The Government of Mexico announced that beginning tomorrow March 19th, 2021, it will impose restrictions on land transit for non-essential activities on its northern and southern borders to prevent the further spread of COVID-19" reported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through a message on Twitter.

The northern border has been with restrictions on land transit, since March 2020, imposed by the United States authorities and each month, together with Mexico, a review of the current situation regarding Covid-19 has been made.

“Additionally, the government of Mexico will deploy sanitary control measures in the north and south of the country. Restrictions on non-essential traffic and sanitary measures will remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. on April 21, 2021, ” it added.

The Ministry Foreign Affairs in Mexico has not given more details of what type of restrictions and sanitary measures it is going to apply.

Source: El Universal via Zona Libre Noticiero Digital

https://www.zonalibrenoticias.com/p...s-en-fronteras-a-partir-del-19-de-marzo/

Mexico Closes Borders, What Does It Mean For Free Zone?

And while Belize is making progress with its vaccines and hopes that will lead to a greater and safer opening up of the economy, Mexico is going in the other direction.

That country will be closing its border with Belize, Guatemala and the USA tomorrow.

According to regional news, there will be restrictions imposed on land transit for non-essential activities on Mexico's northern and southern border.

Their Foreign Minister explained on Twitter that this is to prevent the spread of COVID 19.

So, what does this mean for the recently reopened Corozal Free Zone? Travel to that location is surely not going to be considered as essential.

Our colleague at CTV3 asked Minister of Enterprise, Jose Mai about it this evening. He said while he doesn't have all the details, he doesn't understand why the border with Belize is being closed, since our active cases are extremely low.

Hon. Jose Mai - Minister of Agriculture "I am still wondering why would the central government of Mexico make such a decision because Belize's cases of COVID are actually close to nil, they are very low, so I don't know why they would make that decision. I'm hoping they are not reacting to us opening the Free zone. I don't know if that is the case with Guatemala because I can't report for them but we in Belize our cases have gone down dramatically and so I don't know why that decision will be made. If they do close their border, remember it is saying traffic, it's not prohibiting it is restricting, so we have to look at the terms that they are using and I think it's vehicular traffic. So we have to look at what exactly, I haven't officially seen the document but I need to see what it says then we decide what we do after that but not much we can do if they close the borders, we can't do much. As far as I understood it to be, their borders are close to vehicular traffic, it did not say that you cannot come across the bridge walking but again I need to read the document and read it carefully but that's what I understood it to be."

In addition to border restrictions for non-essential travel, the Mexican government will deploy sanitary control measures in the north and south of the country.

Channel 7

Corozal Free Zone business activity continues despite reports of restrictions at the border by Mexican Government. This morning Mexican clients continued to enter the CFZ, amidst concerns that reported new restrictions imposed for a month, as of today March 19th, would have prevented them from crossing the border. CFZ Chief Executive Officer Neri Ramirez shared with CTV3 News that their attempts to check with official channels have not produced definitive answers.

CEO Ramirez also reported that a test exercise done on February 26th resulted in zero COVID19 positive cases among the employees of the Free Zone.

CTV3