MORELIA, Mexico – Student protests have again shut down Kansas City Southern de Mexico service to the major Pacific coast port of Lázaro Cárdenas.
KCSM suffered a similar disruption of service to the port in the state of Michoacán last week. [See “Protests disrupt service on KCS in Mexico,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 25, 2019.]
“Currently the mainline of Kansas City Southern de Mexico in the Calzontzin District between Uruapan and Morelia is being blocked by civil protests, completely unrelated to our company, impeding our ability to continue without risks to protesters,” KCS official say.
Protesting appointments of school administrators, students also have been hijacking trucks and buses, according to Mexico News Daily, which quotes Ricardo Bernal Vargas of the Michoacán Industrialists Association as saying last week’s two-day blockage of tracks in Morelia cost $26 million in economic damage.
Two other service disruptions due to civil unrest have blocked the KCSM line to Lázaro Cárdenas this year — civilian pushbacks against drug cartels and a teachers’ strike.
What are these protests even about? Is government corruption common in those particular parts of Mexico? I mean, yeah, corruption and violence are almost a fact of life in that part of the world with the ongoing drug war and murders being committed on a daily basis, but are the areas where the protests are ongoing particularly rife with corruption?
Nice students, certainly. Would not want them in my class!
*blocked
Was in Acapulco earlier this month. Teachers blocked a 5 lane highway into downtown. I think that was way more effective than blocking a train line. A lot more people were inconvenienced.