Minister Castro Explains Granting of Licenses to Guatemalan Bus Companies

In March, Minister of Transport Edmond Castro issued licenses to two Guatemalan-registered companies, Linea Dorado and Fuente del Norte, to transport passengers to and from Guatemala and Belize City.  This caused the local operators to become infuriated because, they say, they have been consistently complaining that Guatemalan authorities refused them to do the same. Today, Castro was asked if he did not consider the operators’ complaints before issuing the licenses.

Reporter

“Shouldn’t that lack of reciprocity with the Guatemalans have been taken into account when you signed an agreement with this bus line out of Guatemalan authorizing them to park at the National terminal?”

Edmond Castro

Edmond Castro, Minister of Transport

“Yes sir. What I try to do as the Minister responsible for transportation is try and see how we can best manage the transportation system to flow. So we had signed an agreement, this happens all the time, for the grey hound buses similar to that of the ADO coming to Belize from Melchor through the Benque border instead of going to the water taxi to go into the terminal. So we can have a better understanding and grip and we would be able to check the manifest as they leave the terminal. However we did not agree for the busitos to be running through the terminal hence the reason why we stopped that right away. That was never the arrangement in the agreement so we put an end to that immediately. But what we wanted to do with the grey hound type buses so with their manifest for us to have a better control. What we are trying to do now with the taxi and bus operators is to see how the bus operators can link with their Guatemalan counterparts. So the buses coming from Melchor will link with the Belizean bus operators here and so that they can drop their tourists off at the border, the taxi men take them to the terminal and there is an equally satisfactory bus that will be there. We are trying to see how we can work on these situations.”