Mexico suspends diplomatic visa exemption for Canadians
Mexico's foreign secretary has announced the suspension of a visa exemption for Canadian diplomats and officials working in the country. The decision comes in response to the announcement late Monday by the Canadian government that it was introducing a new visa for Mexican nationals wanting to travel to Canada.
Canadian officials and diplomats will now have to obtain visas before going to Mexico, but the new restrictions will not affect Canadian tourists. Mexico's tourist industry was severely hit by the H1N1 flu outbreak this year. Adding restrictions for travelers would only cause a further drop in visitors to the country.
The new measures were made public by Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa during a meeting with her Canadian counterpart, Lawrence Cannon, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Guadalajara on Thursday.
"We have made it absolutely clear that we are not in agreement" with the Canadian decision, Espinosa said.
The Canadian government announced the visa restrictions only two days before they were due to come into effect. Since then, Mexico City's Canadian Embassy has been descended upon by thousands of Mexicans desperate to process the necessary visa paperwork before the departure of flights they've booked.
The embassy issued a statement Thursday that said on Tuesday and Wednesday more than 3,500 people applied for the visas, and that by the end of Wednesday 1,300 had been processed.
Watch the video to see the scene at the embassy.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Video: The Canadian Embassy in Mexico City. Credit: Deborah Bonello
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Posted by: stella | August 07, 2009 at 08:30 AM
U.S. asks Mexican nationals for a visa, and has been doing it for decades.
U.S. economy benefits greatly form the thousands of Mexican people crossing the boarder every day to go shopping and leaking insane amounts of money in Vegas' casinos.
They also pay U.S. taxes in most of their purchases. There are a few tax return offices in major shopping centers but demand exceeds their capacity by far.
Canadian economy benefits from Mexican tourists also.
It's not corrupt politicians but economists the ones that recommend boarder security not to become more aggressive. Vegetable and fruit prices would go to the roof if they were picked by "American" people (America is a continent, BTW), among many other things .
As always, some people can only see the negative side of a situation form which they benefit greatly. If it was really that detrimental to the U.S., it would have been "fixed" a while ago.
If U.S. takes something that doesn't belong to them it's conquering, or even worse, defending Democracy. If someone takes something from the U.S. it's theft.
Does the word Chauvinism ring any bells?
U.S. and Mexico have brought each other both problems and benefits since their very beginning.
Ignorance and hatred always work hand in hand.
Posted by: Dissident Penguin | July 28, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Canada is now finding out what Americans have known for years!
Mexican Nationals bring gangs, graffiti, drugs
and poverty into new regions.
Posted by: DelWebb | July 20, 2009 at 06:45 AM
This is typical of corrupt Mexico. The elite their have nothing left over for their poor, and middle class, such as there is, so they "export" them to other nations. Mexican elites pay the least amount of taxes than anyone in their economic class in the Western Hemisphere. Shame on them. I really don;'t blame Canada, unlike the U.S.'s corrupt polticians it seems the Canadians have decided to be responsible and not burden their citizenry.
Posted by: Bobby | July 20, 2009 at 12:03 AM