Highway robberies have totaled 1,500 so far this year, generating over 1.3 billion pesos (US $68 million) in losses, according to the Nuevo León Chamber of Industrial Transformation (Caintra).

Executive director Guillermo Dillon Montaña said that over 1,800 Caintra-affiliated businesses both big and small have been affected by highway robberies from January to the first half of December.

Of all the robberies in the country, 87% were concentrated in just 10 routes or specific points.

The route with the highest number of incidents was the Progreso-Monterrey highway between Tamaulipas and Nuevo León with 260 robberies. Next up were the Puebla-Veracruz highway with 212; Toluca-Orizaba with 97; and Celaya-León and Irapuato-Guanajuato with 46.

With some exceptions most of the robberies occurred at night.

“At Caintra over half of our partners report having had at least one theft of cargo or even the whole truck,” said president Adrián Sada Cueva. “It’s a very big challenge that we have to deal with and we hope that all the initiatives of the federal and state governments will yield results in the coming year.”

He added that the number of highway robberies has been high for years.

Another activity that has troubled Caintra and its affiliates this year has been the high number of railroad blockades, such as those by teacher training college students in Michoacán.

“We believe that the impact to economic activity is not negligible. We want to see the use of public force and authority, because the rule of law is not being respected,” said Dillon.

Source: El Economista (sp)