Of course, there are two sides to every story - and the other side of this one is that San Ignacio's taxi operators are simply trying to make it so that the Benqueno's don't set up shop in their town.
Today 7news spoke with the Mayor of San Ignacio Town, John August who told us that the traffic department in San Ignacio Town is not stopping Benque Viejo taxicabs from dropping off their passengers. He explained to us how the new regulations work.
John August, Mayor of San Ignacio Town
"Benque taxis for many years now have always come into our town. They have always been allowed to into San Ignacio and Santa Elena bringing people from Benque Viejo and the surrounding villages to come and do whatever business they have to do in this municipality; banks or whatever. But we have never really had a problem with it. Its until recently that we started experiencing problems because the Benque Viejo taxi operators started doing freelancing in our community - what I mean by that is that they come into our community, they bring their passengers whether they are from Benque Viejo or the surrounding villages, they bring them into town but at the same time they want to start operating as if though they are taxi operators in this municipality and that has created the conflict with our local taxi operators who believe that the Benque Viejo taxis are coming into this municipality and not only bringing people and picking up people to go back to Benque but they are now starting to operate as taxi men in this municipality. What I mean is that if someone is standing on a street corner here in San Ignacio and Santa Elena and they want a ride - let's say to Hill View in Santa Elena or San Juan area then the Benque taxi would pick them up and take them to that designated area within the municipality and charge them a certain fee and that is what is causing all of this because they have started operating in this municipality as if thou they are an association here in our town and our taxi men don't like it."
"Let's say you get into that taxi and you have gone to border or to Melchor to do your shopping or whatever and at the border you get a taxi and you want to come back home to San Ignacio or Santa Elena - the Benque taxis can come drop you off at whatever area you live in this town but once they enter the town they cannot be conducting business in the town in picking up people in the town in San Ignacio or Santa Elena and dropping them off in other areas in the municipality."
"The problem is when they come in to drop you off let's say in Santa Elena but then they meet a passenger in Santa Elena but that person probably doesn't want to go to Benque or to the Western border."
Email
Print