Cabinet Secretary Carlos Perdomo has confirmed to Amandala that Cabinet has agreed to further study a proposal from the Belize Business Bureau (BBB) to permit Mexican travelers to visit Belize for up to 10 days on their voter’s ID, which includes several biometric indicators, including thumbprints and eye scan data.

The rationale is that permitting the use of the Mexican ID card, versus a passport, would significantly boost Mexican visitors to Belize, upwards of half-a-million people a year.

BBB president Arturo Lizarraga told our newspaper that the prospects are for 3,200 direct jobs and 5,600 indirect jobs in the Belizean economy, and small businesses owned by Belizeans would feel direct positive effects, because most of the spending would be in cash, which the Mexicans would use more than credit cards.

Lizarraga notes that more Mexicans hold voter ID cards than do passports, which widens the potential for travel to Belize.