The Mexican Alliance of Transportation Organizations (AMOTAC) warned that it will hold demonstrations and road blockades in Tabasco and other southern and southeastern states on November 10 if federal and state authorities do not address their demands regarding alleged abuses by the State Highway Police and illegal toll collections in municipalities.
At a press conference in Villahermosa, Humberto Álvarez Morales, AMOTAC’s coordinator for the southern and southeastern region, along with the organization’s national vice president, Omar Alejandro Ortiz Muñoz, and delegates from Chiapas, Puebla, and Veracruz, stated that truckers are “tired of the harassment and extortion” they face while working.
Ortiz Muñoz added that the organization seeks safe and fair working conditions, but asserted that the regulations and fees truckers face “are no longer regulations, but rather revenue-generating mechanisms.”
For his part, Carlos Enrique Ledezma Ramos, AMOTAC delegate in Chiapas, described the payments demanded from drivers by Tabasco municipal authorities to allow them to deliver goods as “extortion.”
For example, if a truck makes five deliveries between Cárdenas and Villahermosa, it can pay up to ten thousand pesos, in addition to the taxes and fees already established by law.
Ledezma Ramos also denounced alleged acts of corruption by police officers who, he said, demand payments of up to 30,000 pesos in exchange for not turning vehicles over to the Public Prosecutor’s Office under false pretenses, such as irregularities in digital licenses.
AMOTAC representatives warned that if they do not receive a response to their demands, they will block highways and strategic access points in Tabasco and neighboring states on November 10, with the support of delegations from across the country.
The transporters are demanding, among other things, that verified vehicle registration cards be recognized, that municipal fees for loading and unloading be eliminated, and that the harassment by traffic authorities on Tabasco highways be stopped.
Source: titanfm
