing for-mer Leaders of the PUP’s. Even Father X- from the “zinc Fence” was concern about what he called an attack on her be-loved pupil on the evening kremandala Show.

It is reported at a recently held Na-tional Executive meeting at indepen-dence hall, all fury were turn on former 2006 Belize City Mayoral Candidate and former PUP’s City Councilor Marshal Nunez for his “Impartial View “Article which harshly criticized those around the party leader and question their loy-alty. Some even accused him of being the artist of the DODO Bird cartoon and being a hypocrite, this attack I under-stand, was led by no other than the Com-munication Director and the National Campaign Manager two known for their

Social Security personalities, defender of the Lord of Belize, a.k.a virus to the zinc fence and one being a special guess at the famous wedding in savanna Geor-gia U.S.A while his party was in a battle heat trying to wind The 09 Citco Elec-tion.. However the big surprise is that when the attack was launch, on Marshal who is one of the few Black man in the National Executive, neither the Son/

son- in- law of the zinc fence rose to the defense of the once poster boy of Par-tridge street. However, I understand that Marshal handle himself very well like a true Southside ghetto warrior and is now convince that that he is now a illegiti-mate child of the zinc fence.

Both of these actions led me to ac-cuse this new PUP of being the biggest Continued on page 15



By Rhenae nuñez

Aries - Aries, you usually act first and think later. On Tuesday the Moon in Aries

in your sector of self is quincunx Saturn and you’ll have a hard time finding the right way to deal with a dilemma. Ask for feedback from friends before you attempt to deal with your predicament. Your de-sire for fun and frivolity increas-es on Friday, as impish Mercury enters Leo and your sector of entertainment and amusement.

Taurus - Variety is the spice of your life, Taurus, thanks to your ruler Venus

in versatile and changeable Gemi-ni. You’re learning new skills and discovering you have talents you never knew existed. On Tuesday the Moon in fiery Aries sextiles Venus in your sector of what you value and you’ll give considerable thought to the best way to maxi-mize your new sense of self-as-sertiveness. Issues with a sibling rise to the surface on Saturday.

Gemini - You’re a whirl-wind of energy now that dy-

Cancer - Cancer, you may start an advice column this

Leo - You know that you’re a very proud Lion, and once you make up your mind re-

week, thanks to your newfound ability to solve any dilemma you encounter! On Monday the Sun conjuncts wise Mercury in Can-cer in your sector of self and you’ll be a walking encyclopedia of knowledge. It’s a great time to reassess your current lifestyle to make sure that you’re living your life the way you want to and in a manner that suits you best.

garding a particular person, place, or situation, you rarely change your viewpoint. This week you’re in for a real cosmic treat, start-ing on Friday, as Mercury, the planet that governs your mind and imagination, enters Leo. You’ll change your opinion quite a bit in the weeks ahead, and yes, it’s OK to admit you might have been wrong in the past!

Virgo - Get ready to dis-cover your bold and brassy side this week, Virgo! On

Friday Mercury, your quicksil-ver ruling planet, enters forceful and fiery Leo and you’ll begin to develop your assertive side. Now your self-confidence level will soar. It’s good to be you, and you’ll finally believe in yourself and be proud of your accom-plishments. Hurray! On Sunday

namic Mars is in quicksilver Gem-ini in your sector of self. It’s going to be difficult for you to concentrate this week and your energy will be extremely scattered. On Tuesday you’ll encounter an obstacle you can’t dance around, as Mars is quincunx Pluto in Capricorn. Try to collect your thoughts and an answer will present itself to you.

Libra - Every situation is different, Libra. On Monday your ability to formulate the

right approach to a predicament falls flat, as the Sun conjuncts Mercury in emotional Cancer square your personal Zodiac Sign of the Scales. You’ll get bogged down in the pros and cons regard-ing possible solutions to your situ-ation, and it won’t be easy to de-cide on the right course of action.

Scorpio - Scorpio, you have a profound way of thinking, and you never trivialize your

life issues. On Wednesday you’ll find yourself at a crossroads of sorts. A relative wants you to fol-low a certain path, and you know you must stay true to yourself at all costs because your integrity is your most important possession. Your desire to take a chance on new endeavors accelerates on Friday, as the Moon in Taurus opposite your personal Zodiac Sign of the Scorpion sextiles daring Uranus.

Sagittarius - You can’t al-ways have a picture-perfect life, Sagittarius, no matter

how often you engage in optimistic visions. After all, positive think-ing goes just so far. On Wednes-day clever Mercury is quincunx your ruler Jupiter in your sector of the mind and imagination, and you’ll discover that wishing for something doesn’t make it a reali-ty for you. Your philosophical side kicks in on Friday and you’ll ask many questions of the Universe.

Capricorn - Pressure mounts for you this week, Capricorn, and by the week-

end you’ll resemble a pot that’s been left to boil over. You’re a mas-ter of self-control, but you need to vent occasionally. On Tuesday Mars in Gemini in your sector of health is quincunx Pluto in Capri-corn and you’ll begin to experience stress-related physical ailments.

your reputation may come under fire from an unexpected source..

Aquarius - You’re usually able to strike up a conver-

sation with anyone, Aquarius, but this week your ability to commu-nicate effectively will be stymied. On Wednesday Mercury, the plan-et of self-expression, is quincunx Jupiter and Neptune in Aquarius in your sector of self and you’ll discover that your associates don’t understand what you say.

The crook came to Belize to tell us things we already knowThe Crook Report

“Modern policing in a democracy needs educated Police Officers who are able to link policing objectives with those of democratic governance and na-tional development.” Harold Crooks

Perhaps the crux of the entire matter is that our police are disconnected from our society in this aspect but paradoxi-cally are a part of the dynamics at work. Instead they react to events rather ap-proach from a professional standpoint. Much of our police enter the department with limited formal education. This is manifested almost every time an officer has to address the media. Often the po-lice are reluctant to disseminate basic in-formation and use the excuse that divulg-ing certain things will jeopardize their investigation. This series has dealt with the so-called police investigation. This week Mr. Crooks tells us more about the dysfunctions of the police department.

We continue to watch as morale with-in the Police Department continues to erode, as lives continue to be shattered and there is no sense of any effort to curb the current crime situation. Perhaps the biggest threat to our national security is the current Minister of Police, Carlos Perdomo and the people hand-picked to lead the department. There seems to be no motivation to address the problem.

LAY OVERSIGHT 3.10 There are neither ministerial

mechanisms nor other provisions to hold the management of the BPD account-able through democratized, civilian / lay oversight and inspection of policing policy and performance.

8. So it is recommended that a PO-LICE INSPECTORATE BOARD be created and staffed by sectorial and com-munity groups, The Auditor General and an Inspector General. This responsibili-ty could either be added by legal amend-ment to the Crime Control Council or be located in the Ministry of National Secu-rity (MNS) and chaired by the CEO. The latter method is preferred. The Policing Policy and Standards mandate at para 6 above could be merged for economy.

3.11 Their mandate should be to in-spect and monitor;

• Policy implementation, strate-gic direction, leadership, management effectiveness and service delivery in the BPD.

• Performance standards and best practices

• The use of material and finan-cial resource (supporting other audits)

• The effectiveness of Human Re-source Development (HRD) and to

• Conduct thematic inspections and enquire into any matter required by the responsible Minister or CEO.

Provision should be made to table these reports in the Assembly.

3.12 This approach would serve the dual purpose of citizen participation and to provide a mechanism by which the government fulfils its primary respon-sibility for public safety and security of the nation. The CoP should not be ex-pected to report on the effectiveness of his leadership and management.

EDUCATION FOR THE POLICE 3.13 The Senior Officers of the BPD

must understand broad social and eco-nomic issues, and the social and individ-ual psychology of citizens. They must be exposed to an introduction to the history and sociology of Belize; the de-mographic and developmental issues of the nation and be well grounded in gov-ernment, and criminal and human rights law; in project, police management and strategic management; criminal justice, community development and leadership. Modern policing in a democracy needs

educated Police Officers who are able to link policing objectives with those of democratic governance and national development. Police Officers who can recognize the complex connections be-tween crime and other social problems; who can manage change, challenge and complexity at an accelerating pace in a globalized environment.

9. It is recommended that the pivotal ranks where these precise demands of leadership, management and education should be met are at the level of forma-tion/ District Commanders and ranks above.

10. It is also recommended that this approach should begin in introductory modules in recruit training and intern-ship along with legal and procedural topics and be graded upwards through in-service training and finally at the su-perintending ranks where relevant bac-calaureates should be a prerequisite.

11. In this regard, it is recommend-ed that the University of Belize (UB) be asked to assist in developing the in-troductory, intermediate and advanced readings for individual learning and per-sonal development.

This will also serve to close these gaps in overseas courses. This is not a pie in the sky as police recruits in Belize display high levels of intelligence, and the capacity to advance their learning. The public often look to constables for leadership in difficult situations in the field.

12. It is recommended that to achieve this and other structured and timely transformation of the BPD, a concerted effort be made by an AIDT which would report to the CoP and CEO, MNS to help operationalize reformulated policies and strategies to drive a reconstructed agenda of change. This is not dissimilar to any modern public sector reform pro-gramme among the Caribbean Nations. The details of this direction are enumer-ated throughout this report.

13 It is recommended that this new direction should be integrated into the performance management of a Trans-formed RE-VITALIZED AND ETHIC BASED PERFORMANCE POLICE CULTURE.

OUTREACH PROGRAMMES3.14 Many admirable Police outreach

programmes exist and a few are being expanded. They need however to also target other groups such as the elderly and the physically and mentally chal-lenged so as to fit crime reduction pro-grammes within a broader humanitarian ideal.

14. It is recommended that the CYDP should be quickly expanded since trans-national studies have shown that young people at high risk for crime can be di-verted by attractively structured activi-ties and opportunities.

3.15 Outreach programmes developed by the BPD are a credit to the organiza-tion and could serve as a model for other Caribbean Police Forces.

MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCE

3.16 Nowhere in the BPD is there more evidence of ineffective policies, weak management oversight, practices and procedures than in the areas of per-formance management and development of its human resources.

3.17 There is little semblance of effec-tive systems of performance measure-ments and standards. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are not created, bench marked, applied to individuals, nor criti-cal policing tasks. Few outputs and peo-ple expected outcomes are measured or evaluated. The training needs of Senior Officers sometimes identified by ap-

Pisces - You enjoy feeling as if you’re in the midst of

a swirling stream, thanks to your dualistic Zodiac Sign of the Fish! However, this week you’ll be-come more fixed in the way you approach your life and agenda, starting on Friday, as wise Mer-cury enters pragmatic Leo and your sector of daily activities. Remember, you have every right to stick to your comfort zone.


The Crook Report

THE TOPAZ CHRONICLES #4



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praisals are not fulfilled due to the lower cost of various highly differentiated Se-nior Officers courses available through technical assistance programmes. These have overshadowed the critical police management courses for Senior Officers available in Canada, the UK and some countries in the Caribbean.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS AND EVALUATION

3.18 The appraisal system used in the BPD was designed by the Office of Gov-ernance in The Belize Public Service. It requires that performance standards measure, among other criteria, quantity, quality, timeliness of individual perfor-mance and punctuality.

These targets, among others must be agreed upon and clearly stated, achiev-able, measurable, specific and be in writ-ing. This requires formalized tracking mechanisms which do not exist except in

cases where conduct stands out one way or other triggering written reports which will be considered in appraisals. But the system was not designed to work in such a haphazard way. Another serious short-coming is that the BPD completes only one of the two appraisal cycles thus un-dermining overall effectiveness.

3.19 One appraisal form is designed to apply to all ranks from Inspector to DCP, while a second form is designed to evaluate all ranks from Constables to Sergeants.

15. Due to the marked differences in responsibilities it is recommended that KPIs be differentiated and applied to each rank and individual. “Appraisals of members are subjective as commission-ers change from one system to another. The department has fallen down in the basics”. (Quote from the DCP respon-sible for Management Services in inter-view on 23/7/08 at 10:15 a.m.)

and integrates all types of processes – in space, military, beneath the oceans, in health, in the economy, in education, poli-tics, science, environment and the loom-ing “PRIVACY” issue. Unfortunately, the emerging dark side of technology is that machines may become a danger to hu-mans themselves. They were intended to help us by sparing us from toil, but now they are replacing humans in some areas – robots and robotics are prime examples, opting for increase technical precision in electronics, engineering, aviation, etc., but decreasing human utility, and employ-ment, losing empathy, the human touch and response.

Moreover, we cannot deny that the de-velopment of mechanization has progres-sively led to a certain dehumanization of society, in the sense that it has considerably reduced human contacts – direct physical contacts. Secret offices and passwords are increasing in the work place; aspira-tions and ambitions to be employed in a modern office are growing. Computers are dynamic in Belize and their uses are expanding exponentially – and why not? Computers are part of the standard tool for the new century. Again, it was the Peo-ple’s United Party who announced equip-ping every child in primary school with a computer. We lost, and the vision died with the winners. PUP is the party that expands democracy in Belize; and PUP is the party that protects it by investing in our young. We must have a serious inte-grated plan for science and technology in our society – public and private, in syn-chrony, to achieve practical outcomes for the competitive future.

The problem now posed by technol-ogy stems from the fact that it has evolved much faster than our human conscious-ness. Consequently, many believe that technology must break away from today’s

emphasis on materialism and become an agent of humanism. To bring this about, it is imperative that the human being again be placed at the center of our social fabric, implying that machines should be serving us. This is not simple, entrenched as we are in the routine; we would have to be willing to thoroughly question our mate-rialistic values which form the basis of to-day’s society. Consequently, this implies that all human beings reorient themselves and come to understand that we must re-spect the quality of life and stop this fre-netic race against time. This is only pos-sible, however, if we learn once more how to live in harmony, not only with nature, but also with and among ourselves. We can no longer afford to hate our way to a future, politically; we cannot anger and re-venge our way to a future; neither should we be fearful to think our way to a future. Hate, anger and fear are the lower emo-tions on the scale of hope.

Call it utopia; the ideal would be for technology to evolve in such a way that it would free us from the most difficult tasks and, at the same time, enable us to evolve harmoniously in contact with oth-ers. “To be or not to be…”? The insight of Shakespeare reverberates. “Being” is the essential movement – it is not separate from consciousness, not separate from the environment, not separate from mind, not separate from the universe, not separate from “Self”, life, living or love; Being is the vital life force that commands the many attributes – including : free “Will”, “Choice”, “Desire”, etc… that are found in all of us. We are then almost obligated to impregnate matter and exploit possibili-ties for our benefit, with our minds, but it must be done within the harmonium. The way we think will shape our future; we must use science and technology to take us there.

Yes, Science and technology has

brought us here, but it has reached a par-ticularly critical phase. Indeed, without science, we would still be in the Stone Age; humans have advanced immensely, and have achieved considerable progress – and is tied in with the evolution of modern economics; again the financial stakes seem to have taken precedence over everything else and we have now reached the pinnacle of scientific materialism. We may have made ourselves slaves of science, more than we have subjected it to our will. The “brown outs” and “black outs” of whole regions is common; they are not pleasant; simple technological failures are capable of putting the most advance societies in jeopardy – missiles can be launched and wars started by a glitch in the system. Be-lize’s energy, plus some from Mexico, are on grids which supply us with light, refrig-eration, air conditioning, government and business data; The window of tolerance by consumers when vital energy is inter-

rupted is relatively narrow. Security is a real issue; people can access e-mails and boast about it in the Honorable House. Belize law, policy and enforcement must transform also. We need technology, and must use them; but let’s not become slaves to them.

The atom was split and the genie is out; Belize cannot remain a spectator in the world of heavy science and technology. The genome of human, plants and animals have been mapped out accurately; cloning have taken place, plant advancement and resistance to plant disease is here; heart, lungs, kidneys and other organs can be transplanted, medically. Stem cell and other interesting research are opening vistas of possibilities in medicine, health and longevity. We have little choice but to fashion a robust science and technology vision for Belize.





Jacob Andres to Elisabeth Elias of Indian Creek, Orange Walk

Charles Edward Peyrefitte to Xiao Jing Yan of Belize City

Stephen Woolrick Samuels to Vernette Norette Sankey of Ladyville, Belize

Isabel Eliseo Bah to Wilma Jenni-fer Cal of Maya Mopan, Stann Creek

Gener Ejidio Mesa to Rita Marjo-rie Watson of Patchakan, Corozal

James Mark Higgins to Kari Stu-art of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Douglas David Arnold to Alicia Lo-cera Cadle of Camalote, Cayo

Robert Paul Kimpel to Clair Dan-ielle Simmons of Houston, Texas

Arthur Leonard Alexander Usher of Bella Vista, Belize City to Kadie Alexi Ebanks of Vista Del Mar, Belize

Ricardo Francisco Cocom to Sha-rone Glenique Cadle of Belize City

Stephen John Golding to Narinder Jaur Jhutt of England

Kenny Brad Sharpton to Wendy Kim Craggs of Ogden, Utah, USA

Donald Philip Edwards to Daisy Ja-milette Leiva of Placencia, Stann Creek

Javier Tamai to Anselma Loza of Patchakan, Corozal

William Connell McFarland of Corozal Town to Anuradha Bannerjee of Dangriga, Stann Creek

Quiency Michael Sutherland to Bessy Carolina Martinez of Belmopan City

Jason Clifford Augustine to Natalie Ruth Waight of Belize City

Gustavo Garay to Rocio Suleyra Baldoras of San Pedro Town

Ellis Raul Gomez to Arely Mildreth Maschocos of Santa Elena, Cayo

Dennis Marlon Novelo to Blanca Miriam Galdamez of Orange Walk Town

Andy Jermani Garcia to Inesita Merlene Cardenas of Orange Walk Town

Errol Llewellyn Crown to Clarita Julissa Gentle of Belize City

Selvin O. Sanchez to Trena M. Tate of Ladyville, Belize

William Smith Rial IV to Sarah Gillian Cloeter of Virginia, USA

Roy Alexander Hamilton,

Doris Stain Idolly Patten, 92

Marilyn Saunders, 38

Terence Rutherford Leslie, 62

Winston Russell Latchman, 86

Rudolph Stanley Lorenzo, 54

Sonny Mukeshu to Mukesh Jaip-rakash and Areldi Jamilet Gidwani nee Menendez

Giany Gannely to Filiberto Ar-mando and Ingris Magaly Moralez nee Orellana

Isacc William to Joel and Rosaura Paina Gabourel nee Olivera

Vivianie Eileen to Lionel and Maria Concepcion Ek nee Puck

Duranjay Pavi to Domingo and An-gelina Pau nee Teul

Gerardo Enrique Arevalo to Mercy Patricia Franco of Bella Vista, Toledo

Elsworth Orlando Itza to Candace Rochelle Anderson of Belize City

Kenrick Bryant Pollard to Marga-ret Mary Lino of Belize City

Wowen Zhu to Deborah Elisa Du-bon of Belmopan City

James Calvin Hoxsey to Sarah Lyt-ton Robinson of Maya Beach, Stann Creek

Ever Leonardo Tuz to Maria Con-suelo Salazar of San Jose, Orange Walk

Koon Fau Chen to Gui Zhen Gan of Orange Walk Town

Jonathan Bennett Pagliaro to Bria Marie Arnold of Santa Barbara, Cali-fornia, USA

Matthew Alan West to Melody Kaye Brown of USA

Ijidio Santiago Sedassie to Mari-anne Inair Bustillos of Progresso, Or-ange Walk

Isaias Hoba to Argelia Vargas of Nuevo San Juan, Orange Walk

Victor Emanuel Alvarez of Bar-ranco, Toledo to Antonia Velda Arzu of Punta Gorda Town

Amir Joel Coba to Daisy Gabriela Zetina of Douglas, Orange Walk

Alex Mervin Cajun to Eulalia Ci-cilia Chan of San Roman, Orange Walk

Erik Quintana to Josephine Fore-man of Corozal Town

Andres E. Garbutt to Elizabeth P. Sulph of Roaring Creek, Cayo

Delroy W. Meighan of Camalote, Cayo to Sharon E. Tejeda of Esperanza, Cayo

Ricardo Mes to Candelaria Bolon of San Jose, Toledo

Lindell Stephen Gibson Sr. to Carol Eunice Moore of Dump, Toledo

Leon Martin Talbert to Leandra Michelle Miguel of Belize City

Jesse Vincent Mendoza of Roaring Creek, Cayo to Shareen Janelle Arnold of Belmopan City

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Marriages:

Births

Deaths

PUP hypocrisy?

THE MODERN PUP AGEThe People’s United Party is not to

abandon the computer in every pupil’s domain. We must invest heavily in sci-ence and technology – from pre-school to University of Belize. Every PUP member must be active in some form of lifelong learning; every PUP member should ask more questions, and actually become a walking question mark. We cannot leave things to chance and open resignation. En-ergy and its derivatives will be the major employment on the horizon; “free trade”, “fair trade”, Caribbean Small Market and Economy, are already marching, impact-ing us; goods, services and people will be cross fertilizing. Wind, solar and other en-vironmentally friendly energy will be part of our local lexicon.

We cannot burden the pride of future Belizeans by the lack of adequate prepara-tion and foresight of this generation for our growing population. In this period, PUP is not to be measured by the quantity of our acts, but by their efficient quality. There are no ends to quarrels and the reasons why. They merely fade and merge into other forms - to be used or discarded by the coming generation. Within the next 50 years, with hard work and devotion, we

should have more modern science at our disposal – better health outcomes, more happiness, more prosperity; This is how Paradise on earth are made.

Finally, let us not be content to hope for salvation by means of a sudden leadership that will lead us out of the chaos of our own making. Such attitude is principally among our greatest weaknesses. Plainly speaking, it consist of dependence upon another to assist the individual to sur-mount conditions, which in the main, the person has precipitated himself. Many leaders are helpless to aid until individuals first make the attempt to evolve their own awareness.

The best master is the one within our-selves – our own higher nature. Harmony in the Party is a collective function; it must be planned, organized and developed by us. We can have leaders of peace and har-mony, but they must have supporters who are willing to sacrifice for the elements of which the harmony is composed; just as men do for war, we must plan for peace in the PARTY. I believe the PUP enlighten-ment is here; let us begin by pushing our own PUP re-start button. Let’s do science and technology to begin.TOPAZ Next installment in mid- Au-gust.

THE TOPAZ CHRONICLES

hypocrites in our politics.’ Almost every week the Party Chairwoman is heard to be “habla habla habla “on vibes radio about good governance and the party constitution and the big tent approach, accountability and all the good stuff that the party is applying, Not so, it seem that they cannot handle a little criticism. When being criticize, they tend to or-chestrate you and put you out from under the big tent, ask the former hosts’ of the Positive Vibes morning show, ask For-mer Mayoral Candidate Marshal Nunez who is a persona non grata at vibe’s ra-dio, while Marshal who is a PUP cannot work at vibes radio, one DJ “Candyman” A known UDP DJ who was fired from Waves radio one day, start working at Vibes the following day.

Check the record if you don’t believe. Ask former Secretary General Henry Usher who lately show up uninvited and nearly got certain people from vibes ra-dio fired but yet Spooner and Jules were entertained by host Glen. Ask Vaughn Gill who had to repent and turn on his former colleagues so that he can have a JOB. What transparency? Please, while PUP voters in the constituency as Messop ,Queen Square and Port is

totally abandoned and jobless, the staff at Party headquarters is fully padded with the Chairwoman people from col-let even a 16 year old is employed who I understand comes from a UDP fam-ily and openly boasted that she is re-ceiving all financial assistance for her education through her mother from Hon. Faber. Then the good governance rheto-ric, there is a Management team that is running the Party from an undisclosed location that is total illegal and unconsti-tutional, the chairwoman is also the sec-retary General, Chief of Staff etc. what conflict of interests! or is it barefaced hypocrisy Madam Chair?

Please Hon. Party Leader, we cannot win the next election by default as the UDP did. we need to get our house in order and really used the George Price (not the chairwoman) Big Tent Approach and unite all factors in the party, there are many PUP’s like myself who want to come back home with our families and friends and work for the success of the party, but those “DODO Bird” need to be acceptable to criticism. Be it from the little man in the street to the big man at Blake building, Listen to the real people Party Leader and let stop this hypocrisy. Those who have ears to hear! HEAR.


CONTACT US AT:Editor: 605-4508

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25 Nanche Street, Belmopan


Rudolph Hyde Jr.

Cleared of Manslaughter Charges

Political Cover-up at the Border Management Agency

Hyde Family post$2,000 Reward

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Rudolph Hyde Sr. and his family are seeking the kind assistance of the general public in their effort to know the where-abouts of their son, Rudolph Hyde Jr. ( also known as ‘Dudut’ ‘Bin Ladin’ or ‘Ladin’) who went missing and was last seen alive on the 29th May (about six weeks ago) in the vicinity of Roaring Creek village. The family has posted a reward of $2,000 dol-lar to any one with information leading to his whereabouts.

Since his absence, the family has been burdened especially because they have no knowledge regarding neither their loved one nor the circumstances which lead to his disappearance, not knowing whether

he is alive and well or has suffered a more tragic fate. Rudolph Hyde Jr. is 25 years old, about 5’5” in height, of creole decent and with an approximate weight of 195 pounds.

The family and friends have conducted numerous searches based on various infor-mation received, but have not yielded the desired results. Last Sunday 12th July, in the vicinity of an area of Roaring Creek village known as ‘Another World’, the family search party came upon what ap-peared to them to be charred human re-mains including a complete left arm. The police were notified and they arrived at the scene where they processed the area, but the forensic results yielded by the police pathologist ended up being heart-wrench-ing to the family after they were told the remains were that of a mountain goat.

The family disagrees with the find-ings and is in the process of trying to get a second forensic examination performed on the remains by an independent patholo-gist, most likely in Guatemala. The Hyde family is pleading for your kind assistance in trying to locate their love one. Any in-formation received will be treated with the strictest of confidence. The family would like to bring closure to this episode and is calling on the general public who may have pertinent information to please get in touch with the family at the following telephone numbers: 822-2531; 822-3252; 621-0183 and at 822-2608.

Rudolph Hyde Jr. was always known to be a humble individual and he deserves to be found.

The UDP promised to govern with transparency and accountability but over the last few months, all we have heard is one scandal after the next, the trafficking of influence and open cor-ruption is visible but instead of clamp-ing down as was promised by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, they remain si-lent, they deny it, and now it is clear that they are trying to cover it up. Recently, the regional site Manager for the Bor-der Management Agency at the Western Border, Julio Santos, was unceremoni-ously terminated because of his alleged involvement with large sums of money gone missing without a trace. Confiden-tial sources say that it involves between $40,000 and $160,000 dollars which was supposed to be deposited but never made it to the Bank.

This week, General Manager of the Border Management Agency, Gonzalo

Rosado walked a tight rope confirming the fact that his former site manager, Julio Santos, was indeed terminated because of suspicion of being involved with money un-accounted for.

However, Police report log book in Benque Viejo del Carmen show that there was no report of missing or sto-len money made by the Western Border Management Agency, and this a clear indication that the political directorate of the UDP have chosen to sweep this latest scandal under the rug especially because Julio Santos is the first-cousin of Cayo West Area Representative, Er-win Contreras, who is the Minister re-sponsible for the Border Management Agency.

Additionally, Julio Santos is no stranger to missing money scandal. In 2001, he was the then assistant manag-er of the Benque Viejo Mount Carmel

Credit Union when some five hundred thousand dollars were reportedly miss-ing from that lending institution. Police investigations regarding that particular incident led to the subsequent arrest of Santos and two other management lev-el employees of Mount Carmel Credit Union, and they were charged jointly for some ten counts of theft but legal juggling in the system led to no convic-tion.

Meanwhile, with regards to this latest scandal involving another huge amount of missing money at the Border Management Agency under his watch, Julio Santos is saying he knows noth-ing about missing money; he has main-tained that he is on leave and was never fired from his political post nor has he received any letter of termination to that effect.

He arrogantly boasts that Minister

Erwin Contreras is like a brother to him and will protect him.

General Manager of the Border Man-agement Agency, Gonzalo Rosado stat-ed this week that an auditor is currently combing the books (hopefully they are not cooking the books) and make a con-clusive finding before he brings in the Benque Viejo police.

But there may be more to this scan-dal, and this might just be the surface of an investigation that may lead to a lot more findings because according to Julio Santos, if he is taken to Court, Gonzalo Rosado will also face counter accusations to which he claimed he had three letters to substantiate his accusa-tions with.

Efforts to reach Minister Erwin Contreras, and Minister responsible for the Border Management Agency proved futile.

Acting on the instructions of the Di-rector of Public Prosecutions, San Pedro Police withdrew the indictable charge of Manslaughter against island resident, Enrique Peña on Tuesday, just barely twenty-four hours after he was accused of causing the death of Alejandro Uck with

whom he had a fight in the early hours of Saturday morning. Police say that the Post Mortem Examination conducted on the body of Alejandro Uck certified that Uck died from acute pulmonary edema (water in the lungs) which medically ex-culpates Enrique Peña from any charge

regarding Uck’s death. Alejandro Uck had gone to Peña’s apartment around 2:00 am Saturday morning during an electrical black-out which resulted in a fist fight causing an intoxicated Uck to roll down the stairs with seemingly su-perficial bruise mark externally while he started complaining of severe ab-dominal and chest pain around the heart area. The police was called in and soon after, he was transported to the San Pe-dro Medical Clinic and died three hours later. The Autopsy report performed by Dr. Mario Estrada Bran stated that the injuries Uck sustained to the shoulder were minor and in no way could have contributed or caused his death. Confi-dential report states the alcohol content in Uck’s body was excessive and that his vital organs were saturated with alcohol

content which caused liquid substance in the lungs ‘acute pulmonary edema’. Fam-ily members say that Alejandro Uck had gone to Peña’s apartment to try and col-lect money owing to him by Peña, but a witness who was in the company of Uck at the time of the fight told police that the deceased had gone to ask Peña about some memory chip for a digital camera. Due the time factor and the electrical black-out at that hour in the morning, Peña told him he would not be able to en-tertain them. The witness said that that was when the intoxicated Uck made un-provoked physical advances at Peña who defended himself. Before the Post mor-tem, the police were of the opinion that Uck may have suffered internal injuries during the fight and so that was the rea-son for accusing him of manslaughter.


MelonyTasher

Verdes’ Danny Jimenez

Jaguars Babsy Cadle spikes

San Ignacio, July 12, 2009 Hankook Verdes, the Cayo “Green Ma-

chine”, won Game 1 of the Belize Premier Foot-ball League’s championship finals of the post-season tournament 1-0 over Corozal Nizhee at the Norman Broaster Stadium on Sunday.

Juan Ramirez and Sergio Gilharry led the Corozal attack from the getgo, backed up by Mexican import Benny Perez and Victor Mo-rales on the wings. The opening ceremonies with the FIFA flag for fair play and Belize’s own Sub Umbra Floreo were scarcely concluded, with the starting whistle when Deris “Colombia” Bena-vides brought delighted cheers from the crowd of Corozal fans with an early shot that just missed the goal.

The visitors won a corner kick and Sergio Gilharry forced Verdes’ goalie Jamie Brooks to come up with a save when he connected with a header to Benavides’ cross from a corner kick. The Verdes’ defenders: Trevor Lennon Shamir Pacheco, Victor Urbina and Luis Mendez had their work cut out to contain the visitors’ attacks, while goalie Jaime Brooks put his body on the line to deny the visitors a goal, at some personal cost to his aching back.

Hankook Verdes wins Game 1 of BPFL championships, 1-0 vs Corozal Nizhee

SCA Stars defeated the Baby Jaguars in 2 straight sets

Jaguars Thara Blanco rallies the ball

Millennium drills Gentle Touch 2-1 in female football

Belize City, July 11, 2009

Belize City defending champs Millen-nium Girls upset the national defending champs Gentle Touch from Esperanza 2-1 in the 2009 national female football com-petition at the MCC garden last Saturday.

Gentle Touch’s star striker Abby Hal-liday almost put the Esperanza girls on the scoreboard 1-0 from the getgo, but her rocket of a shot hit the crss bar, much to the relief of Millennium goalie Ermine Ferguson.

Nonetheless the Esperanza visitors seized a 1-zip lead when the Millennium defense failed miserably a corner kick, leaving Indira Spain open to connect with the ball and shoo it into the back of the net in the 10th minute of play.

The pressure of the Millennium girls’ counterattack caused the Esperanza de-fense to also goof as sweeper Kendra “Peaches” Gentle bumbled into a hand-ball error inside the 18 yd box, and the referee awarded Millennium a penalty, which Melony Tasher converted with practiced ease, sending the ball past Es-peranza goalie Eden Gentle to tie the ball game at 1-1 before the half time break.

Gentle Touch won a free kick, but Er-mine Ferguson met the challenge when

Abby Halliday executed the play. Shinelle Gentle delivered the winning goal for Millennium 3 minutes later when she fin-ished a play, by slicing the ball across the goal to far corner.

Gentle Touch battled on in the hopes of the equalizer, but the Millennium girls dug in and held on to their 2-1win at the final whistle.

Amin August, Ricky Chan and Ricky Jime-nez led the Verdes’ attacks and won a free kick, finished by a header that tested Brian Hernan-dez’s reflexes in the Corozal goal. Mike Salazar, Norman “Tilliman” Pipersburgh and Jose Mon-roy supported their play at midfield, but some 21 minutes into the ball game, the Verdes’ coach decide to introduce Danny Jimenez to replace Monroy.

Danny soon made his presence felt as Verdes won a free kick on the edged o the 18-yd box, and he won the argument to take the set piece rather than the more veteran kickers Pacheco or Pipersburgh. His execution was textbook, the wall of Nizhee defenders parted in the direction they thought the ball might go, and the ball flew straight and true into the back of the net to give Verdes a 1-zip lead in the 25th minute of play.

The “green machine” found themselves playing with one man short after Verdes captain, Shamir Pacheco, the violated the distance rule on a spot kick by Nizhee Corozal, and the referee promptly issued him his 2nd yellow card to send him off the field.

Brian Hernandez had plenty of opportunity to demonstrate his goal-keeping skills as Danny Jimenez launched a right foot rocket that Brian

In the U-20 league, the SCA Stars de-feated the Baby Jaguars in 2 straight sets 25-19, 25-21. In the Firms League, First Caribbean foreclosed on Belize Teleme-dia in 2 straight sets 25-13 and 25-19.

The Police arrested Belargo also in 2 straight sets 25-15 and 25-17

In the Male League, the veterans of Mirab bounced back from 2 straight loss-es to spank the Jaguars 3 sets to 1: 25-

19, 25-15. The jaguars won 1 set 25-23, before Mirab took it away 25-12

Scorpions moved into first place by defeating Rebels in a very close and ex-citing match that went to the 5th deciding set. The Rebels won the 1st set 25-15, but the Scorpions rebounded to sting the Rebels 26-24 and 25-22 in the 2nd and 3rd sets. Then the Rebels toughed it out to tie the series again by winning the 4th

set 28-26, before the Scorpions finally put them away 15-11 in the 5th set.

Last Thursday, in the senior female competition the B.H. Stars defeated At-lantic Bank Ltd Renegades 25-12 and 25-11, then the Club 313 defeated the Belmopan Police 25-9 and 25-13, while in the men’s competition, the Scorpions defeated Mirab in straight sets: 25-19,

25-23 and 25-16Last Tuesday, Mirab had also suffered

a heartbreaker loss to the Rebels after winning the 1st set 25-13. The Rebels came back to win the 2nd set 25-23, and again Mirab took the lead by winning the 3rd set 26-24. The Rebels finally pre-vailed taking the next 2 sets: 25-17 and 15-13.

managed to deflect. Umberto “Pichete” Con-stancia replaced Amin August, but it was Nizhee captain Antonio Castillo who almost equalized the score just before the half with a left foot shot that screamed by outside the goalpost.

Danny Jimenez tried to up the ante to 2-0 with a cross to center that drained past the Nizhee goal, but no one from the Green Machine had fol-lowed to finish the play.

The visitors were now desperate to come up with the equalizer and Emmette Vernon took over from Juan Ramirez on the attack. Cesario Rosales and Eric Rodriguez were breaking up the Verdes’ plays at midfield, to send the ball for-ward and they soon had help from Jose Lemus who replaced Randy Casanova on defense. Ken-rick Pelayo also replaced Benny Perez in the 76th minute while with Everald Torres reinforced the

Verdes’ defense, replacing Norman Pipersburgh in the 80th minute.

Nizhee Corozal continued to press for the equalizer, but their defenders slipped down badly in letting Ricardo Jimenez get though on a solo drive and he almost made them pay the ultimate price, but his very last touch lacked the punch to count. Jamie Brooks was like a jack in the box, flying every which way to frustrate the attacks until the final, long whistle sounded to a 1-0 win for the “Green Machine”.

Hankook Verdes gears up now to challenge Nizhee on their home turf for Game 2 at 3:30 PM at the Ricalde Stadium in Corozal Town this Sunday. It ain’t over till it’s over, people, and the Corozal side looks forward to celebrating a big home victory champagne and trophies all round at the final whistle.

Verdes’ Ricky Jimenez

pagina 2

Corrupción y desvióde Dinero

Corrupción y desvióde Dinero

Domingo, 19 de Julio, 2009Edición 47 Vol. 1 - Semana 47

Continuado en pagina 2

Esas palabras son vacías que se ha convertido en un dicho sin eje ni signifi-cado desde que el Primer Ministro Bar-row lo ha utilizado como sus palabras predilectas. Solo lo ha utilizado para aparente ser un líder derecho que da la impresión de cero-tolerancia a la corrup-ción dentro su gobierno.

El Gobierno UDP con escasos diez y siete meses en el poder inicio su man-dato con la pata en la boca, mentiras, conspiraciones y mala fe. Nunca han po-dido presentar un plan de estrategia para desarrollar el crecimiento económico del país hacia otra dimensión progresista. A lo contrario, han logrado con éxito dete-riorar la poca estabilidad económica que se logro por el gobierno anterior durante los últimos diez años.

Siempre se murmullo que el UDP carecía de una perspectiva de visión y dirección para gobernar efectivamente

Barrow nombra Comisión para in-vestigar corrupción en la KHMH

Gastos Médicos deEsquivel

Continuado en pagina 2

El pasado 13 de Marzo, el Primer Ministro (UDP), Manuel Esquivel sufrió serias heridas cuando su vehículo de go-bierno conducido por Wlliam Schnarr se volcó en las cercanías de las millas 31 sobre la carretera Occidental.

Esquivel fue transportado de inmedi-ato al hospital particular de Belize Medi-cal Associates para después ser transfer-ido por ambulancia aérea al prestigiado hospital Estado Unidense ‘Jackson Me-morial’ de Miami Florida. Según su hija mayor, la Concejal Laura Esquivel, el Sr Esquivel de 68 años fue intervenido quirúrgicamente para reparar quebradu-ras y fracturas al rostro, brazo, costillas y a los pies con énfasis de surgía cosmé-tico al rostro.

Los costos médicos que se están pre-sentando al Gobierno de Belice hasta el momento exceden el monto de $800,000 dólares. Mientras el gobierno de Dean Barrow ha tratado de mantener este asunto en secreto. Tanto para la idea de

Transparencia. Según una fuente fidedigna en Bel-

mopan, el costo de tratamiento médico para el ex Líder de UDP puede llegar a costarle sobre el Millón de dólares al cofre público. Esto es porque el ex Primer Ministro opto por no continuar pagando su seguro bajo la Póliza de Se-guros que incluya a Miembros de la Cá-mara de la Asamblea Nacional. Ahora los Beliceños tendrán que pagar por todo ese costo medico. Después de su derrota en las elecciones generales del año 1998, en donde perdió su escaño de Caribbean Shores al representante José Coye del PUP, Esquivel se retiro de la política y se dedico a atender su Empresa “Price & Co.” Ubicada sobre la calle Daly.

Después del retorno del Partido UDP al poder en Febrero del 2008, el actual Primer Ministro Barrow nombro al Sr. Esquivel como su Consejero Especial y Consultor dentro del Ministerio de Fi-nanzas.

Es obvio que el Primer Ministro Bar-row ha estado tratando de arrastrar los pies referentes a las denuncias de cor-rupción en el hospital KHMH que involu-cra miembros de la Junta Directiva en la facilitación de la compra de suministros y farmacéutica medico a precios ridícu-lamente alta de empresarios con la afili-ación política del UDP.

Con el aumento de denuncias que van creciendo, Barrow no tuvo otra opción más de que nombrar una Comisión de Averiguación para aparentar investigar este caso.

Llamo una conferencia de prensa el pasado viernes en donde señalo que esta-ba nombrando un panel de tres miembros que conformarían la comisión que según él, “llegarían al fondo de estas denuncias de corrupción”, sin embargo, el ha sido el mismo que ha tratado de aplazar las investigaciones y permitir que esta situ-

Barrow bajo fuego y lo único que se escucha es “Cabezas van a volaran...”

ación vaya de mal en peor.En verdad su decisión para actuar

llego solo después de que el ex director de finanzas de la KHMH Cecil Knowles, divulgara a la prensa el pasado jueves que el Dr. Fabro si tenía conocimiento com-pleto de todas las transacciones que se ha llevado a cabo en el hospital KHMH y en donde ahora está negando tener cono-cimiento. Barrow no tuvo otra opción más de tratar de salvaguardar su credibilidad y nombrar una Comisión. Sin embargo, el líder del Oposición John Briceño hizo un llamado para una Comisión de Inves-tigación independiente cuando presento las denuncias de corrupción en contra el KHMH en la Cámara de Representantes el mes pasado. En su conferencia, tomo ti-empo para enfatizar que no haría ningún pronunciamiento en los meritos de las

Zenaida Moya Dean Barrow Erwin Contreras

para mover el país hacia delante; y ha re-sultado en que los distintos Ministerios funcionen a la deriva. Ministros trafican con su predominio y prepotencia, y así tratan de construir sus riquezas per-sonales en vez de efectuar el asunto del pueblo como una prioridad. Durante su

primer año en el poder, no lograron nada en lo absoluto; se mantuvieron embriaga-dos con el poder y engañaron al pueblo a pensar que necesitaban ganar las elec-

ciones municipales para poder funcionar de manera más eficaz como gobierno. El pueblo les concedió las elecciones mu-

Pagina 2 SEMANARIO PERSPECTIVA NACIONAL Domingo, 19 de Julio, 2009

Encubrimiento Política en la Agencia de Manejo

de Fronteras

Noticias NacionalesCorrupción y desvió

de Dinero

Continuado de pagina 1

Continuado de pagina 1

Barrow nombra Comisión para investigar corrupción en la KHMH

Visite nuestro sitio web:www.nationalperspectivebz.com

nicipales de abril, pero todo esto sirvió solo para que demostraran mas insensi-bilidad y abuso sobre la buena voluntad del pueblo continua y lo que ahora ten-emos es un gobierno fracasado que nos conduce a ser un Estado fracasado. La corrupción, aunque no se pueda definir, es obvia y apesta dentro del gobierno UDP.

Las alegaciones de corrupción que sa-cudió al gobierno fue hecha por primera vez hace un mes en la Cámara de Rep-resentantes por el Líder Opositor sub-rayo las alegatos involucrando el eje del sistema de salud que es el hospital KHMH y la cuerda de irregularidades a través de la compra de suministros médicos y farmacéutica a precios extremadamente elevada, que fue facilitada por miembros de la misma Junta Directiva del KHMH. La mayor de las compras señalaba a un nombre y apellido apegado al UDP del municipio de Orange Walk, pero tam-bién incluía el tráfico de influencias y conflicto de interés en donde miembros claves de la Junta Directiva también han establecido empresas fantasmas para la venta por mayor de suministros médicos y farmacéutica. El Primer Ministro Bar-row se ha negado a investigar las alega-ciones efectivamente tal vez porque sabe que es solo el principio de una serie y se abra la caja de pandora.

Hoy, no solo estamos tratando la saga del hospital Karl Huesner, y si habíamos pensado que esa situación era el único espino en sus zapatos, tenemos más acusaciones de de fuertes cantidades de dinero que hace falta dentro del Ayun-tamiento de la Ciudad de Belice y las ex-plicaciones erróneas de bajo depósitos. Ahora se presenta otro escándalo de que también se ha extraviado fuertes canti-dades de dinero en la Agencia de Manejo de Fronteras en la frontera occidental.

Según se entiende, involucra al ger-ente regional para la frontera occidental, Julio Santos, quien fue destituido calla-damente de su cargo después de que des-cubrieron que hacía falta más de cien mil dólares de los depósitos.

Santos se dice disfrutar de la protec-ción política porque es el primo herma-no del Ministro encargado de la BMA (Agencia de Manejo de las Fronteras) Erwin Contreras. Santos de manera pre-potente indico que si el Gerente General Gonzalo Rosado permite que el sea in-vestigado por la policía y llevado ante los juzgados, dejara caer acusaciones so-bre Rosado porque indico tener tres car-tas para avalar sus acusaciones en contra Rosado.

Pero existen más alegaciones de cor-rupción y desvió de dinero, y ahora esta-mos hablando de dinero de su sudor que se ha puesto para mantenerlo durante sus años de vejez. Me refiero al desvió de dinero del Fondo de Pensiones en el De-partamento de la Tesorería ubicada en el complejo del Banco Central de Belice.

El monto de esta última alegación se dice exceder los $500,000 (quinientos mil dólares) y muy posible se aproximara al millón de dólares. Lo más penoso de esta situación es que aunque se descu-brieron irregularidades en los depósitos de pagos en las pensiones desde diciem-bre del 2008, la Administración Barrow

no alzo un dedo para detener o investi-garlo a fondo hasta ahora. El complot se dice incluir a una mujer empleada de la tesorería pero se cree que existan otros involucrados. La fuente fidedigna revelo que en este desvió de dinero, incluye un mecanismo de doble depósito en relación a pagos de pensiones. Se hacían pagos a decenas de pensionados con los pagos transferidos directamente a sus cuen-tas bancarias respectivas mientras que también se hacían segundos depósitos en nombres de las mismas personas en otro banco pero con identificaciones que tienen otras fotos de identificación.

Se entiende que la policía ya tiene manos en esta investigación y han inter-rogado a varios empleados de la Tesor-ería en relación a este último escándalo y que por lo menos, una persona está detenido. Se entiende que esta persona tiene una fuerte suma de dinero dentro su cuenta bancaria en el Atlantic Bank.

Pero el desvió y la corrupción tam-poco termina allí, y podrá ser solo la superficie de algo más profundo que podrá derribar a este gobierno UDP. Fuentes fidedignas nos han confirmado que la policía también está investigando otro caso de desvió de dinero y la de-saparición de una cantidad de libros de pagares de infracciones municipales en el Departamento de Transito de Ciudad Belice.

Esto no es nada extraño para el de-partamento de Transito ya que durante los años 2006 2007, también se denun-cio la perdida de fuertes cantidades de calcomanías de licencias de vehículos sin que se llegue a fondo y sin arrestos. Todo esto ha sucedido por el descuido degenerado del Gobierno UDP en lo que se trata a los asuntos del pueblo. Han pasado todo este tiempo derrochando millones de dólares en pagos legales para enjuiciar rivales políticos, ver como violar los derechos soberanos de sus ciu-dadanos y las enmiendas radicales a la Constitución. Por cierto, la única perso-na beneficiándose de los pagos legales es la Primer Esposa de Dean Barrow, Lady Loise Young Barrow.

Belice fue nombrado, hace unos días entre las naciones considerados fracasa-dos del Reporte ‘2009 Failed State Index Report’ publicada por una Organización Internacional basada en Estados Unidos bajo el nombre, Fund for Peace. La Or-ganización contiende que clasifica a 117 paises basado sobre sus indicadores so-ciales, políticos y económicos.

Belice a sido arrastrado a este nivel por el mismo gobierno UDP que no-sotros mismos escogimos para hacer un cambio. Aun estamos sonando y crey-endo que las promesas hechas por Dean Barrow serán realizadas. Permanecemos con nuestros ojos cerrados y estamos si-lencios sobre la incompetencia de este gobierno con esperanzas de ver un mejor porvenir y a la vez esperar lo peor.

En conclusión, solo puedo referirme a una cita encontrada dentro del libro, “Venas abiertas” de America Latina, una proclamación revolucionaria de la Junta Tuitiva de la Paz Bolivia hecha el 16 de Julio 1809 que dice y citamos,

“ … Hemos guardado un silencio bastante

parecido a la estupidez…”.

denuncias de Cecil Knowles y en donde agrego que nadie debería pensar que él le está dando validez a las denuncias de Cecil Knowles. Sin embargo, admitió por primera vez que las denuncias de corrup-ción en contra el KHMH era como una hoguera ardiente.

Desde el inicio de las denuncias de corrupción en la compra de farmacéuti-cas particularmente de la Farmacia de la Fuente en Orange Walk admitió que era un tema en vivo.

El Primer Ministro aparento ser igno-rante sobre los hechos cuando dijo que solo fue convencido de que se requería grandes explicaciones para justificar aquellas compras que se hicieron a pre-cios escaladas de la Farmacia de la Fuente solo después de que vio las revelaciones de la Auditoria Preliminar que el ordeno.

Se lavo las manos y lindo todo el peso de responsabilidad a la Junta Directiva declarando que precisamente por esa razón el había hecho el llamado para que la Junta Directiva de KHMH haga algo en lo que él dijo existía una ausencia de explicación satisfactoria. Agrego que po-siblemente la Junta de Directiva estaba en el proceso para actuar pero no se llevo a

cabo. Con el nombramiento de Investi-gación para averiguación la Junta Direc-tiva queda sin voz, algo que la BMDU había pedido desde el inicio de las nego-ciaciones.

Ambos partidos en el conflicto expre-saron favorecer el pronunciamiento del Primer Ministro para una Comisión de Investigación, aunque la BMDU man-tiene su posición que el Dr. Fabro se de-bió remover de su puesto dentro la Junta de Directiva para así dar paso para una investigación transparente por parte de la Comisión.

Los tres miembros de la Comisión se formaran por un miembro de la Judica-tura que será recomendado por el Juez Principal; los otros dos miembros inclu-irá y serán nominados por el Congreso de Sindicatos de Belice y del Ministerio de Salud, y se espera que sea una Comisión de Investigación hecho en público.

El Primer Ministro concluyo dicien-do si al fin de las investigaciones de la Comisión existe pruebas de corrupción, se hará público, y quien sea que se encuentre culpable serán castigados. Pero siempre ha dicho una cosa en la sima de sus con-ferencias de Prensa para después voltear y hacer completamente lo opuesto.

El UDP prometió gobernar con trans-parencia y a contabilidad, pero durante los últimos meses lo único que hemos estado escuchando es escándalo tras es-cándalo, el tráfico de influencias y cor-rupción abierta. En vez de lo prometido por el Primer Ministro Dean Barrow de parar la corrupción han permanecido si-lencios o lo han negado y ahora hasta lo han tratado de cubrir. Hace poco, el Ger-ente General de Manejo de Fronteras, en la frontera occidental Julio Santos fue destituido de su puesto después que una fuerte suma de dinero desapareció o fue desviado. Fuentes fidedignas indican que el monto involucra una cantidad entre $20,000 a $160,000 dólares que debería ser depositado pero nunca llego al Ban-co. Esta semana el Gerente General de la Agencia, Gonzalo Rosado, confirmo el hecho de que Julio Santos fue destitu-ido por su supuesto involucramiento de la desaparición del dinero. Sin embargo, el archivo policiaco no demuestra que se haiga hecho ningún reporte sobre la desaparición o robo de dinero de las in-stalaciones de la Agencia de Manejos de Fronteras. Esto claramente indica que la dirección política del UDP ha tratado de barrer este último escándalo bajo la car-peta. Especialmente porque Santos es el primo hermano del representante Erwin Contreras quien a la vez es el Ministro responsable para dicha agencia.

Además, Julio Santos no es ningún extraño a escándalos y desvíos de dinero, ya que en el 2001 era el entonces Gerente

Auxiliar de la Unión de Crédito Mount Carmel en Benque Viejo en donde du-rante su administración se reporto la de-saparición o desvíos de más de $500,000 dólares de esta institución de Crédito. La policía llevo a cabo su investigación que resulto con el arresto de Santos y dos otros empleados en el marco de la ad-ministración y fueron acusados en con-junto por 10 cargos de robo. Pero nunca fueron condenados.

Mientras tanto, a este último escán-dalo involucrando otra fuerte suma en la Agencia para el Manejo de Fronteras bajo su administración, Julio Santos indico no saber nada de ningún dinero perdido y ha mantenido que está de va-caciones y que nunca fue destituido de su cargo. De manera arrogante, presume que el Ministro Erwin Contreras es como su hermano y que cuenta con todo su protección.

El Gerente General de la Agencia, Gonzalo Rosado dijo esta semana que el auditor está llevando a cabo una in-spección detallada de los libros y a su conclusión, se hará el reporte a la policía de Benque Viejo. Esto solo causara que el escándalo escale ya que solo será la superficie de algo más profundo, ya que según Santos si es llevado a la Corte, Gonzalo Rosado también enfrentara acusaciones ya que dice contar con 3 cartas que avalan su acusación.

Esfuerzos para obtener un comen-tario del Ministro Erwin Contreras fue sin éxito.

Domingo, 19 de Julio, 2009 SEMANARIO PERSPECTIVA NACIONAL Pagina 3

NOTICIAS LATINO AmerICAreGIONAL

Chávez pide a Obamaretirar tropas de Palmerola

“Si el gobierno de Estados Uni-dos de verdad no apoyara el golpe ya hubiera retirado todas sus tropas de Palmerola”, dijo Chávez en su pro-grama de radio y TV ‘Aló, Presidente’. También Chávez anunció que el der-

rocado presidente hondureño, Manuel Zelaya, va a aparecer en algún lugar de su país en cualquier momento.

“Zelaya va para Honduras en cual-quier momento. Les va a aparecer en cualquier parte de Honduras”, dijo

Chávez en su programa dominical de radio y televisión ¡Aló Presidente!.

Chávez dio a entender que la pres-encia de Zelaya en su país podría dar lugar a un movimiento cívico militar que tendría por objetivo crear una base de acción para recuperar el poder.

Señaló que los militares no tienen el control absoluto de las fuerzas arma-das y planteó que no serían extraños próximos pronunciamientos de oficial-es en favor del derrocado Zelaya.

“Los hondureños sabrán por dónde abrir la brecha”, dijo Chávez. Además, volvió a pedirle al presidente de Esta-dos Unidos que deje la “ambigüedad” y tome medidas contra el nuevo Gobi-erno hondureño.

“Deje el guabineo (la ambigüedad), no nos va a engañar con un discursito y una sonrisa. Usted está en la hora de la prueba. Demuestre si está dispuesto a enfrentar a los halcones, y si no, mejor que se vaya”, dijo Chávez.

Explicó al respecto que es mejor ten-er al frente del imperio a un halcón que se asume como tal, como era el caso de George W. Bush, que “a alguien que es y no es”, que se “presenta como un corderito, como un pacifista”.

Además, insistió en la tesis de que Washington debe asumir el cambio de época que se está dando en América Latina y no tratar de frenarlo. Recordó que el ex presidente estadounidense John Kennedy advirtió que “los que le cierran el camino a las revoluciones pacíficas le abren los caminos a las revoluciones violentas”.

Por otra parte, aseguró que las fu-erzas derechistas latinoamericanas

TEGUCIGALPA- La economía de Honduras, golpeada ya por la crisis mundial, se está hundiendo aún más tras el derrocamiento del presidente Manuel Zelaya, que motivó el conge-lamiento de programas de ayuda al tercer país más pobre de América Latina y cuya subsistencia está ase-gurada sólo por un semestre más, según analistas.

Honduras es altamente dependi-ente del financiamiento externo, re-sponsable de cerca de la tercera parte de su Presupuesto Nacional, pero tras el golpe de Estado del 28 de junio el Banco Mundial y el Banco Interamer-icano de Desarrollo (BID) anuncia-ron que congelaron sus desembolsos.

Según las autoridades del gobier-no de facto, encabezado por Roberto Micheletti, la medida compromete unos 200 millones de dólares.

Venezuela -cuyo gobernante Hugo Chávez es un férreo aliado de Ze-laya-, paralizó también la entrega a precios subsidiados de unos 200.000 barriles diarios de petróleo.

“La suspensión de la ayuda inter-nacional es gravísima, porque cerca de una tercera parte del Presupuesto Nacional -unos 1.500 millones de dólares- dependen de la ayuda bilat-eral y multilateral”, dijo a la AFP el economista Nelson Avila, ex asesor del presidente Zelaya.

El congelamiento de la ayuda in-ternacional ensombreció aún más el futuro de la economía hondureña, afectada ya por una fuerte caída de sus exportaciones y la reducción en la llegada de remesas, fuentes pri-mordiales de su financiamiento, de-bido a la crisis global.

La inestabilidad política derrum-bó también al turismo, otro de los motores de la economía local, con ocupaciones hoteleras de apenas un 20% en la última semana.

El oscuro panorama hace estimar a economistas que la subsistencia de la economía hondureña sólo está ga-rantizada por unos seis meses.

“Honduras tiene capacidad de sostenerse de forma autónoma por cuatro a cinco meses”, dijo a la AFP el economista Martín Barahona, ex presidente del Colegio de Economis-

El presidente de facto de Honduras, Roberto Micheletti

han modificado el discursos para “ate-morizar” a los pueblos y han sustituido como fuente de todas las calamidades al “comunismo por el chavismo”.

Planteó, además, que el objetivo del nuevo Gobierno de Honduras es congelar la situación en su estado ac-tual hasta las elecciones del próximo noviembre.

“Estamos ganando, metimos un gol y ahora enfriamos el balón, retar-damos el juego para que se desgasten el pueblo hondureño y el presidente Manuel Zelaya, hasta las elecciones de noviembre”, sería la estrategia de los golpistas, según Chávez. Añadió que la respuesta a esa estrategia es decir desde ahora que “no reconoceremos ningún gobierno que surja de unas elecciones que haga esta dictadura. No podemos reconocerlo, porque ese es el juego que van a jugar para luego lavarse la cara”.

Las relaciones de Venezuela y Es-tados Unidos han vivido años de en-frentamientos, que culminaron en septiembre de 2008 con la expulsión de sus respectivos embajadores. Sin embargo, los gobiernos de Chávez y Obama comenzaron un nuevo ciclo en sus relaciones y acordaron reinstalar a sus embajadores Bernardo Alvarez y Patrick Duddy, que ya se encuentran al frente de sus respectivas delegaciones en Washington y Caracas desde hace dos semanas.

Estados Unidos es el principal cli-ente petrolero de Venezuela, con com-pras de cerca de 1,2 millones barriles diarios de crudo.

Hugo Chávez pidió al presidente Barack Obama que retire sus tropas de la base militar de Palmerola, en Honduras, para demostrar así su

rechazo al Gobierno actual.

tas de Honduras.“En las actuales condiciones que

un gobierno pueda resistir por más de seis meses es imposible”, coin-cidió Wilfredo Girón, profesor de Economía de la Universidad Nacio-nal Autónoma de Honduras, en de-claraciones a la AFP.

Seis meses son los que faltan para que eventualmente asuma un nuevo gobierno tras las elecciones presi-denciales que se realizarían en novi-embre, según lo aseguró el gobierno de facto.

En este período Honduras deberá echar mano casi exclusivamente a la recaudación fiscal y las reservas internacionales para pagar sus com-promisos urgentes, dejando de lado los programas asistenciales, lo que afectará aún más las condiciones de vida de los pobres, que representan al 70% de la población.

En 2008, la economía local había logrado expandirse cerca de un 4%, completando un período de bonanza que se inició en 2003 con un crec-imiento promedio de 6%.

Pero al final de 2009 la economía

local se contraería a un 2%, anotando su peor desempeño en una década, según estimó la nueva ministra de Finanzas, Gabriela Ñúñez.

“En estas circunstancias, la única opción que le quedaría (al gobierno de facto) es devaluar la moneda, lo que agravaría la crisis social”, es-timó Girón.

“Honduras no va a poder salir por sí sola del problema económico”, afirmó de su lado Barahona.

En un intento de aliviar el panora-ma a los más pobres, las nuevas auto-ridades -en conjunto con las cúpulas empresariales que apoyan al gobier-no de facto- anunciaron un acuerdo para congelar precios de bienes bási-cos, como el pollo, la manteca y los huevos.

Se anunció además una férrea aus-teridad fiscal y se aseguró la solidez del sistema bancario.

“Vamos a trabajar con la mayor austeridad posible para que todos los hondureños salgamos adelante con esta situación que vamos a vivir en los próximos cinco o seis meses”, se-ñaló Micheletti.

Economía hondureña se desploma tras

derrocamiento de Zelaya

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Pagina 4 SEMANARIO PERSPECTIVA NACIONAL Domingo, 19 de Julio, 2009

Presidente panameño quiere hacer de Costa Rica un socio “muy estrecho”

PerspectivaNacional

Leala!

Aries -El tránsito de Venus y Marte por tu casa tres indica que ahora vives un buen momento para tomar la ini-

ciativa y lograr tus propósitos. Aprovecha para disfrutar y expresar tus sentimientos. Tu auto estima sube y tu seguridad a la hora de expresarte aumenta considerablemente. Vives una etapa excelente para negociar cualquier cuestión personal o sentimental.

Geminis-El tránsito de Venus y Marte por tu signo indica una etapa positiva, activa y creativa. Vas a tener

sente. Igualmente es un buen momento para renovar tus intereses profesionales. No dejes de pensar en ampliar tus metas y busca las estrategias que consideres nec-esarias. En este momento todo está en tus manos.

Tauro -El tránsito de Venus y Marte por tu casa dos indica una etapa fa-vorable para mejorar y aumentar tus

recursos económicos potenciando tus me-jores cualidades en el ámbito profesional. Es probable que en tu entorno de trabajo se realicen cambios que a corto plazo sean positivos, aunque quizá también tengas que adquirir más responsabilidades. Lo más importante es que determinados asun-tos que estaban estancados se reactivan dejando atrás problemas del pasado que lo impedían.

de tu vida. Te ayuda a desarrollar muevas ideas y a tener los ojos puestos en otras miras. Refleja un periodo favorable para

utilizar tus pensamientos de forma que más tarde los puedas materializar. Aunque las ofertas que recibas sean considerables analiza todas las posibilidades. Deberás afrontar tus asuntos con tranquilidad y sin darles demasiada importancia.

Escorpio -El tránsito de Venus y Marte por tu casa ocho indica que estás en disposición de avanzar

Leo -El tránsito de Mercurio y el Sol por tu casa doce indica cambios en lo que se refiere a tu vida personal

y a la imagen que has representado cara el exterior. Refleja que quizá tu mente pase por una etapa de expectación y búsqueda. Estás en un momento especial y tus pen-samientos son reveladores. El tránsito de Venus y Marte por tu casa once indica que ahora es el momento de fortalecer lazos y de reactivar determinadas relaciones per-sonales. Vas a tener un espíritu bastante in-quieto replanteándote cosas diferentes en lo que se refiere a tu vida social.

la posibilidad de clarificar tus sentimientos y si tu corazón busca amor existe la posi-bilidad de conseguirlo. Refleja un ciclo en el cual vas a estar especialmente sensible a las influencias externas. El mundo de la pareja y de las relaciones estrechas va a ser el centro de tu vida.

de actuar pasando a la acción de forma más clara y concreta que en el pasado. Deter-minadas urgencias te van a obligar a vivir con más intensidad. Durante este periodo de tiempo vas a tener más capacidad de de-cisión y acción. Puedes cambiar las condi-ciones de tu vida siempre que prestes aten-ción a todo lo que ocurre a tu alrededor.

Virgo -El tránsito de Venus y Marte por tu casa diez refleja que te sientes abierto y receptivo a todo tipo de oportunidad material que se te pre-

Cancer -El tránsito de Mercurio y el Sol por tu signo marca una etapa donde tienes la capacidad

económicamente. Es un buen momento para que pongas en orden tus cuentas, tus pagos y tus ahorros. En tus relaciones sentimentales vas a tener más claro lo que quieres y lo que sientes e igualmente vas a tener más ganas de conquistar ya sea en asuntos de amor o en asuntos de negocios.

Sagitario -El tránsito de Venus y Marte por tu casa siete indica que vas a estar inmerso en una etapa

favorable para el amor, para las relaciones sentimentales, y para cualquier tipo de aso-ciación en general. Puede ser el momento que estabas esperando desde hace tiempo. A causa de tu propio ingenio mezclado con tu encanto puedes tener contactos muy in-teresantes. Tus relaciones sociales están en auge y tu capacidad de comunicación es más grande.

SAN JOSÉ (AFP) - La salud, la am-pliación del Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Panamá y Costa Rica y la crisis hondureña fueron algunos temas que el presidente panameño, Ricardo Martinel-li, abordó el miércoles con autoridades costarricenses en su primer viaje desde que asumió la presidencia.

El objetivo principal de esta primera visita a Costa Rica en calidad de presi-dente, cargo que asumió el 1 de julio, era “hablar de salud y ver qué podemos hacer para tener un intercambio más fluido”, dijo a la prensa al término de la misma.

Martinelli quería ver “cómo opera el sistema de salud costarricense” y “co-piar” algunas de las cosas que mejor funcionan, como el “expediente elec-trónico”, la agilización de las consultas externas y las cirugías y el sistema de citas médicas.

“Nosotros tenemos que copiarlo y hacerlo bien, porque creo que es injusto que un panameño tenga que levantarse a las 3 de la mañana para conseguir una cita médica”, señaló el mandatario a la prensa tras visitar la sede del Instituto Nacional del Seguro Social (INSS) y el hospital México, uno de los mayores centros hospitalarios de Costa Rica.

El presidente panameño, quien ya visitó San José después de ser elegido en los comicios del 3 de mayo, aspira tam-bién a realizar con las autoridades cos-tarricenses “muchas cosas en conjunto,” en la frontera común.

En el terreno sanitario, su deseo es que “los conciudadanos de ambos países puedan atenderse en los distintos hospi-tales y centros de atención” de esas zo-

ONU llama a la OEA a que lidere el esfuerzo para solucionar crisis Ginebra — El secretario general

de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon, pidió la res-tauración, bajo los auspicios de la Or-ganización de los Estados Americanos (OEA) , del “orden constitucional” en Honduras, donde el presidente Manuel Zelaya fue detenido y expulsado por los militares.

La OEA debe asumir “un papel de líder para encontrar una solución pací-fica gracias a la cual se pueda restaurar el orden constitucional”, dijo Ban, pre-guntado en una conferencia de prensa.

El jefe de la ONU, que se declaró “muy entristecido por la pérdida de vi-das humanas” en la represión de los partidarios del presidente derrocado, subrayó que “todo cambio inconstitucio-nal de poder es inaceptable”.

El secretario general evocó un “prin-cipio fundamental de la democracia”, al señalar que “cuando un líder ha sido elegido según procesos legales, constitu-cionales, su autoridad y su mandato a la cabeza del país deben ser protegidos”.

Por otra parte, llamó a las nuevas au-toridades, dirigidas por el jefe de Estado designado Roberto Micheletti, a “prote-ger las vidas humanas, la seguridad de todos los ciudadanos que deben poder expresar su voluntad libremente sin ser intimidados, sin ser amenazados”.

El llamado de diálogo que emite aho-ra la ONU puede ser bienvenido por las partes ya que Zelaya y Micheletti han garantizado su voluntad con los organis-mos internacionales para discutir sobre la crisis; no obstante persisten las posi-ciones radicales: el gobierno de facto

ha sentenciado que no discutirá la resti-tución de Zelaya, y éste exige que Hon-duras permita su regreso al poder.

Zelaya se entrevistó durante la noche de ayer en San Salvador con el secretario general de OEA, José Miguel Insulza, la presidenta argentina Cristina Kirchner, y sus homólogos ecuatoriano, Rafael Correa, salvadoreño, Mauricio Funes, y paraguayo, Fernando Lugo.

Este encuentro confirmó el apoyo internacional con el que cuenta Zelaya, depuesto el 28 de junio por los militares que luego devolvieron el poder a los civiles.

Cuando su avión, procedente de Washington, trató el domingo de ater-rizar en Tegucigakpa, los soldados ob-struyeron la pista del aeropuerto tras haber disparados contra los partidarios de Zelaya que trataban de forzar los cor-dones de seguridad, dejando dos muer-tos y dos heridos. La Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) suspendió a Honduras de su participación en la orga-nización por el golpe militar que derrocó al presidente Manuel Zelaya y la de-cisión del gobierno designado de negarse a reponerlo en el cargo en un plazo de 72 horas. Mientras tanto: Honduras confirma dos muertes por enfrentamien-tos

Bogotá - El canciller hondureño del defacto Gobierno, Enrique Ortez, ase-guró hoy que son dos las personas que murieron por los incidentes que se ce-baron en las manifestaciones en favor del regreso del depuesto presidente Manuel Zelaya.

una fuente de la cancillería. Arias convocó el sábado en San José

a las delegaciones del depuesto presi-dente hondureño Manuel Zelaya y del

actual mandatario, Roberto Micheletti, para proseguir la negociación con vistas a la solución de la crisis política surgida por el golpe de Estado del 28 de junio.

Capricornio -El tránsito de Mer-curio y el Sol por tu casa siete indica que puedes estar viviendo una etapa llena de situaciones

diferentes en tus relaciones personales, pero en especial en las de pareja. Entras en un ciclo apropiado para efectuar todo tipo de rectificaciones. Vas a tener momentos buenos mezclados con momentos de con-fusión. Si necesitas un cambio ahora es el momento de exigirlo ya que tus demandas van a ser escuchadas

Acuario -Respecto al amor; Ve-nus y Marte transitando por tu casa cinco indican que puedes descubrir

nuevas maneras de disfrutar. Refleja una etapa donde lo tienes todo a tu favor para desarrollar tu auténtica personalidad y sacar a la luz los mejores aspectos de tu talento y creatividad. Va a deleitarte todo lo que esté relacionado con los amores, el deporte, el ocio y la creatividad. Entras en un periodo lleno de alegría, vitalidad y entusiasmo. Vas a tener una actitud mucho más activa en lo que respecta a todo lo creativo y lúdico

Libra -El tránsito de Venus y Marte por tu casa nueve te invita a reflexio-nar en todos los asuntos importantes

Piscis -El tránsito de Mercurio y el Sol por tu casa cinco y mandando buenos aspectos a tu signo indica una racha espectacular dentro de

tus relaciones sentimentales. Tu sensibili-dad va a mostrar una serie de matices en el amor que hasta ahora habías dejado apar-cados. Desde el ámbito emocional puedes tener la oportunidad de realizar tus deseos en todos los sentidos. Tu corazón va a estar muy vivo y con más capacidad para captar todas las oportunidades.

nas fronterizas. También está en estudio la creación

de una “zona franca” fronteriza, así como “inversiones en conjunto”, en par-ticular en aeropuertos y turismo.

Una idea de Martinelli, que pretende con Costa Rica una “relación mucho más estrecha de lo que ha sido en el pasado”, es hacer de los dos países un destino turístico compartido.

“Lo más importante es que la her-mandad del pueblo panameño y costar-ricense se va a incrementar conforme tengamos estos lazos y estos intercam-bios que benefician a ambas partes”, ase-guró el gobernante a la prensa.

En cuanto al Tratado de Libre Com-ercio suscrito por los dos países, Marti-nelli admitió que “hay algunas cosas que estamos en proceso de revisión”.

Concretamente, se quiere incorporar algunos productos como el aceite refina-do, así como el mercado de los seguros dentro de los servicios que ya contempla el acuerdo y revisar los plazos de desgra-vación de algunos bienes.

Martinelli concluyó su visita con un almuerzo íntimo con el anfitrión, el presidente Oscar Arias, en el que además de los dos presidentes participaron el canciller costarricense Bruno Stagno y el ministro de la Presidencia, Rodrigo Arias, quienes participan en la media-ción de la crisis de Honduras.

La crisis hondureña también fue un tema tratado por los participantes en el almuerzo, addemás del reciente fallo de la Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ) de La Haya sobre el diferendo que Costa Rica y Nicaragua mantenían sobre el río fronterizo San Juan, confirmó a la AFP

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national perpective july 19,2009

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