BELMOPAN, Belize - Prime Minister John Briceño has returned from Mexico where he held talks with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the head of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country continues to deal with an energy crisis resulting on several blackouts.
Prime Minister Briceno speaking to reporters following his visit to MexicoSpeaking to reporters, Briceño, who was accompanied by senior officials from Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), described the talks in Cancun as “very successful and fruitful” and that the Mexican energy provider will now supply a total of 75 megawatts to the national grid.
BEL said it had been forced to implement power interruptions throughout the country after indicating that the power plant in Mexico is unable to meet the high demand for electricity here.
According to BEL, daily electricity demand levels have varied between 85 megawatts (MW) and 125 MW throughout the day over the past few weeks, while in country capacity is currently a maximum of 93MW.
“When I met with the President in Mexico City, he invited me to join him in Cancun where every two weeks he goes to look at the Tren Maya project. And so he invited different ministries and the head of CFE to be able to meet with us,” Prime Minister Briceño said.
“We had a chance to meet with the President and the CFE head and they have agreed that they will work with us to continue to provide energy. As you know, well probably most people don’t know, we have a maximum of 55 megawatts of energy that we can buy.”
But Briceño said Mexico has “offered “ to increase the capacity by 20 megawatts “ so we’ll be able to buy approximately 75 megawatts and we’ll be working with CFE now to run a second line into Belize.”
Prime Minister Briceño, who was accompanied by his Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise Minister, Jose Abelardo Mai, said they held discussions with other Mexican government officials on issues that include cattle exportation, as well as the contrabanding of Belizean sugar.
”As you all know, a lot of our sugar is being contraband into the Chetumal region and it creates shortages for us. The President agreed that he’ll talk with the Minister of Economy for us to look at the tariff regime to be able to expect to reduce it and also then to give us a certain quota to be able to export sugar into [Mexico].
“We spoke about cattle. The presidential decree has come to an end and we’re looking at expanding it so that we can continue to export cattle into Mexico. We also looked at coconuts, a new industry in Belize and we’ll be working with… and the Minister of Agriculture was there with me. They will start the discussions as to how we’d be able to get our coconuts, following the requirements from Mexico and so we spoke also about that and shrimp,” Briceño added.
Meanwhile, the government has taken a decision to remove the existing border tax for Mexican visitors entering Belize.
Cabinet has also agreed on allowing Mexican visitors to use their insurance in Belize with Belmopan saying that it’s all in an effort to facilitate easier access and movement into the country.
“Our cabinet has agreed to lift or to provide the cards for the Mexicans free of charge so they could come into Belize easily, remove the border tax and also be able to use their insurance into Belize. We’re doing this so that we can be able to make it easier for Mexicans to visit Belize,” Prime Minister Briceño said.
He told reporters that he is “very grateful to President AMLO, as everybody knows him, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
“I also met with the governor from Quintana Roo, who was also there. We had several discussions. There’s an interest in the port because now that Chetumal is going to be a duty free area, all the goods will have to come in through the Belize port,” he said, adding “I extended an invitation to the Governor and we expect that probably in maybe a month or two, so that he’d be able to come on a working visit”.
