By Murphy Woodhouse
Nogales International | 0 comments
The Mexican government has closed its customs checkpoint on Highway 15 south of Nogales, Sonora, eliminating a second layer of inspection at the border that President Enrique Peรฑa Nieto said had become unnecessary and cumbersome.
For southbound commercial and tourist vehicle traffic, the closure of the Agua Zarca checkpoint will likely mean shorter wait times for those headed south to Hermosillo and beyond. Immigration services at the facility, commonly known as Kilometer 21, will be unaffected.
Miguel Pacheco, owner of Nogales-based USA-Mex-Can Transport, said that the change will speed up the truckloads of heavy machinery his company takes into Mexico up to five times daily during peak months.
โItโs going to be really good because there will be no more delays at Kilometer 21,โ he said.
According to Pacheco, those delays lasted up to two hours, on top of crossing delays near the border, depending on โhow many trucks are to be inspected.โ
Two other interior Sonoran checkpoints, Cabullona south of Agua Prieta and San Antonio near Imuris, were also closed, as well six others in in the border states of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, according to an announcement Friday by Peรฑa Nieto.
โToday we arrived at the last stage, the last step toward closing the last checkpoints that have no reason to be and which will make travel much faster, more comfortable and safer for those who previously had to pass through customs checkpoints,โ the president said during a speech in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.
The checkpoints are run by the Mexicoโs Tax Administration Service (SAT), the federal agency tasked with enforcing the countryโs customs laws.
Mexican customs revisions at the border itself โ including those immediately south of the Dennis DeConcini and Mariposa ports of entry โ are not affected by the change and travellers will still have to pass through them.
Also unchanged is the requirement that foreign travelers heading south of Kilometer 21 must obtain a tourist permit from Mexicoโs National Migration Institute (INM). Those who donโt pick up a permit at the INM office on the south side on the DeConcini port can still apply at the office at Kilometer 21, according to INM Nogales delegate Carla Veronica Vazquez.
โIndependently of the fact that there will no longer be a customs inspection, foreigners and nationals of other countries must come to the migration office to get documented,โ she said.
Vazquez said that she had received no word that indicated that the presidentโs announcement will affect her agencyโs work south of Nogales.
โAs of right now, we have not received any other instruction,โ she said. โWe will remain at Kilometer 21 issuing permits to foreigners and nationals of the United States or any other country.โ
Vazquez said that Banjercito, the agency that issues vehicle import permits for drivers traveling outside of Sonoraโs permit-free zone, will also continue its operations at Kilometer 21. A woman who answered the phone Friday at Banjercitoโs Agua Zarca office also said operations there remain unchanged.
In a speech in May in Cancun announcing the closure of several customs checkpoints in Southern Mexico, Peรฑa Nieto said the days of drivers being โdaily bothered by having to pass through (interior) customs checkpointsโ are over. According to a news release posted Friday on the SAT website, 26 of the nation's 40 interior customs checkpoints have now been eliminated since Peรฑa Nieto took office in 2012.
On Friday in Reynosa, Peรฑa Nieto also announced the lifting of a $14,000 cap on monthly U.S. dollar deposits from border-area Mexican businesses, an anti-money laundering measure that had been in place since 2010.
The article may seem confusing. All that has happened is that there will be no more red or green lights and inspections @ KM21.
Moisheh
