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The Treasury Department and its tax agency refused to specify the size, value or nationality of boats impounded and did not respond to numerous requests for details or reaction to the boat owners’ complaints.

Because authorities put no notices or chains on targeted boats, some foreigners in affected marinas are uncertain if their boats are on the impound list and fear their vessels might be seized if they tried to sail away even if they had paid the $70 tax.

“This is killing nautical tourism in a worse way than drug trafficking, because it’s the government itself that is taking the yachts,” said Enrique Fernandez, a member of Mexico’s Association of Marinas.

This is killing nautical tourism in a worse way than drug trafficking

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Mark Johnson, said in an email that U.S. officials are holding discussions on the issue with the Mexican government. Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development said it knows of three Canadians whose boats were seized.

Spindler, who has been sailing to Mexico for 36 years and publishes the sailing magazine Latitude 38, estimated that about 45 of the 53 boats at the marina where his boat was seized are owned by Americans or Canadians.

“Mexico wants and greatly supports nautical tourism,” he said, but warned that the heavy-handed approach could put the sailing sector at risk.

“I’m getting all these letters from people now going: ‘Well, that’s it. I was going to go to Mexico, I was a little scared before, but now I’m not going to do it for sure,”‘ he said.

Paradoxically, Mexico may be punishing some of its biggest boosters — visitors who return each year and keep marinas and boatyards in work.

“This is the killer, these people are the greatest ambassadors for Mexico you have ever heard,” Spindler said. “It’s given Mexico a really black eye.”