Mexico Truckers Strike Challenges State and Freight Order

An indefinite national truckers’ strike began in Mexico on Monday, October 26. Trucks parked near Mexico City, and organizers planned protests in about 20 states. They called the action peaceful. Canacar said carrying cargo had become “a way of risking life and property,” while transporters reported thousands of robbery complaints and demanded action from the institutions governing highways, tolls and freight.

The risks carried by drivers

La Razón reported 3,646 complaints of robbery against transporters from January to September. Striking groups want safer highways, an end to extortion and protection payments, action against cargo theft, and better-maintained roads. They’re also seeking compensation for stolen trucks that are never recovered and reviews of detentions they consider unjustified. These demands put the costs of insecurity and official decisions on the table: drivers and carriers say they bear the danger, while agencies and elected officials control the rules and response.

Canacar, the National Chamber of Freight Transport, called the strike alongside the smaller alliances Fematrac, Amotac and Indeco. Augusto Ramos Melo leads Canacar. He appealed directly to President Claudia Sheinbaum to intervene, saying the strikers were her allies. That appeal directs pressure toward the president, while the strike uses collective disruption to make freight movement—and the people who depend on it—impossible to ignore.

Organizers said trucks carry about 1.6 million tonnes of freight daily on Mexican highways. Parked or slow-moving trucks could delay freight bound for factories, stores and the U.S. border. Organizers estimated up to 21,000 daily crossings, worth about US$1.8 billion, could stop, though reports described no closures at Laredo, Tijuana or Reynosa. No one knew how many trucks had joined or how many shipments faced delays.

A fight over toll money and law

The demands also touch tax rules. A toll credit lets carriers deduct up to half of their toll-road spending. Deputies approved cutting its revenue ceiling from 300 million pesos, about US$16 million, to 250 million pesos, about US$13.4 million. Canacar called the credit a partial refund of toll costs, not a privilege, and asked the Senate to keep the previous ceiling. Mexico’s finance ministry, known as Hacienda, considered the benefit too generous.

When the report was published, no agreement with Canacar had been announced. Whether the Senate would change the ceiling remained unresolved. A legislative adjustment could offer one route through the dispute, but truckers’ immediate leverage comes from withholding or slowing the freight system businesses rely on. The action’s duration and eventual reach were also unknown.

Disruption without a full shutdown

Around Mexico City, reported trouble spots included highways to Querétaro, Pachuca, Puebla and Toluca. El Financiero reported the first protest at the Tepotzotlán toll plaza north of the capital, where about 10 rigs stood on side lanes. No blockades were announced inside Mexico City, but strikers planned to block toll booths and key points between the capital and Mexico State. Commuters got advice to use the Metro, suburban trains and other public transport.

Route lists published by Infobae named roads in Jalisco, Nuevo León, Veracruz, Morelos, Guanajuato and Baja California. It reported trucks beside the Tijuana customs post, on side lanes at Nuevo Laredo and in slow traffic at Reynosa-Río Bravo, with no closures. Manzanillo had no blockades. Drivers were advised to check with the National Guard and the federal toll agency Capufe.

Several groups stayed out. ANTAC said the strike had no defined goals; Conatram said none of its members would join blockades; Amontac said it would wait for a security deal; and the Canapat bus chamber said it would keep working. Segob said most organizations accepted a dialogue table, while calling Canacar’s stance “inexplicable.” President Claudia Sheinbaum called the striking sector “very small,” and Hacienda described the earlier tax benefit as “very excessive.” Canacar estimated disruption could cost about 7 billion pesos, or about US$370 million, a day; no one had audited that industry estimate.