COLOMBIA: President Juan Manuel Santos gives striking truck drivers deadline to get back on the road

Record ID: 338944

  • Title: COLOMBIA: President Juan Manuel Santos gives striking truck drivers deadline to get back on the road
  • Date: 18th February 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF TRUCK DRIVER CLEANING TRUCKS WHEELS
  • Embargoed: 5th March 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Colombia, Colombia
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA45YRHZ3EXGPU3A5LII0P5BOVU
  • Story Text: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos warned on Thursday (February 17) that his government would take measures by Thursday (February 17) night if the truck drivers don't lift roadblocks that have paralyzed roads and cost the country millions of dollars in the past two weeks.
    Around 120,000 union truck drivers started striking on February 3 in an indefinite strike to pressure the government into maintaining trucking payments.
    On Wednesday, the truckers said they would pull their trucks to side of the road, but many roads remained blocked. In Ubate on Wednesday, police cleared a roadway where protesters burned tires, scattering them tear gas cartridges.
    Santos, fed up with protests, said he would start taking action against the strikers.
    "We are not going to allow that the facts would prevail over legality. I want to make that very clear. Today we have the possibility to find solutions and starting tonight we are not going to allow the blockades for any reasons," the president said.
    In Bogota, some truck drivers chained themselves to their vehicles as they caused havoc in the Colombian capital.
    Driver Jhon Wilson Perez called for more dialogue with the government, saying confrontations wouldn't lead to a solution.
    "I ask the president to please talk to us because talking we can solve things. We are not going to get anywhere using force," Perez said.
    The current protest, involving around 120,000 organized drivers, is mainly over a plan by the government to eliminate a table fixing minimum freight rates. The government says freight should be determined by supply and demand. Truckers fear eliminating the minimum rate could cause prices to fall and reduce their income.
    Colombia's lucrative coffee trade depends on the country's highways to carry coffee beans to ports for export. Also, some areas are suffering a scarcity of products on the shelves and hikes in prices from the roadblocks.
    The protests have not yet affected Colombia's fossil fuels trade, which works largely on the country's train system.
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