Gas price protests in Mexico suspend bus rides to and from Chihuahua

Nationwide protests over the increase in gas prices in Mexico have halted passenger bus rides to and from Chihuahua.

El Diario De Juarez is reporting Omnibus De Mexico, Transportes Chihuahuenses, Turistrar and Transportes Del Norte all stopped selling tickets Tuesday morning due to the blockades.

Executive Lines Bus company here in El Paso has a partnership with Omnibus. They’ve been told to stop selling tickets to Mexico.

“Everything is completely stopped. I’ve just been told that I need to warn people that are coming from California to Mexico,” administrator Noemi Torres said. “The roads are completely blocked. It’s tremendous chaos.”

Deregulation of the oil and fuel industry in Mexico has led to an increase in gasoline prices, the so-called “gasolinazo.”

Torres herself has had to cancel plans due to the blockades.

“I was going to Guadalajara tomorrow by bus,” Torres said. “I won’t be able to go. I’m very upset. I already have everything packed. I was going to do some work down there, and it changed my plans completely.”

Maria Esparza was traveling all the way from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. She was able to make it through to El Paso, just before everything got blocked off.

“We were in Chihuahua City from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m.,” Esparza said. “It was a big hassle because they sent us to another bus, and our bags went in the other bus…thankfully we were able to get them in Ciudad Juarez.”

Arturo Monroy-Ibarra was traveling from Zacatecas. He considers himself lucky to have made it El Paso.

“It was shocking because we didn’t expect it,” Monroy-Ibarra said. “Our bus came to a blockade and turned around. We were able to go around the town (Jimenez) another way, and we made it.”

Los Paisanos bus company is currently not selling tickets to Chihuahua. They told ABC-7 to check back Thursday morning. Greyhound’s corporate office in Dallas said their travel to Mexico has not been affected. However, locally an employee at the Greyhound station says no one is getting past Ciudad Juarez.