The strong port cargo transport unions tried to impose their will by striking for 24 hours at the ports of the country. The Police was called in to dislodge the truckers that had parked their vehicles along the port accessways to force the fulfillment of the strike. The truckers want to be included in the government port privatization discussions. The Police arrested 170 protesters and broke windows of trucks impeding access so that these could be towed away. Diogenes Castillo, president of the Federación Nacional de Transportistas Dominicanos, condemned the police repression and said that the truckers would not allow to happen to them what they say has happened to the bus owners. He was referring to the latter’s displacement from their positions of czars of the routes along several of the main city highways. Anyone wanting to operate a bus on those routes had to pay the unions for the right to transit or risk physical damages to the vehicle.
