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Mexican Truck Drivers Protest Tolls Near Border

Trucks line up
Mónica Ortiz Uribe
Trucks line up for for inspection at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, Texas.

Truck drivers in Nogales, Mexico, created a blockade on a toll road near the Arizona border this week to protest expensive fees on their big-rigs.

Mexican truck drivers says they are sick of paying hefty tolls to drive on a poorly maintained and unsafe road in Nogales, Sonora.

The five-hour blockade Wednesday was the second at the toll booth this month. The protests prevent trucks from crossing the border into the United States with their merchandise, said Martha Rascon-Overpeck, executive director of the Safe Border Trucking Association in Nogales, Arizona.

“The impact is on trade. When there is a blockade can get to the warehouses,” she said.

And when the goods are perishable, she added, that can lead to spoiled food.

While the blockade Wednesday was resolved within a few hours, she said, there needs to be a long-term solution.

“This toll road has been in place for 20 years and at least there’s one blockade once a year for one reason or another,” she said. “And this year it’s for the high cost of the toll road and the road being unsafe, mainly.”

Mexican officials were scheduled to meet with truck drivers Thursday afternoon.

Kendal Blust was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2018 to 2023.