Getting Your License Plates Renewed

based on a real story (mine) / January, 2004

Every couple of years or so, the government authorities in this sorry to say it third world country must find ways to increase revenue in an inescapable and obligatory way that excludes no one, unlike the payment of taxes which the government has been unable to screw people out of beyond the roughly 30% who must pay for everyone elses's social services and societal infrastructure.

So, in 2003, it was announced by the Secretaria de Protección y Vialidad that license plates would have to be renewed for all vehicles in the state of Yucatan (and other states too, I would imagine, since all of them are sporting a new license plate 'look'). A time frame was set up according to the last 4 numbers on your plate, and you could go to the government offices, resubmit all paperwork on your car (which should have already all been on file but which they claim they need yet again to put together your file since the papers tend to deteriorate from the humidity - they haven't heard of computers, microfiche or other technological advances it seems) and trade in your old green on white plates for the new ultra-chic (not) brown on white with a Chichen pyramid in the background.

Many good Mexicans, and in this case, at least one foreigner, decided that since each time a deadline is announced, there is always some sort of postponement that rewards those who don't comply with the law and that there would always be plenty of time later to do the license plate switch. But they were wrong. This time around the good folks at the SPV decided they weren't going to fart around and actually applied sanctions to those who didn't change their plates by the December 31st 2003 deadline.

Starting January 1st, the police started pulling over vehicles with old license plates. If you were lucky enough to have only one policeman pull you over, the possibility existed to casually and humbly suggest a small payment in exchange for some extra time and another chance to get those new plates on your car. If, however you were pulled over at a 'reten' or major roadblock, chances of bribing your way out of the sanction were nil, since there were about 10 cops and a medium official supervising the roadblock, along with a tow truck. That's what happened to many in the first days of January, this foreigner included!

Read all about it here!