Paraguayan truckers maintain strike and await congressional decision

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Paraguayan truck drivers began their third week of protests this Monday, with some of them stationed in Asunción and others in different areas of the country, with the intention that the Congress returns to deal with the freight law, which at the moment is under study.

The Senate convened last week an extraordinary session for its treatment. Still, it was agreed to return it to commissions for its study after the Executive Branch created that same day, by decree, the Technical Committee of Land Freight Transportation to define the referential operating cost for the freight service of grains and vegetable oils.

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The president of the Federation of Truckers of Paraguay, Ángel Zaracho, went to Congress this Monday, together with other colleagues, to meet with the head of the Upper House, the ruling party’s Óscar Salomón.

After the meeting, Zaracho commented to the media that the solution to the strike is “in the Parliament” since “the Government has already made all the effort.”

In this sense, Zaracho acknowledged that the truckers did not accept the Government’s proposal, although they sat down with them to negotiate during a weekend.

For the truckers, those responsible for the prolongation of the strike without reaching agreements are the associations of producers and exporters, among which he cited the Paraguayan Chamber of Suppliers of Goods, Services, and Related (Capro), the Paraguayan Chamber of Exporters and Traders of Grains and Oilseeds (Capeco) and the Federation of Production Cooperatives (Fecoprod).

The labor unions also sat down to negotiate, although they withdrew shortly thereafter because of what they considered “extortion” by the truckers.

After two weeks of stoppage, Zaracho stressed that the truckers are “working at a loss” on the way to enter the third.

“That is why we are at a standstill. We are sorry for the citizens, and we also ask for their accompaniment in the sense that they call their authorities to ask them to solve this as soon as possible,” he told the media.

He also warned that other transporters “intend to march to the capital”, where there are already hundreds of trucks parked on the waterfront of Asunción since the beginning of the month.

The bill advocated by the truckers contemplates the fixing by the law of the reference price for the freight service. However, the production and export associations expressed their rejection from the beginning.