Belize Times December 11, 2016

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The Belize Times

Established 1957

The Truth Shall Make You Free

11 DECEMBER 2016 | ISSUE NO: 5023

www.belizetimes.bz | $1.00

DANGER: BAD DRUGS! “I can’t say with certainty that some of the providers gave us medication and items that did put the population at risk. What I can say is that because we were not enforcing those standards there is a high possibility that that could have happened.” - Dr. Ramon Figueroa, CEO - MOH

Wednesday, December 7, 2016 As we go to press, the Ministry of Health is under intense scrutiny as a result of bizarre and appalling revelations by current CEO Dr. Ramon Figueroa. Those revelations indicate not only that the Ministry of Health has been operating as another hotbed of corruption, but incredibly that patients may have lost their lives as a result of the direct negligence of MoH officials where the monitoring of pharmaceutical and medical supplies is concerned. In a candid interview granted by the Figueroa came the ad-

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BABY TAMEEKA

IS DEAD!

Did A Father Murder his Child?

Belmopan City, Wednesday December 7, 2016 Belmopan Police are on a manhunt for the father of baby Tameeka Campbell, missing since last night when the child, not yet two years old, was pronounced dead at the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan, fresh and faded bruises covering

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CASTRO CAUGHT AGAIN!

Wednesday, December 7, 2016 “From and after the commencement of this Act, no person shall produce sugar cane for the purpose of being manufactured into sugar, ethanol or any other derivative of sugar cane, except in accordance with the terms and conditions of a licence issued to him for the purpose under this Act or under the Sugar Cane Farmers’ Association Act.” --Section 8, Sugar Cane Industry (Control) Act, Chapter 283 of the Laws of Belize, Rev ed. 2000 It seems that no matter how hard he tries Edmond “Clear the Cane” Castro can’t stay out of trouble. Some Belizeans would say that somebody “obeah” the man. We on the other hand would argue that this is just who he is—a magnet for underhanded behaviour! The latest escapade involving Castro is the revelation that as a result of his “arrangement” with one Eloy Escalante the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA) has lost its Fairtrade certification. The permanent suspen-

sion of the BSCFA’s Fairtrade status would mean an immediate loss of more than one million dollars; the longer term impact would be even more dire and could cost cane farmers around 5 million dollars over the next 3 years. In an effort to avoid this hardship the BSCFA has expelled Eloy Escalante with the hope that his expulsion would stay the decision of the Fairtrade certification agency. The BSCFA is yet to find out if this is enough to avoid the problems brought on by the Escalante-Castro debacle. How and when exactly did Clear the Land become “Clear the Cane?” Rumours have been circulating for some time now that Castro had somehow acquired a very large parcel of land in Isabella Bank in the beautiful Belize River Valley, and that he was planting cane. The rumours were not credible at first because the Sugar Cane Industry (Control) Act expressly prohibits anyone from producing sugar cane without a license. And Castro did not have such a license.

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