CAUTION! Crossing the Mexican border into Belize at Chetumal-scam!!
 

Just a word of warning for anyone leaving Mexico and entering Belize at the Chetumal border crossing. The border officials seem to regularly collect a $20.00 US exit fee that is NOT LEGAL!!
When we reached the border we stood in line at the security booth to have our passports stamped out of Mexico. I did not expect to have to pay as we had paid to enter Mexico, and a fellow traveller had just left Mexico and entered Guatemala without paying a Mexican exit fee. My companions were ahead of me and told me there was a $20 US (or peso equivalent) exit fee that they had not expected. Skeptical, I asked a few people around the area if the fee was official. No one would tell me straight out that it was a scam, but one man said "I cannot tell you if you have to pay it or not." which I took to mean that it was a scam. I got back in line and approached the window, where I passed my receipt for the Mexican Visa and my passport through the window. The official inside then asked me for 240 pesos or 20 dollars for the exit fee. I told him I had already paid to enter and that I thought there was no fee. He handed me a very official looking blank receipt with the amount on it along with spaces for name passport etc, and insisted that it was necessary. When I continued to protest (hoping I was right, as he did have my passport) he changed his tune and asked why I couldn't pay - did I not have any money? I bluffed again, and said that I didn't, and he said that I had to write on the back of the form that I didn't have any money, and sign it. I wrote "No tengo suficiente dinero para pagar este impuesto" on the back of the form, and tried to pass it through without signing, but he insisted I sign, I did, he took it, stamped my passport, and I didn't pay the fake fee. So, if you are crossing at this border, put up a fuss at the counter, as this fee is not required, it's clearly going into someone's pocket.
Also, the Belizean border doesn't make it at all clear that you MUST HAVE Belizean insurance for your vehicle, and this is a super easy way for crooked police to extort money from you if you don't have it, so make sure to spend the $20 you saved on the Mexican exit tax scam on insurance for your bike in Belize.
Ride Safe - O.

Sorry ,but the Belize side makes it abundantly clear that you need to buy BZ insurance, and they sell it right there in the little insurance office. This is not a question of crooked BZ cops going to scam you. They will ask for proof of insurance somewhere after you ride onward and if you do NOT have it it is time to write you up. Besides, you should have known this from studying up here on HU .
As for the Mexico "exit fee" you could indeed be facing a bogus tax. But these rules are always subject to change, so maybe the lads were getting ahead of themselves with a new tax they had heard was in planning stage..Time for me to do some research here.

I posted instructions on my blog about this border crossing. Atleast when I did it last year I didn't have to pay anything to leave mexico.

Belize Border Crossing Info » All the way south

Like Sjoerd said, you have to have insurance in Belize.. also get your bike fumigated. I think I put the prices in my post.

I went through there a few weeks ago, no issues at all. In fact the border people on both side were very professional, that said, I followed the instructions on this site Main Page - Drive the Americas and had no problemo's. Just type in the country you want. The directions for the Belize insurance are easy to follow. Mind you some fellow riders that were behind me were stuck in Belize as they had no insurance, so once again as already mentioned, do your homework, they did not know where th ebuilding was and went right on by.

I never got stopped by police though as I took the dirt road short cut south to the western border and did not go near Belize city

Cheers
TS

Mexico into Belize
 

I crossed the border at Chetumal in June 2014, I had heard about the $20 fee that the border officials ask for and like a lot of people I'd heard it was a scam so I argued with the guy in the box and he refused to stamp my passport so on the Belize side they sent ne back and I ended up having to pay $25. This may help though, when I landed in Mexico I told the guy at customs that I was going straight to Belize which I didn't and as I wasn't staying he said I didn't have to pay the $50 entrance fee which I had been told was mandatory. I think it all come down to who your dealing with when you cross, as in life some guys are good some aren't!!

I agree with the above, each time i crossed was a little different, but never really an issue....Belize immigration people always super nice, mexicans can be grumpy some days...

It's a scam. First, $20 US is now roughly $425 pesos not $240. Also, there is no "Sorry, I cannot pay" written waiver for government fees. They often try the same thing for customs fees at post office parcel pick up windows. The "official" form never has a government numerical id on it. Good that you told him "VALC" ;)

Where is the short cut dirt road to the western border?
Thanks Brian

Not sure why insurance requirements come as such a surprise to some travellers.
It is required in Canada, the USA, Mexico, Australia, Europe, the rest of the Americas and rarely is there any official sigb pointing this out. Rarely also is it a function of customs to enforce or advise. ALWAYS it is a function of police to check and punish those without. Get used to it.

Brianb - You mean the new border crossing west out of Belize ?

It is at the hamlet named JALACTE and is reached by a newly engineered paved road extending northwest from the Southern Highway.
From Dangriga go south to the place where the Southern Highway makes it right angle turn east to Punta Gorda at the junction called Dump.
Turn WEST at that junction and you will follow the new highway past San Antonio all the way to the border.

This NEW border crossing was scheduled to be put into service in 2016 or 2017 so it may be not yet officially in use.
The locals have been crossing here for a long time but now with the new official border works there may be a BZ customs presence which MAYBE could process you out legally .if not be prepared to go back to the LEGAL crossing north at Melchor de Mencos , GT
Please have a look there and let us know the current state of affairs or construction at JALACTE

This is as good a time and place as any to post the new info I gathered in Feb 2019

Re: NEW Belizean border crossing into Guatemala at JALACTE .

THE OPENING DATE HAS BEEN PUSHED BACK , unknown when .

The Belizeans have indeed built an excellent new highway and a new customs terminal at their side of the border.
However the Guatemalan political leaders have decided that they wish to dispute the territorial boundary and have refused to do any road building or customs office construction to make the linkage functional so as not to weaken their claim .
It appears to be not just a minor claim over a bit of pasture along the border .It was reported that they are trying to claim vast areas of Belize ,almost half of the area of the country !

This current Guatemalan stance has been taken on purpose to bolster their claims in a revived territorial dispute which had been ostensibly resolved by their tacit submission to the existing border for many years . If they build and operate the new Jalacte transit point now they would be admitting to accepting the border as it is . The rampant overpopulation growth in the Peten and the desire for peasant farmers to chop down ever more jungle - into Belize - has made this a new political item popular among the Maya of the Peten, many of whom are actually immigrants from the GT Highlands .Also the claim is popular among some in big time farming who see it as a chance to grow more cash crops .

The original claims were made during the Guatemalan civil war when repression and murders of Mayan groups were rampant . Old 1970s road maps issued by Esso in GT had rubber stamped notes on them that the border as marked was not recognized by Guatemala .As part of the temporary solution at that time it was agreed by both countries that at some later date they would have the right to to ask that the International Court of Justice hear their claims and issue a ruling to finally settle the dispute .

Guatemala had a referendum in 2015 which concluded with the decision that GT was ready to ask for ICJ intervention. Belize is till not decided but they are scheduled to hold a referendum -election in April 2019 which will determine if they too will agree to ask for the ICJ to issue a statement .

Guatemala does already have military garrisons at points along the border and it might just yet turn into a shooting skirmish or invasion .
Would a Guatemalan takeover, whole or partial , actually make any sense ?Would the Commonwealth send in army support for Belize ?
The Belizean culture is quite different . Even though it might have been originally Mayan territory those Lowland Mayans in BZ are not necessarily keen for any GT takeover , particularly not the contingent who may have fled the horror of the civil war .

Guatemala was very close to invade Belize in the 70s just before they had that devastating earthquake in february 1976 - which of course forced them to use their army and resources differently. They had detailed plans how to do it - their president/dictator at that time Kjell Eugenio Laugerud Garcia admitted it in an interview later on.

But its strange that they havent given it up by now.