Mexican Tax Officials Seize Hundreds of Foreign Owned Boats in $70 Permit Dispute
MEXICO CITY (AP) — When heavily armed marines and government tax
agents stormed eight marinas on Mexico's Pacific and Caribbean coasts,
boaters thought they were witnessing a major drug takedown.
The
mostly American and Canadian retirees found out that the target was
actually them — couples spending their golden years sailing warm-weather
ports in modest 40-foot boats.
After inspecting more than 1,600
vessels in late November, the Mexican government's Treasury Department
announced it had initiated seizure orders against 338 boats it accused
of lacking a $70 permit. The office says it has four months to decide
whether to release the boards or sell them at auction.
Many
owners say they actually have the permit but were never asked to present
it. Others say minor numerical errors in paperwork were used as grounds
for seizure.
Some say they were away at the time and have never
been officially notified at all, learning of the seizure only from local
marina operators.
It is all part of a new effort by President
Enrique Pena Nieto's administration to increase government revenues in a
country with one of the worst tax-collection rates among the world's
large economies. The push has drawn howls of protest from Mexicans upset
about new sales taxes and levies on home sales. But few of the new
measures were as unexpected or toughly enforced as what foreign pleasure
boat owners call a heavy-handed crackdown over a minor permit, and they
say it threatens a tourism sector Mexico has long sought to promote.
"They
brought all these marines, with machine guns and stuff, and they kind
of descended on the marina and everybody's going, 'Wow, there's a big
narco thing going down here,'" said Richard Spindler, whose catamaran
Profligate was impounded near Puerto Vallarta. "These are just retired
people, 50-, 60-year-old retired people, mellow people. It was way over
the top."
The document in question, known as a Temporary Import
Permit, can be obtained from a Mexican government website and proves
holders own their boats and promise not to leave them in Mexico or sell
them here.
Many boat owners say they simply weren't around when
authorities came by and slapped liens on the boats barring them from
leaving Mexico. They say officials have not told them how they could
remedy the situation.
One boater said marina operators warned
that anyone who tried to leave would be hunted down. The owner, who
expressed fear that speaking out by name could bring reprisals, said
officials had given no written notice of seizure on their boat, and they
had learned of it second hand from marina workers.
Hundreds of
boats did present their papers on time and weren't impounded. Elizabeth
Shanahan, who lives on her boat at a marina in the Pacific coast resort
of Nueva Vallarta, said she had no trouble when authorities came
through, and that fellow boaters who didn't initially have their papers
in order were given 10 days to comply.
"It is the responsibility
of the property owner, be it a boat or whatever, to know the laws of the
country in which they are traveling and visiting," she said.
The
Treasury Department and its tax agency refused to specify the size,
value or nationality of boats that were impounded and did not respond to
numerous requests for details or reaction to the boat owners'
complaints.
Because authorities put no notices or chains on
targeted boats, some foreigners in affected marinas are uncertain if
their boats are on the impound list and fear their vessels might be
seized if they tried to sail away even if they had paid the $70 tax.
"This
is killing nautical tourism in a worse way than drug trafficking,
because it's the government itself that is taking the yachts," said
Enrique Fernandez, a member of Mexico's Association of Marinas.
A
spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Mark C. Johnson, said in
an email that U.S. officials are holding discussions on the issue with
the Mexican government. Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade
and Development said it knows of three Canadians whose boats were
seized.
Spindler, who has been sailing to Mexico for 36 years and
publishes the sailing magazine Latitude 38, estimated that about 45 of
the 53 boats at the marina where his boat was seized are owned by
Americans or Canadians.
"Mexico wants and greatly supports
nautical tourism," he said, but warned that the heavy-handed approach
could put the sailing sector at risk.
"I'm getting all these
letters from people now going: 'Well, that's it. I was going to go to
Mexico, I was a little scared before, but now I'm not going to do it for
sure,'" he said.
Paradoxically, Mexico may be punishing some of
its biggest boosters — visitors who return each year and keep marinas
and boatyards in work.
"This is the killer, these people are the
greatest ambassadors for Mexico you have ever heard," Spindler said.
"It's given Mexico a really black eye."