Longer border waits upset Mexican truckers

CLAUDINE LoMONACO

Published: 02.16.2007

NOGALES - Mexican truckers blocked traffic at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales for seven hours Wednesday to protest wait times that have ballooned since the U.S. government implemented a new electronic processing system last month.

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, a group of truckers frustrated after weeks of four- to six-hour waits spontaneously parked their trucks across north- and southbound lanes a half-mile south of the port of entry. Waits during this time of year usually run from an hour and a half to two hours, according to several truckers.

"We had to strike because they've been making us wait so long," said trucker Gerardo Rojas, standing between lanes of stalled traffic. "They don't want us to come in."

Thousands of trucks were stuck on the highway through Wednesday night and most of Thursday.

Considering the amount of drugs and human smuggling caught in the trailers of Mexican truckers, they have brought this in themselves. -mm