Local carriers intimidate drivers who cover the CDMX-AIFA route

Fernando Camacho Servin

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, March 27, 2022, p. 8

Although in recent days there have been attacks by carriers from the municipalities surrounding the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) against passenger buses moving from Mexico City, the service to and from the air terminal is carried out carried out relatively normally, although fears that acts of intimidation continue to be perpetrated remain present.

Drivers who cover that route described the attacks suffered and asked for greater security to carry out their work, while local van operators demanded that the authorities of the new airport allow them to participate in the transfer of passengers.

During a tour made by the day AIFA and its surroundings, a driver of a commercial line – who preferred not to mention his name – explained that last Thursday he was intercepted by a group of between 25 and 30 van drivers in the municipality of Tecámac, at the height of a gas station known as La Redonda, on the Mexico-Pachuca federal highway.

“I came calmly, but suddenly I see that a lot of combis are starting to stop. The drivers got out and, when I least see, a guy comes running and says to me: ‘what the hell are you doing here? Get the hell out of here or right now we’re going to fuck you up,’” he recalled.

Although he explained to the local operators that his work did not mean competition for them, because he was going directly from Mexico City to the AIFA, the driver was surrounded by men who wanted to attack him, so he decided to escape from the site, but not before receiving at least two stones in his vehicle.

In the Public Ministry they told me that, with me, there were already four attacks, but on social networks they say that there are more. We ask for more security, because they are very powerful transport alliances. We do feel fear, because on the other side (through the Circuito Exterior Mexiquense) they are also organizing themselves and (the risk) is latent every day.lament.

Despite recent attacks, both on the Mexico-Pachuca free highway and on the highway, it is possible to see passenger buses and vans from various commercial lines coming from Mexico City.

Inside the AIFA there are already trucks from at least nine lines that go to various points, including the country’s capital, Toluca, Querétaro and Pachuca, with six daily runs, the last of which leaves at 7:00 p.m., according to interviewed drivers.

In the tour made yesterday through the area, it was possible to observe a dozen vans from local transportation lines that were parked just at the height of the La Redonda gas station, but when approached by this newspaper, the drivers indicated that they could not speak without the endorsement of their representatives.

Later, by telephone, an operator of the Flecha Azul line said that their protest demonstrations are peaceful and noted: We are willing to dialogue and we are defending our territory. The land belongs to those who work it and we want them to give us space (to transport passengers), because we have the park and the infrastructure to compete with anyone. We are not outside the law.