Sorghum producers have closed the Ciudad Victoria-Matamoros highway near the municipality of San Fernando for more than 30 hours, causing annoyance among motorists and truckers, some verbal clashes, and people attempting to cross the nearly 20 kilometers between gaps.
The roadblock is due to the producers’ demand for an improved price per ton of sorghum.
The vice president of the Tamaulipas State Front of Agricultural Producers, Juan Pisano, stated that they will continue the protest because they have received no response from either the federal or state government.
“We do not plan to lift the blockade until we have a timely response. We no longer want promises; we want someone from the federal government to come,” he added.
The closure has been almost total, allowing traffic from north to south for only about half an hour, and then another half hour from south to north.
There have been many testimonies from motorists who have risked crossing gaps of up to 20 kilometers to get past the roadblock and exit before reaching the municipal seat of San Fernando.
Truck drivers have also done the same, causing further traffic chaos because they have gotten stuck in the gaps due to the muddy terrain caused by a rainstorm in the region.
“We don’t even have enough to buy diesel,” they say.
The countryside is mired in misery. We don’t even have enough to buy diesel. We are going through the worst year in history, said Guillermo Aguilar, president of the Tamaulipas State Front of Agricultural Producers.
Farmers closed the Reynosa-Pharr International Bridge yesterday, Monday, as well as the San Fernando-Matamoros highway, and on Tuesday, access to the Nuevo Progreso bridge in Tamaulipas.
“Our struggle is because we have the same sales price for sorghum as it was 23 years ago, but with the difference that we have an extraordinary increase in the prices of inputs needed to be able to produce, and that is what is destroying us.”
Therefore, it is urgent that the Federal Government react and support them so that the price of a ton of sorghum rises to at least 6,000 pesos to compete with producers in the United States.
“We are asking for compensatory support to overcome this poor season, and they haven’t even been able to provide us with that. That’s why we are experiencing protests and road closures until we get a solution.”
He said that high production costs have sent them into free fall, so the Government must act with emergency compensation to at least continue their activity.
“We are not asking for profit, luxuries, or earnings, but simply to continue their activity. National agriculture cannot continue with these misguided public policy schemes. We need to demand a base price, a halt to tariffs, and a halt to imports,” he concluded.
Testimonies in the Face of Traffic Chaos
“After a lot of juggling, getting into a gap, then to the side, to the left, and to the right, along the shoulder of the road, I was finally able to get out and reach San Fernando,” was the testimony of a motorist coming from the border to Ciudad Victoria.
A man who said he was 72 years old desperately explained to the protesters that his wife was sick in the vehicle and her life was in danger, after hours of being stopped on the road.
“You have every right, but can’t you authorize a tiny car to pass? If I’m a liar, tell me whatever you want. If my wife doesn’t have a blood pressure of 185, that’s not valid? Don’t all of us who are detained have rights? How brave you are!” the man told them.
A little boy who was with him said the following: “My mother’s life is important, family is important.”
Source: eluniversal
