Businessman Yhony Rosado believes he is being targeted by B.T.B.
Businessman Yhony Rosado, proprietor of Cavetubing.com and executive member of FECTAB, was involved in a brief spat with police officers, as well as officials from the Belize Tourism Board on Wednesday morning. It came after being informed that his company’s tour guide license had been expired since September. Despite paying the two hundred and fifty dollar fee months earlier, faulty recordkeeping on the part of B.T.B. resulted in the threat of Rosado’s tour operations being interrupted on a day when a total of four cruise ships had called on Belize City. Running the risk of losing serious revenue, Rosado says he ransacked his home in search of a receipt verifying that the fee had been defrayed sometime ago. Fortunately, he found the slip and was subsequently allowed to proceed with his business. The experience, nonetheless, has left a bitter taste in Rosado’s mouth. He believes that he is being targeted simply for being an outspoken member of FECTAB.
Yhony Rosado, Proprietor, Cavetubing.com
Yhony Rosado
“I got a phone call from the person in charge of my business and my tour guides ready to work. The cruise ship has tow or one hours ahead of us so from 6 its already8 Belize time. So by 6:30 one of the police officers was stopping my business from operating. I find it very strange because I knew I paid the tour operator license but B.T.B. take quite some time to issue your license or certificate but it is very tricky because on a 4 cruise ship day6:30 in the morning, the police want to see me, they are stropping my business form continue. My business like all local business are going in very rapidly and we can’t compete with the new competitors price so we are going in frustrated already. Then they are going to tell me my license expired. It hit me like something hard. But I had nothing else to do but call the media because if I am right let the media be the truth, let the media expose me as if I am doing something wrong. Because everything I do is trying to do right and why is it that the B.T.B. and the police, last year December I got arrested, I got charged for a firearm, I went to jail and they disrupt the whole thing. December is my month. Well it tell you the honest truth, i said it on the media once and I say it again, I just feel like someone malicious within the B.T.B. delete all the information. Becasue3 I took in trade license, passenger liability, liability for my business, all the name of the people I employ, the amount of money I am investing, a whole lot of information I took in. So when they told me my ting was expired the only thing is they delete the information, I just went crazy, my mind just couldn’t grab on a good thought of what went wrong. B.T.B. and the police 6:30 in the morning and then B.T.B. doesn’t open until 8 so there is no way I can fix thing before the guests start going. And then the thing is they give us a ugly name and it just hurt when you do the right thing and then there you go again painting the wrong picture, like you are some kind of contraband tour operator doing something illegal.”
Rosado told News Five that Director of Tourism Laura Esquivel-Frampton has extended a verbal apology for B.T.B.’s error.
