Oscar Uscanga/Reform Agency
Thursday, May 11, 2023 | 15:59
Mexico City.- Farmers who have been blocking the Pemex plant in Ahome for three days have now extended their protests to the facilities in Guamúchil and Culiacán, which was warned could cause fuel shortages in Sinaloa in the coming days.
The dissatisfied, who have been demanding guaranteed prices for corn and wheat for weeks, yesterday took over the federal plant located in Guamúchil and also the one in Culiacán, with which they do not allow the output of the supply through pipes.
Cristóbal Castañeda, head of the state Public Security Secretariat, warned that there are already gas stations without fuel.
“Supply chains are already beginning to be affected, since gas stations run out of fuel, they are affecting third parties,” he told the protesters on the Los Mochis-Topolobampo highway.
“The issue is going to be the weekend (the shortage), May 10 has just passed and there was a lot of traffic, possibly we will be facing a situation of shortages.”
Baltazar Valdez Armentía, leader of farmers dedicated to planting corn in the entity, told Grupo REFORMA that despite the fact that this Thursday they threatened to evict them in an operation by the National Guard and State Police, they will continue to prevent the flow of fuel with the seedlings.
“We want to reach the critical point, to see if that way the federal government becomes aware and attends to us,” he said in a telephone interview.
“Of course we are afraid of eviction, it would be silly to say no, but we are going to resist as long as our willpower wants to maintain itself here, today we gave a demonstration that we are determined what corresponds to us, which is agricultural activity and the production of grains, which at this moment would get out of hand without being able to benefit from it”.
Hide GN with eviction in Sinaloa
Minutes before warning that there would be no eviction operation, on the Los Mochis-Topolobampo highway, in Sinaloa, hundreds of local police officers and elements of the National Guard set up checkpoints to prevent the passage of vehicles belonging to Sonoran farmers who wanted to support the sit-in.
However, the head of the state SSP, Cristóbal Castañeda, assured that the federal operation of the GN, led by Rosa Icela Rodríguez, head of federal Security, was deactivated due to a talk between the Morenista Governor Rubén Rocha with the head of the federal Interior , Adam Augusto Lopez.
“There was an operation scheduled with the GN, the Governor spoke with the Secretary of the Interior to prevent any type of situation that nobody wants from arising, the intention is that they can continue to demonstrate, but not affect third parties,” the official presumed state.
“There is a dialogue on Monday with the Secretary of the Interior. There is not going to be an eviction operation, the National Guard has already carried out instructions so that no activity is carried out.”
What do Sinaloa farmers demand?
Sinaloa farmers, originally from municipalities such as Navolato, Salvador Alvarado, Guasave and the Municipality of Sinaloa, demand that the Federation establish a price of 7,000 pesos for each ton of corn, and 8,000 pesos for the purchase of each ton of wheat.
