My wife and I live in here Mexico. We recently returned from a delightful road trip to Southern Mexico. While in Quintana Roo, we decided we might like to take a look at Belize, since it is just across the southern border. We thought there might be opportunities to own land on the shore at a reasonable price. Our border crossing was uneventful (though expensive) and we drove into the town of Corazol, about 20 minutes from the Mexican border. There, we got directions to a new housing development we had been told was selling homes on the beach.
After a brief visit to the development we decided to head north to Conejo where you could look across the bay and see Chetumal in Mexico. We found a very attractive hotel and asked for a double room. A friendly Belizean: Carol gave us a form to fill out which was dauntingly comprehensive. It asked all sorts of questions that I felt were unwarranted and invasive such as passport number, where the passport was issued, what date it was issued and so on. I asked Carol why we were getting the third degree and she said that they are required to gather all this information by the United States government!
I was amazed and explained that I am an Irish citizen with an Irish passport and I live in Mexico, what has any of this got to do with the US? She said that the US insists that all hotels submit a record of who their guests are, no matter what their international status, because they want to find anyone who might have been accused of a crime in the US and who might be hiding in Belize to avoid prosecution. I asked if this information is also required by Canada, Mexico, Britain, Ireland, or anywhere else and she said that it was only required by the USA. She went on to say that they have agents stationed in Belize who, when appropriately lubricated of a Saturday night, have allowed slip that they are stationed in that country for the specific purpose of capturing anyone who might be wanted by the US government.
I said this seemed to me to be an outrageous violation of international sovereignty. I asked why the Belizean government, a sovereign country, complies. She explained that the USA threatens sanctions if they do not comply.
The next day my wife and I cut short our weeklong sojourn into Belize and after being charged $75 Belizean ($37.50US) to exit, we left for good and will never return. It might be useful to mention that at the border the young woman taking the "Exit Tax" made it sound like I had to pay $75 BD each. After complaining to another border official whom we had befriended on entering, we were told that it was half that and we should tell her to give us our money back. When I confronted her, she gave the second $75 BD back without comment.
If you go to Belize, expect to have your hotel stay reported to the US government, pay an entry fee, a large exit fee and 19% hotel tax on top of your regular bill.
