Roatan Unrest at the port gate today

[SRV FAN]

I just had a video chat with my son who is onboard Liberty of the Seas & they docked at Roatan this morning... there is some kind of unrest at the pier. People were blocking the gate to the port area, shouting, pushing, shoving & not letting the shuttles in or the people out! The police arrived & finally got the crowd to disperse.... he said all he could find out was apparently the port area is doing some construction & they are using Mexican Nationals to do the work, so the Roatan people are upset with that. My son couldn't get to his shuttle bus for his excursion, so they went back to the ship. The Cruise Director finally came on over the speaker to say that people could now go thru the gates to enjoy their day in Roatan..my son & family (wife & two young girls) decided they'd just stay onboard as they were afraid they might not be able to get back into the port area later today & who knows what might be happening elsewhere on the island.... it's so sad, because they booked this itinerary just for Roatan to snorkel.... it's their fav port (ours too)… sad. I'd be afraid to go ashore as well...so I think they made a good decision, but it's still sad.

[crewsweeper]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.  Wondering what expats out there think on this issue.  Sounds like a labor dispute with use of Mexican nationals vs locals.  Also  appears to be localized at the port.  So your son would probably have been fine doing the excursion.  Understand his concerns for family safety.  Hope they enjoy the rest of their cruise without issues.

[Guest 2000]

Did this happen in Coxen Hole? I thought the construction had been ongoing for months and months. Wonder why it all blew up today. 

 

Mind you current correct information is really a challenge and on the island is even worse,  rumors are rampant.. 

 

I am so sorry your son and his family were unable to see the island. 

[c-leg5]

Sorry to hear that but not the first time this has happened at Coxen Hole for various reasons.

 

(OT: did you manage to find out what the maintenance was and why the ship was delayed until almost midnight on Sunday? Sorry to ask here but was looking for update on your original thread. Feel free to reply there.)

Edited November 13, 2019 by c-leg5

[mitsugirly]

Yea I know they were doing work when we were there in August (and you could definitely tell its been going on for awhile now) so makes me wonder why all of a sudden there's a problem. Following....

 

 

[Panmrf]

My wife and I were n Roatan that day. We chartered a taxi driver who told us what the deal is. It is a labor dispute but not over the construction specifically but the Mexican stakeholders in the construction project are demanding long term jobs such as taxi drivers, port workers, etc., be granted to Mexican labor and local labor of course is fighting back. My knowledge of the issue is very limited but my instincts r telling me to side with local labor. 

[Grenadyr]

We were there on the 14th and everything was fine for us.  My daughter and I walked out of the main gate and hung out for about half and hour waiting for our group to depart.  At that time we didn't see anything unusual and felt perfectly safe.  We did speak to a bartender later in the day about the port and she intimated the locals were generally cranky about the port construction but wasn't too specific on the causes.  They are certainly still working on the port and probably will be for quite a while if the pace of the work remains consistent.