Program to Regularize “Chocolate” Cars Extended

The Mexican government announced an extension to the program to regularize “chocolate” cars, changing the deadline from Sep. 20 to Dec. 31, 2022. Furthermore, Jalisco was added to the list of states covered by the program. 

"On the President's instructions, given the demand for appointments, the deadline for the program has been extended to Dec. 31, and the state of Jalisco has also been added to the list where there will be service modules," said Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Federal Ministry, Public Security, as reported by Animal Político. 

The decision to extend the program was published in the Official Journal of the Federation (DOF), which states: “​​For this reason, it is necessary to extend the validity of the program for all those used vehicles of foreign origin that have not yet been definitively imported.”

The decision was met by criticism from the Mexican automotive industry. “Since the entry into force of the Decree, nothing has been done to restrict the entry of illegal used vehicles, so that the phenomenon not only continues but has expanded to more and more entities, even in those where there is not even a broad base of illegal vehicles since with the addition of more and more entities to the Decree, they continue to enter in the hope that at some point they will also be included,” said Guillermo Rosales Zarate, Executive President, Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA). 

The association also said that this decree only highlights the obsolescence of the Public Vehicle Registry (REPUVE), which has been unable to meet the demands of those who seek to regularize their vehicles. This has generated a black market for the people who are interested in regularizing their vehicle but have been unable to do so. 

“We said it once and we will continue to say it: the extension of this decree will only confirm the resounding failure it represents, since no matter how many offices are opened and appointments are generated, if the free transit of contraband, encouraged by federal and state authorities, is not closed, organized crime will continue to take advantage of the situation and the problems associated with this phenomenon will never end. Thus, Mexico will continue to be the backyard of other nations' automotive garbage and a country of never-ending regularization,” said Rosales.

During this month, AMDA’s Executive President pointed out that there is an increasingly worrying number of vehicle imports from the US and Canada. The association estimates that almost 500,000 additional units have been added to Mexico’s vehicle fleet, damaging national automakers, as reported by MBN.