Update: Canacar’s truckers’ strike is still set for Monday, but three national groups say they won’t join

The open-ended national cargo-truck strike set to start Monday, Oct. 26, was still on as of Saturday night, though three national groups said they would stay out. Canacar, the national freight-trucking chamber, is behind the stoppage along with Fematrac, Hamotac and Indeco, according to El Imparcial and SDP Noticias. The three that have stepped aside, SDP Noticias reported Saturday, are Canapat, the passenger and tourism transport chamber, which said it prefers dialogue with the authorities; AMTAC, which said the truckers have legitimate demands but will seek dialogue first; and AMOTAC, whose leader, Rafael Ortiz Pacheco, said in a video that the group would keep a commitment it made to Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch. An El Financiero report earlier on Saturday had listed AMOTAC among the participants.

El Financiero reported that the protests would start at 8 a.m. Monday, without giving a time zone. According to El Imparcial, the organizers said they don’t plan to block toll booths or roads, but would hold actions on highways and shoulders and near airports, ports, terminals and distribution centers; El Financiero, citing the security firm International SOS, said trucks positioned along main roads could restrict traffic. Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Segob) asked the groups not to affect the public or the movement of goods and proposed a permanent working group to hear the sector’s demands, El Imparcial reported.

And in Baja California?

Local carriers still had to meet to decide how they would take part, and there was no agreement on specific actions in Tijuana, Uniradio Informa reported Saturday morning. Alfonso Esquer, Canacar’s vice president for the Northwest, called Monday the tentative date to start and said the groups still had to coordinate (“todavía nos tenemos que coordinar”). Canacar says about 2,500 trucks a day pass through the Otay area on export runs, Telemundo 20 reported. The truckers’ demands are in our Saturday story.

If you’re driving or crossing Monday

• Check the news early Monday: plans can change overnight, and Baja California’s groups hadn’t announced anything as of Saturday.
• None of the reports we read says the strike will affect the passenger lanes at San Ysidro or Otay; they focus on cargo traffic and highways.
• Leave extra time for highway trips to Ensenada, Tecate or Mexicali.
• Waiting on a shipment from the south? Ask your carrier whether it’s taking part.