As we went to air this evening, vehicular traffic at the Benque Border in Western Belize was still crawling to virtually non-existent because the bridge linking Belize and Guatemala was blocked. 7NEWS has confirmed that on Saturday about 9 to 10 Guatemalan cargo trucks were parked at the entrance of the Rio-Mopan Bridge on the Guatemalan side of the border. What is their beef? Apparently, the Guatemalan truckers are not happy with an increase in the fumigation charge from 20 quetzals to 80 quetzals for trucks so they blocked the bridge. The charges are by order of OIRSA, which is a bi-national agency.
The bridge was completely blocked over the weekend and today the militant truckers allowed smaller vehicles to cross. Up to this evening, the situation was still unresolved though Immigration officials state that Guatemalan authorities are negotiating with the truckers. How is this affecting Belize? Well our Immigration Department says Belizeans can still cross the bridge they just can't drive. An official says it is affecting large group of tourists who need to cross the bridge.
