Nicaraguan truckers blocked border crossings with Costa Rica on Wednesday to demand that the Costa Rica government lift sanitary restrictions on cargo trucks, implemented to contain the spread of covid-19.
“We are going to definitively block traffic to pressure governments to resolve,” said the president of the Nicaraguan Transport Association (ATC), Marvin Altamirano.
“The measure to prevent the passage of Costa Rican buses and vehicles into Nicaragua began on Tuesday afternoon and will be extended until the restrictions on the passage of transport to Costa Rica are lifted,” Altamirano said.
Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega denounced last week that there are more than 1,000 Central American cargo trucks parked on the northern border due to “unilateral measures”Costa Rica established for entry after some 50 truck drivers tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Federation of Chambers and Associations of Exporters of Central America and the Caribbean (Fecaexca) pointed out that the restrictions on entry to carriers imposed by Costa Rica limit intraregional trade and cause millions of dollars of losses.
The Guatemalan Ministry of Economy, for its part, pressured Costa Rica on Wednesday to find “viable solutions” for “the good of the Central American integration process,” and avoid affecting the competitiveness in the region.
Costa Rica has proposed three possible solutions: truckers to drop their cargo at the border to be trucked by local drivers to their destination, drop or load cargo at customs warehouses and driven by local drivers destination and for drivers only in transit to move from border to border by caravan under police escort.
The measure was agreed to by Panama at the southern border, that allowed clearing the border blockade, but not by Nicaraguan authorities.
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