7 News Belize

A Scuffle At FSTV Over Taxi Tour Operators
posted (March 19, 2015)
The tourism village - on cruise ship days it's always a struggle for the tour operators forced to hustle outside the gates of the village. They have to jostle for position, while trying to keep a relatively calm atmosphere for tourists. This morning, though, some commotion was created when one of them got detained by police - he says it was just for holding up a sign. Here's what happened:..

Jimmy Robinson, Secretary General Tourism Zone Tour Guide - Tour Operators Union
"The president was arrested by the police out here and was taken to the Queen Street Police Station. So as secretary general and as executive of the union, automatically, what I did was group everybody together and try to find out about his whereabouts and what was the reason why he was arrested."

Geovannie Brackett, reporter
"How was it after that?"

Jimmy Robinson
"What I did was get in touch with the personnel from the BTB here on the ground and also personnel from the TPU and I was made to understand that the matter was under control and about 45 minutes later he was back out here with us."

Aarton Bowen, President - Taxi Operator
"Well, the officer approached me and told me that I couldn't use the sign and I try to inquire why, because then I explained to him, I don't want to be chasing behind the guests asking if they want a taxi. I have a sign and so if they want to use my service, they will come to me and they don't want that - for whatever reason. This all part of an attempt to break up our union. Me being the head of the union, of course, you want to kill the snake, you get the head first. So this is why - all these attacks, first they levied it at me as the head of the union and then the effects trickle down to our membership. We are really more concerned with a matter of having equal access to the tourists."

Jimmy Robinson
"Out here is our bread and butter, it's how we make our living. We take care of our family, we pay our taxes and right about now, more than 50% of our income have been lost for the past 3 years here at the zone. The money we were taking home 3 years ago, that was cut in more than half."

Bowen was not charged.

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