Since the year 2000, the Belize-Mexico Friendship Fair staged at the Memorial Park has become a September tradition synonymous with the celebration season in the city. Well, like a wheezing Roberto Duran, this year all the Mexicans can say is, "no mas." The fair has been cancelled this year reportedly because the Ministry of finance refused to grant the Mexican contingent duty exemptions. 7NEWS has confirmed this, but we were unable to reach Ambassador Arturo Trejo for comment. As we understand it, Trejo appealed directly to the Prime Minister, but, it seems that in the austerity era, government is clinging to a zero exemption hard line.
And while we'd like to think that the austerity line is a hard one, there's evidence in other sectors that it is not, and possibly, government looking for old friends in new places would wish to court bottling magnate Barry Bowen out of the red corner. This is an important point because, while the mechanical bull does have its pull, the Mexican event is basically a beer fair, with Superior and Tecate gushing freely an offering that Bowen has bitterly opposed.
