Truck Drivers, Farmers Paralyze Mexico’s Roads Demanding Safety

Mexico is experiencing large coordinated road blockades, as transport workers and agricultural groups shut down strategic highways, customs points, and industrial corridors across the country. The nationwide mobilization, started on Nov. 24, 2025, is affecting over 25 states, including Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Mexico City, State of Mexico, Queretaro, Sonora, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Puebla.

“We regret that peaceful protest is the only way for our demands to be heard, but today we know that the only way to avoid being robbed, extorted, killed, or disappeared on the highways is by staying off those roads. We would rather stop for one day or five than never return home again,” read a post of the National Association of Transporters (ANTAC). “Every day, between 35 and 40 transport operators fall victim to a crime. If we are lucky, we end up abandoned in the middle of nowhere; if not, we never make it home again.”

The protest is led by ANTAC and the National Front for the Rescue of Mexican Farmland (FNRCM), in coordination with rural and freight organizations demanding real security on Mexico’s roads and fairer conditions for the agricultural sector.

Active Blockades Across Major National Routes

According to logistics-monitoring updates released by assistcargo, several major arteries remain fully or partially blocked:

Highways and major routes blocked:

• Arco Norte (Mexico–Queretaro and San Martin Texmelucan junctions)
   

• Mexico–Puebla Highway (San Marcos Toll Booth)
   

• Mexico–Queretaro Highway (Palmillas Toll Booth)
   

• Mexico–Toluca Highway (Lerma Outlet area)
   

• Mexico–Texcoco Highway (Texcoco Toll Booth toward Mexico City)
   

• Atlacomulco–Guadalajara Highway (both directions)
   

• Oaxaca–Istmo Highway (both directions)
   

• Matehuala–San Luis Potosi Highway (Villa de Hidalgo area)
   

• San Luis Potosi–Matehuala Highway (Matehuala junction)
   

• Matehuala–Saltillo Highway (San Roberto junction)
   

• Lagos de Moreno–San Luis Potosí Highway (Colinas de Lagos Industrial Park area)
   

Customs facilities expected to be affected include Matamoros–Reynosa (Nuevo Progreso International Bridge) and customs offices in Veracruz, Manzanillo, and Nuevo Laredo. Protestors have planned additional blockades at Calera Toll Booth, Sinaloa Bridge Toll Booth, San Miguel Bridge, Mexico–Cuernavaca Highway, Cuernavaca–Acapulco Highway, Naucalpan–Ecatepec Highway, Gustavo Baz Avenue (State of Mexico), Circuito Exterior Mexiquense, Monterrey–Reynosa Highway, Pharr Bridge, Mexicali–San Luis Rio Colorado Highway, and Camargo (Fitosanitary checkpoint junction), among other regions. 

ANTAC confirmed just hours ago that blockades by truck drivers and farmers will continue indefinitely.

In a statement issued on Monday, ANTAC and the FRCM clarified that the protest is not political, but rather a last-resort action in response to escalating violence on the roads: “We are not protesting for political interests or to bother people. Every day, dozens of women and women who go out to work just to put food on the table become victims of crime.” The group reiterated its demands for: “zero robberies, zero extortions, zero murders, and zero disappearances” on Mexico’s roads.

Although the Ministry of the Interior announced dialogue tables for 1:00 p.m., ANTAC stated: “We have not been invited.”

A joint press release from the FNRCM, ANTAC, and the Movimiento Agrícola Campesino denounced alleged intimidation against their leader, David Estévez, by a senior official in the Ministry of the Interior. According to the groups, he was threatened with a criminal investigation unless the mobilization was halted.

The organizations responded strongly: “We will not yield to coercion. Using fabricated crimes and the Prosecutor’s Office as a repressive tool is an act of tyranny.” 

The alliance between farmers and transporters, announced earlier this month, argues that both sectors face the same structural problems: insecurity, abandonment, unsustainable operating costs, and pressures from monopolies and criminal groups. “If the government ignores the producer, it ignores the transporter. If they attack the transporter, they attack the producer,” say organizers.

National Impact: Logistics, Supply Chains, and Trade Disrupted

The blockades are causing significant disruption to industrial supply chains, freight deliveries, cross-border trade, food distribution, and e-commerce delivery networks. Companies are being advised to reroute shipments, postpone travel, and assess operational risks while the situation evolves.