Tijuana protestors block Otay border traffic

By Sandra Dibble and Lyndsay Winkley
3:57 P.M.DEC. 8, 2014 Updated 6:10 P.M.

Several hundred protestors opposed to Mexican customs fees for importing used U.S. vehicles blocked southbound commercial traffic crossing into Mexico at Otay Mesa on Monday. — Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias

OTAY MESA — A protest in Mexico on Monday blocked truck traffic headed into Tijuana through the commercial port of entry at Otay Mesa, and San Diego police advised commercial traffic to use an alternate route.

All lanes used by tractor trailers were affected, police said.
Mexican media reported Monday morning that 200 to 300 car importers and vendors who opposed a Mexican customs fee had blocked the commercial crossing shortly after 10 a.m.

Alfonso Esquer, Tijuana spokesman for the Mexican trucking chamber, CANACAR, called the situation “a huge problem.” He said that some 3,000 southbound trucks cross daily through Otay Mesa; of those 2,000 are loaded trucks and 1,000 cross empty to pick up products in Mexico and return to San Diego.

Esquer said “the government is not doing anything to correct this problem,” and that he had been told by a Mexican federal police official that “we are going to wait and try to break it up peacefully.”

On Monday afternoon, empty southbound trucks were being allowed to cross into Mexico through the U.S. northbound facilities, Esquer said, but loaded trucks were not going through.
The protest did not come as a surprise.

The U.S. State Department had sent out a message stating that there could be southbound delays starting at 10 a.m. Monday along different parts of the border. The statement warned U.S. citizens of “significantly delayed crossing times and of the potential closure of many of the points of entry between the United States and Mexico due to multiple protests.”

The statement said that “the protests concern changes in Mexican customs regulations for the importation of vehicles.”

Mexican customs officials were not available to comment on Monday afternoon. A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Luis Angulo, said that the protest continued on Monday afternoon, and “we are working with our Mexican counterparts to find a solution for this problem.”

Alejandra Mier y Teran, executive director of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce, said that the protest “is affecting a lot of people trying to cross goods.”

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