Local News

The opposition People’s United Party today issued a statement on the termination of services for five employees of the party’s mouthpiece, the Belize Times.  The PUP also announced, via the same statement, that Belize Times will now be available only on the internet until further notice.  On Friday of last week, five employees were let go by the Belize Times, among them long-serving workers Faye Castillo and Doreth Bevans.  The PUP statement says that the decision to fire the workers, while a difficult exercise, was unavoidable given the state of the nation’s economy and the fact that the Belize Times had been operating under an outdated, wasteful and unsustainable business model. The PUP statement says that the Belize Times has been operating at a loss for the past few years, and that it can no longer sustain those losses.  PUP leader Francis Fonseca, according to the official statement, assumes full responsibility for the decision to terminate the services of the workers, and says that all benefits and entitlements do to the fired workers have been paid in accordance with Belize’s labor laws. Fonseca offers his apologies to the aggrieved former employees of the Belize Times and says that while he and the PUP owe these employees and friends a great responsibility, the greater responsibility lies with the members of the Party who as shareholders in the PUP are demanding that the financial affairs of our Party be administered with a greater sense of responsibility, accountability, and efficiency.