标签： Belize

Months after being inaugurated with great fanfare and high expectations, San Pedro’s brand-new artisan market sits completely vacant, leaving community members and local vendors questioning the logic behind the project and its chosen location.

The core of the controversy stems from widespread pushback among the artisans and small-scale vendors the market was built to serve. Many of these sellers have made it clear they prefer to remain at their long-standing original selling locations, rather than relocate to the newly constructed facility, leaving the modern building unused.

Andre Perez, the Area Representative for Belize Rural South, has defended the government’s decision to greenlight the move, framing the relocation as a long-term strategic play rather than a misstep. In an interview with local reporters, Perez explained that the vacancy is temporary, tied to a broader multi-use development project planned for the Sacatchepas area. The upcoming project includes construction of a regional events center that will host a wide range of activities, from local sports tournaments to large-scale public concerts. Once completed, the development will also add a dedicated public parking lot and an upper-story multi-purpose space, requiring vendors to ultimately vacate their current spots to make way for the new amenities.

Perez rejected claims that the new artisan market project is a failure, pointing out that the completed facility is structurally sound, aesthetically appealing, and offers scenic views that will draw visitors once vendors move in. “The building is there, it’s beautiful, it has an excellent view. When the time comes, they need to prepare. They know that they have to move. They will not be staying,” Perez told reporters.

When pressed for a concrete timeline for the broader development project, Perez confirmed that local officials have targeted a completion window within the current calendar year, but acknowledged that funding constraints have slowed progress. While the events center project is considered a critical community need, other pressing public priorities have taken precedent for budget allocations, pushing back some phases of construction. Even so, Perez reaffirmed that the project remains on track to be completed, and once finished, vendors will be required to relocate to the already-built new artisan market.

In a separate but related comment on local infrastructure development, Belize’s Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler used San Pedro’s ongoing dock project as a cautionary example, urging the country to accelerate upgrades to its public infrastructure. Mahler warned that if Belize fails to modernize its key tourism-related facilities, it risks losing its standing as one of the world’s top travel destinations.

This report is adapted from a transcript of an evening television newscast, with original Kriol language speech transcribed using a standardized spelling system for publication.

In a press briefing addressing widespread public anger over unprecedented spikes in household electricity costs across Belize, Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy and Logistics, pushed back against criticism on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, by breaking down the structural factors driving the steep rate increases that have left some families paying two to three times their typical monthly bills.

Almendarez emphasized that Belize’s energy grid is disproportionately dependent on imported power, with more than half of the nation’s electricity supply brought in from neighboring Mexico. Unlike domestically generated energy, imported power prices are set by international and regional market forces beyond the control of Belizean regulators or the national energy provider. Under the country’s existing regulatory framework, these fluctuating import costs are directly passed through to end consumers, meaning any upward shift in global energy prices immediately translates to higher bills for households.

To meet total national energy demand, Belize currently combines three primary sources: cogeneration from domestic sugarcane production, local hydropower, and the Mexican power imports. When lower-cost domestic sources such as hydropower fall short of meeting demand, the system must rely on more expensive imported power to fill the gap – and that extra cost is absorbed directly by consumers, Almendarez explained.

Complicating the debate over rising rates is the unique structure of Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), which operates as a regulated natural monopoly, Almendarez added. He argued that introducing competing grid operators would not drive down costs, noting that duplicate infrastructure would only spread fixed costs across a smaller customer base, ultimately pushing per-unit rates even higher than they are today. He also pushed back against claims that BEL unilaterally set the current higher rates, clarifying that all electricity pricing adjustments must receive formal approval from the independent Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The current rate of $0.4427 per kilowatt-hour, implemented in January 2026, was approved by the PUC to cover a projected $108 million in total annual energy supply costs.

Beyond structural factors, BEL attributes part of the recent sticker shock for consumers to seasonal changes: warmer-than-average temperatures this year have driven higher residential energy use, particularly for air conditioning, which has pushed monthly bills far above their typical seasonal averages. Looking ahead, the outlook could grow even more challenging: the rapidly developing El Niño weather pattern is expected to bring prolonged drought conditions to Belize in the coming months, which would reduce output from the country’s hydropower facilities and force the nation to increase its reliance on more expensive imported Mexican power.

To help households manage their current costs, Almendarez offered practical steps consumers can take to reduce their monthly bills, saying residents do have agency to lower their energy use. His recommendations include unplugging appliances that are not in use to eliminate phantom energy drain, upgrading to ENERGY STAR-certified efficient devices, and applying for a PUC license to install residential solar panels for self-generation. He framed the adjustment to higher energy prices as similar to cutting back on discretionary grocery spending to manage a higher grocery bill: by evaluating personal energy use and cutting unnecessary consumption, households can bring down their monthly costs.

Despite these recommendations, many Belizean households have pushed back against the advice, saying that most families have already cut non-essential energy use to the bone, leaving little to no room for additional reductions. Critics argue that Almendarez’s guidance is disconnected from the realities of working-class household budgets, noting that up-front investments in energy-efficient technology and residential solar are out of reach for most low- and middle-income families already struggling to cover basic expenses.

A deadly drive-by shooting in Corozal Town left a 36-year-old DJ dead and a second man hospitalized this Tuesday, with law enforcement officials pointing to drug ties as the most likely motive for the attack. The incident unfolded at approximately 7:40 p.m. on May 26, 2026, in the Corozal District, after local police received urgent reports of multiple gunshots being fired on Flamboyant Street.

When first responders arrived at the residential scene, they found Roger Escalante unresponsive, with multiple visible gunshot wounds, and 25-year-old Ezer Alcoser suffering from non-life-threatening injuries. Alcoser was immediately transported to a local medical facility for treatment, where he was later confirmed to be in stable condition.

Preliminary findings from the ongoing investigation outline a clear sequence of events: Escalante and a companion had just arrived at a Flamboyant Street residence when an unidentified SUV pulled up to the property. A lone gunman exited the vehicle, fired several rounds toward the group, and quickly fled the area. The shooting fatally struck Escalante and left Alcoser wounded.

In an official confirmation of the investigation’s early direction, Assistant Superintendent Stacy Smith, a staff officer with the local police force, revealed that Escalante was already a person of interest in an active drug trafficking probe at the time of his killing. While investigators have not yet verified whether both injured men were the intended targets of the attack, Smith confirmed that drug-related gang activity or retaliation is the leading working hypothesis.

“We are suspecting that may be the motive in this incident,” Smith told reporters in a press briefing Wednesday. As of Thursday morning, no suspects have been taken into custody, and law enforcement is asking any members of the public with information about the SUV or the gunman’s identity to contact the Corozal District police station to advance the case.

For years, Belize has poured millions of dollars into countering an escalating threat to its coastline: massive, unchecked invasions of sargassum seaweed that smother popular beaches, cripple local tourism, and upend life in coastal communities. Yet despite the steady flow of funding and dozens of proposed solutions, government officials confirm no viable, scalable fix has emerged to turn the tide against the growing crisis.

Andre Perez, Belize’s Minister of Blue Economy and representative for the rural southern region, recently shared the grim reality of the country’s anti-sargassum efforts in an interview with local outlet News 5. While dozens of entrepreneurs and innovators have pitched a wide range of strategies for repurposing and removing the invasive seaweed, none have delivered a permanent, workable resolution.

“The truth is, nobody has cracked that perfect magic recipe that tells us exactly how to eliminate this problem,” Perez explained. He emphasized that the only truly effective approach to stopping sargassum damage requires intercepting and removing the dense floating mats of seaweed out on the open ocean, before they can drift ashore. Once sargassum washes up onto beaches, it quickly begins to rot, creating foul odors, driving away tourists, and disrupting coastal ecosystems. Without a reliable at-sea collection system, the damage continues unabated.

To date, the financial toll of the crisis has already been steep. Perez confirmed that the island town of San Pedro alone has spent $25 million on ongoing beach cleanup efforts to clear rotting sargassum from its shorelines. For other hard-hit coastal communities including Hopkins, Caye Caulker, Seine Bight, and Placencia, the Belize Tourism Board (BTB) provides up to $10,000 per month to support local cleanup work. Even with this consistent funding and effort, however, the sargassum invasions keep intensifying.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) currently rates large stretches of Belize’s coastline as facing “High Coastal Risk Levels” for sargassum wash-ups, and long-term forecasts indicate the 2026 season will bring even worse conditions than previous years.

In response to the crisis, a handful of pilot programs in southern Belize are testing experimental strategies to turn the invasive seaweed into usable products, including agricultural fertilizer, decorative art, construction bricks labeled “sarga-blocks”, and sand supplement for public works projects. These initiatives prioritize ecological at-sea collection to prevent sargassum from reaching shore in the first place. While Perez praised these exploratory efforts as welcome steps forward, he acknowledged that none of the programs have yet demonstrated they can work at scale to solve the crisis. “We have yet to see it working,” he stated of the ongoing trials.

A major public healthcare infrastructure project in Belize’s San Pedro Town is grappling with unforeseen setbacks, pushing completion back more than a year and stretching costs far past the original budget, according to local authorities. But despite the challenges, the project is moving forward, with officials emphasizing the long-term value of the facility for the island community.

Slated to become the second-largest hospital in Belize—only trailing the national Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in size—the 37,000-square-foot facility is funded by a development grant from Taiwan (Republic of China) and built by Taiwan-based contractor Overseas Engineering Construction Company (OECC), a firm that has previously delivered public works projects including road upgrades in the Sarteneja region of Belize.

Local area representative Andre Perez told reporters that the project has deviated sharply from its initial timeline, which originally targeted completion between December 2025 and January 2026. Today, due to widespread labor shortages across San Pedro’s booming construction sector, the projected opening has been pushed back to early 2027.

“The labour force has been hard to get, and we all know that the construction industry here in San Pedro is booming,” Perez explained, noting that competition for skilled and unskilled construction workers has driven daily wages for the project’s crew far above $100, a expense that was not included in the original budget projections.

Labor shortages are not the only strain on the project’s finances. Global market volatility tied to ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East has sent prices for core construction inputs—including cement, steel, aggregate materials and fuel—soaring far higher than forecasts made when the project was first planned. These combined pressures have already pushed total costs past the original $33 million grant allocation.

Perez pushed back against circulating claims that the project has accumulated a $15 million overrun, calling that estimate exaggerated, and noted that officials have not yet settled on a final updated total cost. Negotiations over additional funding are currently ongoing between the government of Belize and the Taiwanese grant partners, he added.

Rejecting claims that the delays and cost increases represent a failure of project management or contracting, Perez stressed that nearly all headwinds facing the project stem from global and local economic factors outside the control of any involved party. “There’s no failure here,” he said.

Perez reaffirmed that construction never halted and will continue through to full completion, with no plans to scale back the scope of the facility. A visit from Taiwan’s ambassador to Belize to inspect the construction site is scheduled for June 2026, to review progress and discuss ongoing funding arrangements.