Belize–Mexico border

Logwood and treaties

British settlers established the Bay Settlement in what is now Belize in 1638. Spain kept sovereignty but in 1763, 1783 and 1786 granted them the right to cut logwood, first between the Río Hondo and the Belize River and then as far as the Sibun. After Mexican independence, an Anglo-Mexican treaty of 1826 adopted the limits of 1786.^[1]

In 1859 Britain agreed with Guatemala that Belize’s western line would run due north from Garbutt’s Falls “until it strikes the Mexican frontier”, and in 1882 Mexico and Guatemala set their own line on the parallel of 17°49′ N. A treaty of 8 July 1893 between Britain and Mexico tied these together: the line runs from Boca Bacalar Chico through Chetumal Bay, up the Hondo and Blue Creek, and south along the Garbutt’s Falls meridian to the parallel. An 1897 convention guaranteed Mexican merchant ships the right to sail the strait south of Ambergris Caye in perpetuity.^[1]

“from Garbutt’s Falls due north until it strikes the Mexican frontier”^[1]

Across the Hondo

British Honduras was renamed Belize in 1973.^[1] Many Belizeans have family across the river in Chetumal and cross every day. Since 2018 the two countries have marked the treaty’s anniversary at the Subteniente López bridge; Corozal’s mayor called the Río Hondo “the only thing that separates us”.^[2]

In May 2025 Belize’s prime minister, John Briceño, and Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, discussed a proposed bridge and Belize’s hope that the Maya Train will one day cross the Hondo into northern Belize.^[3]