This past weekend in Chetumal - and all over Mexico - retail stores observed what's known as "Buen Fin". It's sort of like the Mexican version of Black Friday - where there are once a year sales and deals at participating stores. So, naturally, Saturday being a holiday and all, many Belizeans made their run for the border to cash in on those deals. But…the thousands who travelled on Sunday ran into a major traffic jam - before they even got to the border. Traffic on the Belize side was backed up for miles, and for hours - some travellers report being stuck for over two hours. These pictures show the lines as far back as four mile Lagoon, and that's before they even got to the border, or cleared immigration on the Mexican side. Indeed, it was an interminable wait for the eager shoppers - and the Immigration Department says its because they are short staffed and had to deal with double the rush of weekend travellers. Director of Immigration Diana Locke confirmed to us that fifteen thousand persons passed through the border this weekend when usually the weekend crowd is seven to eight thousand. What's more, the Department need seven or eight more immigration officers to manage the regular crowd, and, on top of all that, they are implementing a drive thru system for Belizeans, and that too was part of the slowdown. She says the new officers are currently in training and it will still be a while before they are brought on stream, so there may be a recurrence of delays with the Christmas rush.
And while the shoppers may complain, the Free Zone businesses are bitterly angry. They say business owners and workers couldn't get into the zone until midday because of the delays. The Immigration Director says Free Zone traffic accounts for three thousand of that crowd of fifteen thousand. The Free Zone business interests want their own line, so that they can bypass the Chetumal shoppers.
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