Point of Entry Protests

the measures are meant to protect the mexican car industry. but they have also angered used car dealers on the border who rely on cheap imports to make a living. this week they had enough. abc-7 reporter julio- cesar chavez explains what has happened thursday morning hundreds of cars waited to be exported to mexico their drivers arriving at 3 am, all of them hoping to be one of the 80 allowed to bring their livelihood to cd. juarez each day with a line two miles long the wait can take a week “nosotros tenemos desde e lunes” he’s been here since monday and says he doesn’t think his cars will make it through until next the next the 80-cars-a-day limit, just a few days old, sparked protests across the city as used car lot owners and import agents called out for the federal government to let them import. they quickly turned violent yellin’ n stuff protesters demanded to see the customs director at the bridge of the americas tuesday and wednesday stopped commercial traffic at zaragoza horn workers in the area say the line here at the zaragoza bridge is nearly twice as long as usual. all the commercial traffic that wasn’t able to make it across wednesday evening was still stuck here thursday morning. driving by the protesters lashing out against the international economy, saying they’re just as affected as large companies “ayer fueron 30, 40. hoy me dijeron que fueron 60 veh?culos” an import agent we spoke with said wednesday only 30 or 40 cars were imported and thursday only 60, that 100 cars in two days is a joke “est? afectando a carroceros, est? afectando a mec?nicos, a refaccionarias,” a car lo salesman explaing it also hurts body shops, mechanics, repair and tire shops who all come together to refurbish the cars the protests planned for thursday were canceled, car lot workers called for a press conference, announcing their intentions: to negotiate with the federal government and respecting peace “va quedar asentado que s respete” for now the protests will be paused for three days, as recommended by the federal police. but they’ll still work to make sure customs officials go back to allowing them import anything they can during t5he official import hours reporting from cd. juarez, julio-cesar chavez, abc-7 our news partners – channel 44 – provided the video of the protests. we’ll be back with more news after