And while their walk around the city was for mental health - Belizean transporters deriving down through Mexico recently have been going through mental hell! We've received multiple reports of persons being stopped and shaken down by outlaws and lawmen.
The Belizean Ambassador to Mexico spoke to X-TV about it, starting first with the incident in Tuxpan where drivers were held up by the local traffic police. Here's the complaint with an audio masked to cereal the driver's identity:
Voice of: Transporter
"What really happened is that we were traveling on the Autopista. But when we got to the Autopista for Tuxpan, it was closed down. So we were directed or advised that we can go to the local road or the old highway."
"So we exited the Autopista and we headed into town, into Tuxpan. While traveling through the town, we were stopped by the transito. And of course, we know that they want money. These people are crazy mein, and the authorities are not there to help us."
Oscar Arnold, Bze Ambassador to Mexico
"But when we saw it on social media and some people brought it to our attention just to view the social media reports, we did look into it with authorities. And what we found was that individuals who were transporting either vehicles or commerce, down to Belize from the US, came off the federal highway or came off what is known as the autopista, and for whatever reason, whether they were trying to avoid tolls or whether they were trying to to get a shorter route or whether there was a traffic jam or a traffic delay, and they were trying to circumvent it. They came off the autopista, came off the main road. And that is when they became, targeted by, by individual groups who are working in the area. And that is when the robberies occurred."
"What we did, we checked with Mexican authorities, and they confirmed that at no point within the last, 12 days that the Autopista was closed."
"But, to say that they had a, a formal closure of the Autopista, that did not happen. So we encourage everyone to remain on the federal highways."
"We saw that video. And I believe, like I said earlier, in the event that there is an accident, sometimes the traffic is backed up and you may have at that point, authorities who may say, oh, you know, you can take another route. However, again, I've spoken to some car dealers, transporters who are in that same business, and quite a few of them have commented to me that they found that out. Sometimes there might be fog on the road ahead. And so they closed off a part of the highway, but they remain and they wait on the autopista, even though it cost them a little bit more time or a few hours. But they wait because they know that whenever they come off, they're exposing themselves to robberies, to assaults and items like that, noh?"
"It's hard to say who, maybe you have some collusion taking place with the local authorities in that area or in that portion of the autopista."
"But we would strongly suggest that that if you are transporting goods, if you're bringing down vehicles that as much as possible, you stay on the federal highways, because that diminishes greatly the type of events that happened here."
And, the Ambassador also spoke about the very scary encounter three Belizean drivers had two weeks ago when they were held hostage by the cartel in Jalisco - who would not release them until their relatives in the US wired money to a cartel bank account. Here's what Zeke Lino told us and what the Ambassador says he found out about it:
Voice of: Zeke Lino, Car dealer
"The guy gave us his number. So the man said, when we are coming through to call them to meet up somewhere and pay."
"It's a convoy, they collect and they will escort us, or whatever. We will be safe through there, but they need their money for us to pass through."
"They will kill you. You would hear car dealers are missing and you would'nt find our bodies, because they would bury us right there."
"They are CJNC and that's why I am telling people not to take this likely, because men will die. They just started an operation now and we have to pass through Veracruz."
Oscar Arnold, Bze Ambassador to Mexico
"We saw all of that on social media. We took note of it. We've written to the federal and the local authorities, providing them all the information with the contact numbers that were provided. In one instance, we had a situation where bank, a bank number was, was given to the persons to pay. We've also turned that all over to the Garda National. - for their investigations to take place."
"What we've been monitoring lately, because we did not receive any formal complaint on the two issues, where transporters were held up and were robbed. Those happened within the state of Veracruz, which borders the states of Tamaulipas. And Tamaulipas is one of the hotspots currently. It seems as if it has spread into Veracruz."
