Carib Scope

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  • Presentation of 308 internship letters to graduating students of the École Normale Supérieure of Haiti

    Presentation of 308 internship letters to graduating students of the École Normale Supérieure of Haiti

    In a formal ceremony held earlier this week, Haiti’s Minister of National Education Vijonet Déméro formally delivered 308 internship placement letters to the leadership board of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS), marking a key step in strengthening the country’s public secondary education workforce. The internship placements are reserved for ENS graduating students who are preparing to complete their final requirements for official teacher certification.

    Addressing attendees at the event, Minister Déméro opened by praising the participating students for their long-standing dedication to Haiti’s education sector and their willingness to pass on their expertise, technical skills, and professional standards to the next generation of learners. He emphasized the critical role the new interns will play in supporting secondary education across the country, urging them to approach their assignments with rigor and serve as thoughtful, effective mentors for high school and secondary students.

    The minister also outlined the clear framework governing the three-month posting, including defining the legal rights and core responsibilities of the interns, as well as the specific oversight roles of three key participating bodies: ENS’s board of directors, local school administrations, and Haiti’s 10 regional Departmental Directorates of Education (DDE). At the conclusion of the 12-week placement, each intern is required to submit a comprehensive final report, which will serve as a mandatory component of their evaluation for earning a fully accredited teacher training diploma.

    Beyond the internship initiative, Déméro used the ceremony as a platform to announce progress on a broader push to formalize Haiti’s public education workforce. To date, he confirmed, he has signed more than 600 official appointment letters for newly hired teachers and school principals across all 10 DDE regions, filling long-vacant roles at national primary and secondary schools. Moving forward, the ministry plans to regularize the employment status of an additional 1,200 under-contract teachers in the coming months, with the pace of the process tied to available government funding for education.

    Dieuseul Prédélus, rector of the State University of Haiti (UEH), which oversees the École Normale Supérieure, praised the Ministry of National Education’s sustained commitment to integrating more qualified, formally certified personnel into Haiti’s public education system, noting that the move will help address long-standing staffing gaps and improve learning outcomes for students across the country.

  • PPP calls US congresswoman’s rebuke of Venezuela’s interim President “forceful”

    PPP calls US congresswoman’s rebuke of Venezuela’s interim President “forceful”

    On Tuesday, May 12, 2026, Guyana’s governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) publicly praised a forceful statement from U.S. Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar backing Guyana’s territorial sovereignty amid escalating tensions with Venezuela over a long-running border dispute. Salazar, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, made her remarks on the social platform X one day after Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez delivered a provocative address to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) during oral hearings on the merits of the border case.

    During her Monday appearance before the United Nations’ highest judicial body, Rodriguez doubled down on Venezuela’s rejection of any ICJ ruling on the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award that established the current land boundary between the two South American nations. She insisted that the 1966 Geneva Agreement—signed by Venezuela and the United Kingdom shortly before Guyana gained independence—remains the only legally valid framework for resolving the dispute through bilateral negotiations. Rodriguez warned that any ICJ judgment on the 1899 award would not resolve tensions, stating, “No judgment by this court on the territorial controversy will provide a definitive solution acceptable to both parties. On the contrary, it will exacerbate the differences between the parties, and will lead the parties to entrench themselves in their respective positions, distancing them from the practical, satisfactory and mutually acceptable settlement to which they committed in 1966 by signing the Geneva agreement.”

    Salazar pushed back sharply against Rodriguez’s comments and her repeated threats to Guyana’s territorial integrity in her X post. She argued that Rodriguez mistakenly believes she can manipulate U.S. President Donald Trump the same way she and former ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro “tricked and destroyed” Venezuela. “Delcy should stop threatening Guyana and start learning from it,” Salazar wrote. She also warned Rodriguez against sending confidential correspondence to President Trump, emphasizing, “You don’t deal with him through secret letters while trying to steal territory from a free and sovereign nation like Guyana.”

    Beyond addressing the border dispute, Salazar commended Guyana’s prudent management of its new oil wealth, noting that in less than a decade, the South American nation has set a stark contrast with Maduro’s regime in Venezuela. “Unlike the Maduro regime, Guyana didn’t rob its people. They managed their oil wealth responsibly, created a sovereign wealth fund, and saw GDP per capita quadruple in just five years,” she added.

    As of Tuesday, Guyana’s national government had not issued an official public response to Salazar’s social media statement. The ICJ is on track to issue its binding ruling on the border dispute by the end of 2026 or in the first quarter of 2027, a decision that will shape the future of regional security and territorial claims in northeastern South America.

  • Religieuze organisaties krijgen grondpapieren voor sociale projecten

    Religieuze organisaties krijgen grondpapieren voor sociale projecten

    After nearly two years of waiting for official approval, Suriname’s Sanatan Dharm religious organization has become the first recipient of land allocation documents from the national government, unlocking the green light for a slate of impact-focused community development projects. The formal handover ceremony took place Tuesday at the Cabinet of the President, where Suriname President Jennifer Simons presented the official land papers to representatives from the organization.

    Sanatan Dharm board chair Sherwankoemar Ramsoedit described the long-awaited approval as a transformative breakthrough for the group, which had seen all planned development work stalled for months without the official land disposition. “In one word: wonderful. It could not have gone any better,” Ramsoedit shared in a statement via Suriname’s Communication Service (CDS).

    The organization has outlined a multi-faceted community service plan for the newly allocated land, including a full vocational training institute, a senior citizen care shelter, and an outpatient polyclinic that will provide routine health screenings and blood testing services for local residents. These facilities are designed to form the core of a broader public welfare initiative that will serve vulnerable communities across the region.

    Ramsoedit emphasized that the approval process had stretched on for between 18 and 24 months, and the absence of official land documentation left the organization unable to move forward with any concrete construction or planning work. On behalf of the Sanatan Dharm board, he extended his gratitude to President Simons and Hanisha Jairam, whom he credited with playing a critical role in facilitating negotiations and moving the application process forward.

    Moving forward, the organization’s leadership will turn its full attention to detailed project planning and the next stages of development. Per Ramsoedit, President Simons has committed that the national government will continue coordinating with relevant ministries and regulatory bodies to support the organization in completing the remaining procedural steps for the project, ensuring the community services can open their doors to residents as soon as possible. This land allocation launch marks the start of a national government program to distribute land disposition approvals to religious groups across the country for public projects including shelters, orphanages, and cemeteries.

  • HPV Vaccine Rollout Sparks Renewed Church-State Clash in Schools

    HPV Vaccine Rollout Sparks Renewed Church-State Clash in Schools

    A decade after Belize first introduced the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into its national public health portfolio, a long-simmering dispute between government health authorities and the country’s Catholic Diocese has reignited, putting life-saving immunization access for thousands of primary school girls at the center of a battle over institutional authority, religious values, and public health priorities.

    HPV, a widespread sexually transmitted infection, is conclusively linked to 70% of all cervical cancer cases as well as multiple other aggressive cancers. In 2016, Belize launched its national school-based HPV vaccination program targeting girls aged 9 to 13, a window recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure protection before potential exposure to the virus. The initiative was a direct response to a grim public health reality: Belize has long recorded one of the highest cervical cancer mortality rates in Central America, a statistic public health officials have worked for a decade to reverse.

    Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Belize’s Director of Health Services, explained the program’s design in a 2016 briefing that remains relevant to the current rollout. “The WHO suggest that we should be vaccinating girls nine to thirteen years that is before they start to have sexual life. But we had to establish a cohort as we are introducing this and based on the attendance rate that we have from schools, which is where most of the girls of this age group are, the standard four classrooms are the ones being selected.” The current vaccine used in the program protects against strains 16 and 18 of HPV, the two high-risk variants responsible for the majority of cervical cancer diagnoses, Manzanero confirmed. Health officials note that meaningful reductions in cervical cancer mortality will take decades to emerge, as the disease develops slowly over 10 to 15 years after infection.

    This year’s scheduled nationwide immunization round has brought the long-running conflict back to the forefront. Citing longstanding policy established under former Bishop Dorick Wright, the Catholic Diocese has drawn a hard line against hosting the vaccine program in its schools. The Diocese oversees 110 of Belize’s 314 primary schools, meaning nearly 35% of the country’s primary school-aged girls could be blocked from accessing the free, school-based immunization offered through the national program.

    Not all Catholic-affiliated schools are aligning with the Diocesan directive, however. St. Martin De Porres RC School, a Jesuit institution operating outside Diocesan governance, is moving forward with its scheduled May 27 vaccination clinic for Standard Four students, aligning with the national public health schedule. The split reveals growing internal division within Belize’s Catholic community over how to balance institutional religious values with the health needs of students.

    Public health advocates have repeatedly emphasized the vaccine’s life-saving value. The Office of the Special Envoy for the Development of Families and Children issued a formal statement labeling HPV vaccination a critical intervention to protect children from HPV-related life-threatening diseases, including cervical cancer. Despite the public debate, however, none of the key stakeholders—including the Catholic Mission, Ministry of Health and Wellness, Ministry of Education, and Office of the Special Envoy for Women and Children—agreed to on-the-record interviews or clarification about the long-term impacts of the Diocese’s objection for affected students.

    As the scheduled rollout approaches, the stakes of the standoff have grown increasingly clear. Ten years into the program, public health officials anticipated steady progress toward expanding protection and reducing future cancer rates. Instead, access for thousands of eligible girls remains uncertain, with years of planned public health progress hanging in the balance. What was framed as a disagreement over institutional authority has ultimately placed the health of a generation of young Belizean women at the center of an unresolved church-state divide.

  • Teachers, Students and Parents Fight Back Against Scorching Temperatures

    Teachers, Students and Parents Fight Back Against Scorching Temperatures

    As a punishing heat wave continues to grip Belize in May 2026, K-12 campuses across the country have been pushed to their limits, with educators, families and school leaders banding together to implement urgent heat mitigation strategies to protect student health. At Burrell Boom Methodist School, one of the institutions on the front lines of this climate-driven challenge, sweltering classroom conditions have forced quick, creative adjustments to daily operations, even as the school community refuses to pause learning amid the crisis.

    Lincoln Jones, a teacher at Burrell Boom Methodist School, outlined the extreme conditions students and staff face on a daily basis. “We see that our students are sweating profusely. Even sweat drips off their faces onto their chins and their textbooks and assignment papers,” Jones explained. Despite opening all windows to draw in cross ventilation and being located on the upper floor of the school building, Jones noted that stagnant, hot air circulating through the classrooms leaves temperatures unbearably high, even with basic ventilation measures in place.

    To address the crisis, the school launched an informal “Beat the Heat” initiative centered on accessible, low-cost adjustments. All students are required to carry personal water bottles, and every classroom is equipped with a hot/cold water dispenser, which is now exclusively used to supply cold drinking water throughout the school day. The school has also repurposed its air-conditioned computer lab as a temporary cooling space, with teachers rotating their classes into the lab for scheduled cool-down breaks throughout the week. To reduce the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, the administration has also banned strenuous running and outdoor physical activity on school grounds during peak heat hours.

    Parents have stepped up to support the school’s efforts, making their own adjustments to help children cope with the extreme conditions. Sherie Westby, a parent of a student at the school, shared that she prioritizes constant hydration to keep her child healthy. “A lot of showers before school and lots of water. I add ice to his insulated thermos to keep the water cold for longer, and he drinks continuously throughout the day,” Westby said. When she notices her child’s classroom is running low on supplies, she donates extra money to the school to purchase additional water for students. “It’s unbearably hot out there right now, but we don’t have a choice – they can’t miss out on school, so we do what we have to do,” she added.

    Belize’s Ministry of Education has acknowledged the growing crisis and responded with policy flexibility to support affected schools. The Ministry confirmed that campus administrators have submitted formal requests to adjust uniform policies (to allow looser, cooler clothing) and modify daily class schedules to avoid peak afternoon heat, and officials are encouraging school leadership to implement adaptive changes as needed to protect student well-being.

    This report is a transcribed excerpt from an evening television news broadcast, with Kriol-language dialogue rendered in standardized spelling for the online publication.

  • Basic Items Cost More Than You Think, Depending on the Store

    Basic Items Cost More Than You Think, Depending on the Store

    As persistent grocery inflation pushes household budgets tighter across Belize, consumers are shifting from simple spending cuts to targeted strategic shopping to offset rising costs. A new on-the-ground investigation from News Five’s Paul Lopez set out to answer a critical question that many budget-conscious shoppers overlook: does the choice of where you buy groceries make a meaningful difference to total monthly spending, even when buying the exact same products? To test this, Lopez visited five separate grocery outlets across Dangriga Town, comparing prices for 10 widely used everyday household and grocery items to measure just how large price discrepancies can be. What the investigation uncovered confirms that those differences are far from negligible – and over time, they can add up to hundreds of dollars in extra annual spending for average families.

    Lopez launched the hands-on comparison equipped with a standardized list of common staples, ranging from cleaning supplies to pantry items and baby care products. The full list included Axion dishwashing liquid (400ml bottle), Suavitel laundry detergent (1.9-liter bottle), Fab soap powder, garbage bags, Dak chopped ham, Mazatun canned tuna, aluminum foil, kitchen towel, Heinz baked beans, and double extra-large Huggies diapers. The price variations started emerging immediately with the first product tested.

    For the standard 400ml Axion dishwashing liquid, Family City Imports offered the lowest price at $2.50 per bottle. Neighboring Huang Chen Supermarket and smaller local outlet J Mart both priced the same bottle at $2.95, a 45-cent increase from the lowest option. The Price is Right Supermarket came in at $2.75, while New Hong Store charged the highest rate at $3.50 – a full dollar more than the lowest available price for the identical product.

    When it came to small tins of Dak chopped ham, Huang Chen and J Mart tied for the highest price at $4.50, while New Hong Store surprisingly offered the lowest rate at $4.25, a 25-cent difference. The investigation also found one consistent outlier: Mazatun brand canned tuna held a steady price of $2.75 across all five stores surveyed.

    For 1.9-liter bottles of Suavitel laundry detergent, available at four of the five locations, Huang Chen again posted the highest price at $7.50, with Family City Imports close behind at $7.25. J Mart offered the same bottle for $6.75, marking a 75-cent discount compared to Huang Chen and a 50-cent saving versus Family City.

    The gap grew even wider for a can of Heinz baked beans: New Hong Store charged the highest price at $4.50, while J Mart offered the same can for $3.75 – a 75-cent difference that puts New Hong’s price 20% higher for the identical product. All other surveyed stores landed below the $4.00 mark for this item. For a box of Fans Corn Flakes, Family City Imports priced it at $6.75, while New Hong Store sold the same box for $6.25. For a pack of double XL Huggies diapers, Family City charged $23.75, while The Price is Right sold the identical pack for $22.50, a $1.25 saving.

    The investigation’s core takeaway is clear: while a small number of branded products maintain consistent pricing across retail outlets, most everyday staples see significant price variation from store to store in Dangriga. For households working with tight budgets that require stretching every dollar, these small per-item differences add up to substantial total savings over a full grocery run. By strategically choosing which retailer to visit for different items, local families can cut their monthly grocery costs without changing the products they buy.

  • Dredging of Demerara River begins in June

    Dredging of Demerara River begins in June

    Guyana is set to launch a critical infrastructure upgrade for its key maritime trade route next month, after officials signed an $11.2 million contract with regional dredging firm Boskalis CPG Inc. this Tuesday.

    The project, first announced by Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar, will target a 9-kilometer stretch of the Demerara River’s navigational channel running between the communities of Houston and Golden Grove. Over a two-month construction period, crews will widen the channel to 100 meters and deepen it to 5 meters, addressing longstanding navigation challenges that have limited access for larger commercial vessels.

    The official contract signing ceremony was held this week, with MARAD Director-General Stephen Fraser putting pen to paper on behalf of Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), which falls under Indar’s ministry. Senior government officials including Permanent Secretary Vishal Ambedkar, alongside leadership from both MARAD and Boskalis CPG, were in attendance to witness the milestone agreement.

    In an official statement following the signing, the ministry outlined the far-reaching benefits the completed dredging work will deliver for Guyana’s economy. Once finished, deeper, wider waters will allow larger cargo vessels to access the Demerara channel safely and reliably, cutting wait times for shipping and boosting overall port efficiency. The upgrade is also expected to support the consistent, sustainable movement of domestic and international goods and services, strengthening the country’s entire maritime sector.

    Minister Indar emphasized that the project comes directly in response to feedback from Guyana’s shipping industry, which has repeatedly called for additional dredging work to unlock the Demerara River’s full trade potential after years of increasing commercial activity along the waterway. Construction is scheduled to kick off in June 2026, with completion targeted for the end of the third quarter of the year.

  • Vendors Forced Out Before Sunrise as Market Tensions Boil Over

    Vendors Forced Out Before Sunrise as Market Tensions Boil Over

    On the morning of May 12, 2026, tensions boiled over before sunrise at Belize’s iconic Michael Finnegan Market, when city council enforcement teams removed four unregistered retail vendors from the premises as part of a long-delayed crackdown on long-standing market day zoning rules. The enforcement action has ignited anger among small-scale vendor and farmer groups, who warn the abrupt policy shift threatens their already fragile livelihoods.

    Placido Cunil, a retail vegetable vendor who has operated at the market without incident for six years, was one of the vendors forced to pack up his stall ahead of the market’s opening rush. Speaking to on-site reporter Zenida Lanza, Cunil expressed his desperation over the new enforcement measures, saying, “What do you want to make me do? Go kill people for money and not make me sell my veggies too? Is that what they want? I worked hard to make my money. I don’t want to go and rob people.”

    Cunil and other affected retail vendors say the city’s new enforcement is riddled with inconsistency and unfairness. Under current market rules, wholesale trade is designated for specific days, while retail sales are restricted to Tuesdays and Fridays — the only days Cunil says his specialty Chinese vegetables can attract his regular, niche customer base. He also noted that many registered wholesalers openly sell retail quantities on wholesale-designated days, making the targeting of small vendors particularly unjust. “They say that only wholesale is supposed to be today, but they are doing retail, people are doing retail. So this is not fair for us,” Cunil added.

    His frustration was echoed by multiple other local vendor-farmers, many of whom have operated at the Michael Finnegan Market for decades with no prior pushback on their sales practices. One long-time vendor with 25 years of tenure at the site called for collective action to protect vendors’ rights, while another farmer who arrived with a full truckload of produce said he was turned away entirely, calling the situation harassment of small producers. Multiple vendors called on national and local government to secure a permanent, dedicated sales space for small local farmers to avoid future disruptions.

    Delroy Herrera, market manager for the Belize City Council, pushed back on claims of aggressive enforcement, framing the action as a long-overdue implementation of rules that have been ignored for years. “We have stepped up slightly the enforcement aspect of the market day. Again, like I said to you yesterday, we are not ruling or doing enforcement with an iron fist. But we have stepped it up where we have brought out the listing for the wholesalers,” Herrera explained. He noted that only four retail vendors refused to comply with existing rules after outreach and education, adding that the separation of wholesale and retail days is designed to create clear market structure: wholesalers move large volumes of product at lower bulk rates, and retailers then resell smaller quantities to end consumers.

    Herrera pointed to early success of the policy for vendors who have made the transition to registered wholesale status. Abner Cienfuegos, a former retail seller who completed his wholesale registration just days before the crackdown, said the separated structure has already boosted his sales. “In all honesty, as a wholesale farmer, today has been actually one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. Without the competition of retailing, and prices going up and down, fluctuating, we can come in and sell our stuff at the price that we can see best for ourselves, and we get it out there,” Cienfuegos said. He also addressed retailers’ claims that wholesalers are violating rules by selling smaller quantities, clarifying that wholesale status is based on pricing rather than volume: vendors selling at bulk rates even for small quantities are still operating within the rules.

    Another vendor, Herman Freisen, said he agreed to comply with the rules once they were clearly explained to him, and plans to adjust his sales schedule to fit the designated retail days moving forward.

    For Cunil, the situation was resolved before midday, after a quick meeting with city council officials. Following the meeting, he submitted required identification documents, completed his wholesale registration, and was allowed to return to his stall before 9 a.m. Even so, the incident has highlighted ongoing tensions between small local vendors and city regulators over market access and livelihood protections at the popular Belize City trading hub.

    This report was compiled from on-the-ground reporting by Zenida Lanza for New Five.

  • PNCR/APNU leader shrugs off more defections to PPP

    PNCR/APNU leader shrugs off more defections to PPP

    On Tuesday, 12 May 2026, People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and opposition bloc A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) leader Aubrey Norton pushed back against growing concerns over the party’s ongoing exodus of members, after the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) announced the defection of seven current and former opposition-aligned politicians.

    The seven new PPPC recruits include three former APNU+AFC Members of Parliament: Rickly Ramsaroop, Shurwayne Holder, and Dinesh Jaiprashad, plus four sitting regional councillors: Ravoldo Birbal, Sheik Yaseen, Prince Holder, and Gangadai Lloyd. Shurwayne Holder, a former PNCR Chairman, had openly signaled his dissatisfaction with the party after being excluded from APNU’s 2025 parliamentary slate following September’s general and regional elections, while Ramsaroop had already split from coalition partner Alliance For Change (AFC) in mid-2025 before briefly aligning with PNCR-led APNU.

    In comments to Demerara Waves Online News, Norton framed the latest departures as an expected outcome that did not catch him off guard. “Everybody is free to go to whichever political party they want to go but even Stevie Wonder would have seen that that group was preparing to go to the PPP from the time most of them weren’t seeming to become members of parliament,” he noted. When pressed on whether he had detected disloyalty ahead of candidate nominations, he declined to speculate, saying that leaders can never fully predict the decisions of their members.

    This latest wave of defections is part of a years-long trend that has seen more than a dozen opposition politicians leave PNCR and APNU for either the ruling PPPC or the new opposition bloc We Invest in Nationhood. Over less than five years, high-profile departures to the PPPC include James Bond, Jermaine Figueira, Geeta Chandan-Edmond, Richard Van West Charles, Daniel Seeram, and Samuel Sandy, while three other former members have taken executive roles with the new opposition grouping.

    Addressing questions about how he will stem further departures, Norton acknowledged that sustained opposition status naturally creates this type of challenge for political parties. “When you’re in opposition for a while that happens. Don’t forget when we were in government- the PNC- many PPP people came and, of course, there are two different things. There is a difference between going to a political party based on principle and ideology and going for whatever personal reasons. You can’t stop people from going for their personal reasons,” he explained.

    Norton rejected criticism that the steady “bleeding” of the party is a failure of his leadership, noting that all leadership tenures face challenges. He pushed back against claims he should be held responsible for the defection of figures like former Region Four Chairman Daniel Seeram, saying many of the departing politicians were not selected by him for their current roles. “There are many people I didn’t choose that went so it’s a reality you have to face. We will just continue to organise ourselves and move forward,” he said.

    When asked if he was disappointed by the defection of young, rising politician Ravoldo Birbal, in whom he had previously expressed confidence, Norton described Birbal as young and inexperienced, framing his departure as a predictable outcome for less seasoned political actors.

    The PPPC’s announcement of the new defections came just one day after former PNCR central executive member Dr. Aubrey Armstrong warned the opposition that it risked losing more supporters if it failed to address the needs of its base. During a commemorative lecture for former PNCR Leader and President Desmond Hoyte, Armstrong urged the party: “You have to take care of your people. You have to find ways of feeding them and so on. If not, you open the door for somebody else to poach them.”

    In its official statement announcing the new recruits, the PPPC said the seven politicians requested a meeting with the party’s General Secretary to formalize their shift in affiliation. The group told PPPC leadership they wanted to contribute to Guyana’s ongoing period of unprecedented economic growth and modernization, while advancing the public interest. They praised the ruling party’s open, inclusive governance style, its successful implementation of its policy manifesto, and the tangible improvements it has delivered to communities across the country. The defectors also highlighted the PPPC’s effective economic stewardship, its commitment to inclusive governance that serves all Guyanese regardless of identity, and its proven capacity to sustain national growth.

    Notably, the four sitting regional councillors who have switched affiliation cannot be recalled from their posts under current Guyanese electoral law, as no existing statute allows list representatives to remove sitting elected regional councillors after they have taken office.

  • Corozal Vendor Calls in to Voice Frustration Over Market Enforcement

    Corozal Vendor Calls in to Voice Frustration Over Market Enforcement

    In a candid interview with local outlet News Five on May 12, 2026, long-time Michael Finnegan Market vendor Hilda Mena has raised public alarm over newly implemented market restrictions that are threatening the livelihood of small, local traveling producers. Mena and her husband have built their small retail operation at the Corozal-based market for more than four years, but this week marked the first time the pair was barred from setting up their stall – a change that has upended the delicate financial balance they rely on to cover monthly costs.

    Mena explains that for small local producers like herself, the market’s new rules banning retail sales on Tuesdays and Fridays could not come at a worse time. Unlike large-scale Mennonite suppliers who make daily trips to the market with bulk inventory, Mena and her fellow local vendors only travel from outlying areas three times a week, bringing small batches of produce to sell just to cover basic living expenses. She points out a critical structural imbalance that makes shifting to wholesale sales unfeasible for most local vendors: the vast majority of wholesale buyers at the market prioritize purchasing from Mennonite producers, leaving local smallholders with almost no wholesale demand for their goods.

    When asked if she would consider registering for the market’s designated wholesale section to get around the new retail restrictions, Mena rejected the idea as unworkable for small operations. “I wouldn’t have a problem switching if it worked, but I only have one consistent wholesale buyer, because everyone else goes to the Mennonites,” she explained. “If I move to wholesale, I’ll be stuck with all my unsold product. What am I supposed to do with the rest? Decision-makers need to consider that we don’t travel here every day like the Mennonites do – we only bring what we can carry to get by, we’re not shipping hundreds of pounds of produce at a time.”

    Mena’s frustration is not an isolated concern: she emphasized that dozens of other local traveling vendors share the same fear that new restrictions will push them into financial hardship. To make the new retail-only Saturday policy fairer for traveling vendors, Mena proposed a simple adjustment: permanent stallholders who already sell retail throughout the rest of the week should be barred from selling on Saturdays, eliminating unfair competition for traveling vendors who only have limited days to reach direct retail customers.

    For Mena and her community, the new enforcement is not a matter of refusing to follow rules – she says she is fully willing to comply with reasonable regulations. Instead, it is a matter of survival: small local producers are already struggling to compete with larger, more frequent suppliers, and overly rigid new policies are pushing vulnerable working families to the brink.