Finally, Solid Numbers on Impounded Boats

Tere Grossman, president of the Mexican Marina Owners Association, has provided us with a list, complements of the AGACE, of the boats that were ‘Reviewed’, ‘Embargoed’, and ‘Liberated’ in Mexico.

As you can see from the chart, 1,641 were reviewed, 337 were embargoed, and 146 have been liberated. That means 191 are still embargoed.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of the boats still embargoed by size and type. And how many of them are owned by Mexicans in the names of U.S. corporations.

Grossman tells us that as yet, no boat owners have been fined.

It’s our understanding that close to 20 of the boats that have been "liberated" had been already taken from their respective marinas by fearful owners. Does that mean they are now free to return to Mexico without fear of reprisal? Who knows?

What do you get if AGACE ‘reviewed’ your boat, ’embargoed’ her, and after finding that everything was in order, ‘liberated’ her? You don’t get a certificate from AGACE or anything, but if you were in La Cruz Marina, you got a document that showed yours was a ‘liberated’ boat. We presume this is true of boats that were liberated in other marinas, too.

Oddly enough, if AGACE approved of your boat on their first sweep, your boat isn’t on any list of ‘approved’ boats. Does that mean your boat is subject to another ‘review’? Who knows?

Are foreign boat owners now ‘safe’ to take their boats to Mexico without fear of another reckless round of ‘reviews’ by AGACE? We’re pretty confident they are safe. But as we’ve already said twice before in this article, ‘Who knows’?