Ban on Bz. buses in Chet reversed in late meeting
Between its troubles at the Tourism Village, the Benque riots and a debt service ratio that would drive most accountants to drink, these are not the best of times for Novelo’s Bus Company. And guess what? Things got worse this week when the Government of Mexico decided that Novelo’s, and other Belizean transport companies, could no longer carry passengers into Mexico. Director David Novelo explains.
David Novelo, Director, Novelo’s Bus Line
“This week we were informed by the Mexican authorities that effective Monday that buses will no longer, public transportation equipment will no longer be allowed to enter into Mexico. They gave primarily the reasons that there was no bilateral agreement between the Government of Belize and Central America with the Mexican authorities. As a result, we were committing a violation of the law by entering into Mexico. And as well, they reiterated that basically there were many infractions being committed because of the transport laws and regulations that they have in Mexico. So they did not precisely tell us we cannot enter, what the Mexicans said is that if we entered we had to honour the agreements that they have with other countries, which basically totals to fines of about twenty-three thousand pesos. Because to start off, we did not have a permit, and certain regulations, as they require a yearly insurance fee, they require buses not older than five years to enter into Mexico; they require to have an infrastructure terminal constructed there in Mexico. So, the Novelo’s Bus Line Limited and also other bus companies that enter into Mexico took the decision of not entering. And we quickly informed our Ministry of Foreign Affairs that we needed to have a quick solution to this problem so as not to inconvenience the general public that goes to Chetumal.”
And while that public is being accommodated in the short run, a long term solution may be painful.
David Novelo
“Currently what we have done to alleviate some of the problems to our clientele is that we contracted the services of a bus company in Mexico, whereby what we are doing at this time is that we are basically subjecting passengers that upon reaching the border they have to get off our bus and catch a national bus from Mexico. Our company believes that this problem cannot persist for so long, so what we have done is that we are absorbing the cost and therefore we have not incremented fares and we are just doing this to facilitate the process to the general community that travels to Chetumal.”
In a late update to that story, we have been reliably informed that as a result of a meeting held this evening in Chetumal a sixty day moratorium has been declared on Mexico’s new border requirements. As a result, beginning Wednesday morning, Belizean buses and transport vehicles will once again have full access to Chetumal. During the sixty-day period both sides will try to negotiate a comprehensive agreement on cross border commerce. The next meeting will be held on February fourth.
