Cargo trucks traveling on federal highways 131 and 175, connecting Oaxaca city to the Coast towns of Puerto Escondido and Pochutla, are repeated targets for criminals, said a national truckers’ association.
Moisés Guendulain Ramírez, representative in Oaxaca of the National Confederation of Mexican Carriers (Conatram), told the newspaper El Imparcial that “several colleagues were robbed” while traveling on those roads.
He stated that incidents of this kind have been reported along the entire Puerto Escondido-Oaxaca length of highway 131, which runs through Sola de Vega, and on the Oaxaca-Miahuatlán section of highway 175.
Guendulain said no casualties have been reported, and losses have so far been limited to trucks and their cargo.
“Throughout 2022 we have documented about six cases in which a criminal complaint was filed, but the state Attorney General’s Office has yet to report any progress in the investigations,” he said.
“The [stolen trucks] have not appeared so far [and] we live in total insecurity and impunity for criminals,” he added.
Guendulain urged the National Guard to redouble their patrolling of federal and state highways, as patrol cars are nowhere to be seen “for hundreds of kilometers.”
“Roads are lonely because the National Guard’s policy has been to install checkpoints, but not to travel along the roads to help motorists,” he continued.
Patrolling duties are carried out by state and municipal police but neither the army nor the National Guard “are aware of their functions on federal roads. We are defenseless,” he concluded.
With reports by El Imparcial
