The Good Will Not Suffer with the Bad in Mexican Travel

Carlos Quesnel Melendez

Mexicans are not alone in engaging in criminality. Witness Robert Gentle, who was recently caught driving a Lincoln Navigator over the border in which cocaine was found. He tried to make a run for it and Mexican police cut his legs from under him, shooting out his tires and forcing the vehicle to crash into the Customs Department cargo fence. Could that kind of lawlessness force Mexico to be even tougher on Belizeans headed for Chetumal, Cancun, Merida and other popular Mexican destinations? Here’s the Ambassador’s take.

Carlos Quesnel Melendez, Mexican Ambassador to Belize

“These kind of cases make us aware that we have to be more careful and to take more measures to try to take some control of this; but it has not changed. I will not say that change the patrol or protocols. On the contrary, we are trying to be more flexible to allow people from Belize to come to Mexico; so it is important for us that Belizeans know that the Mexican government is starting to attract and to make it easy for Belizeans to come to Mexico.”

According to the Ambassador, tourism is on the up in both directions. As of 2015, Belizeans spent as much as forty-eight million U.S. dollars in Chetumal and the city remains busy, especially at holiday times. In 2016 and 2017, fifteen thousand Mexicans ventured south to Belize as tourists.