A major security operation has cleared illegal tolls along a major interstate in neighboring Sonora.
For years, motorists driving through several indigenous Yaqui communities on Interstate 15 in southern Sonora have been asked to pay to continue on, and are sometimes physically blocked from proceeding until they pay.
But over two days this week, state and federal security forces — including the National Guard and military — cleared those tolls and made 27 arrests, according to officials. A new federal law prohibits the blocking of traffic to obtain financial benefit.
Sonoran Attorney General Claudia Indira Contreras said that the tolls and the delays they bring generate a lot of economic harm, not just for Sonora but the entire country. Another state security official said that efforts will be made to prevent the tolls from being reestablished.
