Strait of Hormuz on The Tradewinds Brief

Belize City Under State of Emergency Again as Gang War Resumes and Fuel Prices Bite

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The familiar pattern is back. A spike in killings rooted in the St. Martin’s area, two gangs — PIV and BLC — operating in plain sight, and a partial State of Emergency declared for parts of Belize City and the broader Belize District. Nine detainees are being held under the order, identities and charges so far disclosed only in fragments by police.

The Briceño government has reached for the same instrument it reached for in 2025, and 2024, and the year before that. State of Emergency. Detention without charge for the duration. Curfews in the affected zones. A pause on funerals and gatherings that police judge could escalate. The Opposition Leader has called the move evidence that the country still lacks a coherent national crime strategy — a position made stronger by the fact that this is now the third or fourth iteration of the same emergency in roughly as many years.

Skerrit Pins Fuel Hikes on the Strait of Hormuz — and Dominica's Geothermal Bet Suddenly Reads Differently

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit told Dominicans this week what every Caribbean head of government is having to tell their citizens this month: the fuel hike at the pump has very little to do with anything happening on this island, and everything to do with shipping lanes thousands of miles away.

Brent crude settled above $114 per barrel earlier in May, the highest 2026 close to date, after Washington launched a new operation aimed at restoring tanker flow through the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate followed. Every importer of refined product in the hemisphere is now passing those increases on to retail. There is no Caribbean energy ministry with the leverage to insulate its consumers from that shock — not the way the math currently works, not without a level of public subsidy nobody’s treasury can sustain.