Back in 2018, Chinese businessman Jin Zhou Wu - a businessman from Calcutta, Corozal - was accused of human trafficking by 3 of his female employees. The women who are all Central Americans claim that Wu, who had trafficked them into Belize forced them into prostitution. It's a complicated case and one that ACP Myvette says took quite a while to investigate. He provided us with more details this morning.
Wu who is a resident of Bella Vista village was arraigned in Dangriga's Magistrate Court on three counts of trafficking in persons and three additional counts of trafficking in persons while compelling victims to prostitute. He has been remanded to the Belize Central Prison until his next court date.
Fuel In Flux
The Ministry of Finance is reporting that at midnight, the pump price for 2 types of fuel will change.
The price of premium gasoline will decrease by 16 cents from $9.36 to $9.20 per gallon. Meanwhile, regular gasoline will go up by 25 cents from $8.61 to $8.86 per gallon.
The prices for kerosene and diesel will remain unchanged at $5.43 and $8.33 per gallon, respectively.
Cash For Crops
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is reporting tonight that all farmers who qualify for cash support under the Contingency Emergency Response Component will be able to start collecting their monies later this week.
The Ministry advises that the farmers who eligible for this cash support include all female farmers who registered in the Belize Agriculture Information Management System between June 2018 and April 2020. Also, all male farmers who are cultivating 20 acres of land or less, and who registered in the Agriculture Information Management System between June 2018 and April 2020 also qualify.
Beneficiaries are required to collect their Heritage Bank ATM debit cards in person at the Agriculture Department in their District.
A timeline to pick up those cards is on the government of Belize facebook page.
Leprosy In QR?
Belize's land borders remain closed - and that's a good thing because you definitely don't want to be going to Chetumal, or pretty much anywhere in Quintana Roo right now.
That Mexican state is now reporting an appearance of the highly infectious disease, Leprosy.
The National System of Epidemiological Surveillance reported that Quintana Roo and Yucatan have recorded five leprosy cases since June.
The first case in Quintana Roo occurred in June and the second during the first week of September. Health authorities there are monitoring the emergence of new cases, "as there is a possibility that more people have had contact with the infected."
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease which mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract, and the eyes.
