Chihuahua.- The introduction of “crooked” cars into the country continues unabated by the authorities, which has allowed the regularization of one million 264 thousand 246 units in one year and that in the capital Chihuahua, where these cars were controlled, they have proliferated. , said Guillermo Rosales Zárate, national president of the Mexican Association of Automobile Dealers (AMDA), who reiterated the call to the Federal Government not to prolong the decree that promotes the regularization of used vehicles of foreign origin that expires on March 31.
During his visit to the city on the occasion of the renewal of the Board of Directors of AMDA Chihuahua, Rosales Zárate explained that from January 2022 to
March 6, 2023, one million 264 thousand 246 units were regularized in the country; In the same period, close to one million 200 new units were sold, which means that the vehicle fleet has more than doubled in one year, adding to the cars coming from the United States.
He recalled that one of the arguments of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to explain the decision to regularize contraband vehicles was that they were already in the country and that it was necessary to legalize them in order to reduce their use in the practice of crimes, in addition to providing opportunities to those who cannot afford a vehicle.
One year after the decree to regularize “crooked” cars entered into force, Rosales Zárate said, there are more illegal vehicles circulating in national territory than those at the beginning of the decree, that is, the objective of reducing circulation has not been met of illegal vehicles.
This is happening, he said, because what has been happening since the validity of the decree that was published in January 2022, is that vehicles continue to enter, since there is absolutely no operation by the Federal Government and state governments to prevent the commercialization of vehicles in the cities of the north and center of the country.
With this, he said, there is a clear collusion between the customs authorities to allow the entry of contraband, its commercialization, its transfer from the border to the interior of the country with the null activity of the National Guard, which is reflected in the increase of this type of vehicle even in cities like Chihuahua where in recent years a significant effort had been made to reduce the incidence of this type of unit.
The consequence, he stressed, is the direct impact on the automotive trade, which is why there has been an impact on the formal sale of used vehicles, “some merchants, especially from border cities, estimate up to 20% in the decrease in sales and on the other hand, a saturation of the vehicle fleet that requires more municipal services, given the inability of state and municipal governments to meet this additional demand”, he pointed out.
The main affectation, he said, and that has been raised to the Federal Government, is in terms of security, “if what the President wanted to avoid was the use of illegal vehicles in the commission of assaults and robberies, what has caused his decision is the economic strengthening of organized crime,” he said.
