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Earlier this week, we told you about Janelle Chanona’s departure from Channel 5. Well in news of a slightly less noteworthy but equally intriguing nature, 7NEWS has confirmed that Belize Times’ Editor Alberto Vellos has resigned. Like most newspaper editors, Vellos kept a fairly low profile, and had only taken up the post after the general election in February. He had been at the times for some years before that.

But what is interesting are the reasons behind his departure. Sources tell 7NEWS that some pressure came down on Vellos after the Belize Times featured no coverage of last week’s COLA march. Notable because two of the party’s deputy leaders Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde were in that march, and because even inside the new PUP there is tension about loyalty to Lord Ashcroft.

That tension arises because two of the closest advisors to party leader John Briceno are professionally affiliated with Ashcroft: Eamon Courtenay is retained as an attorney for the Belize Bank and Telemedia, while Amalia Mai is the new CEO at the BTL-owned Channel 5. All that, while Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde take their stand behind the zinc. So when no article appeared in the Times, it created some friction, and sources tell us Vellos was blamed. From what we’re told, he rejected that position and resigned.

Another casualty of the new Briceno–controlled Belize Times is the Godfrey Smith column Flashpoint. Smith had openly opposed and used the column to criticize his then fellow Deputy Leader and since the takeover of the party assets, Smith’s column has been kicked out of the paper and he’s relegated to publishing his column on the internet.