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COVID-19 Precautions Clear Protesters From Sonoran Toll Booths

Toll booth
Kendal Blust/KJZZ
/
editorial | staff
A driver passes through the toll booth near Magdalena, Sonora.

Travelers have long been waved through Sonoran toll booths by protesters fighting for free passage through the state. They’ve shut down the toll booths almost nonstop for the past two years, costing the government more than $110 million in lost toll revenues, according to data obtained by KJZZ.

But not any more. As of Tuesday, protesters cleared out from toll booths across Sonora in order to comply with aggressive physical distancing measures being implemented in the state.

"We're going to hold ourselves to the call which has been made of us by the Secretary of Health in this case," said Alfonso Canaan, a lawyer and activist with the Sonoran Free Transit movement. "But obviously, once this crisis passes, we're going to take up the protest again."

That is, unless the Mexican government is willing to work with them to find another solution, he said.

→  Read The Latest News On The Coronavirus Disease  

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