SANTIAGO, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Truck drivers across Chile staged strikes and blockades on Tuesday to protest sustained fuel price increases linked to global geopolitical volatility, disrupting traffic along the country’s key north-south highway and access to ports including Iquique.
The stoppage was called by Chile’s ‘Confederacion de Transportistas Fuerza del Norte’ and the ‘No+TAG’ movement, which expected to gather around 4,000 truckers, though the sector’s two largest associations declined to join.
• Protesters are demanding government measures to contain fuel prices, changes to the MEPCO fuel-price stabilization mechanism, and modifications to the tax burden on truckers
• The government said on Monday it would seek to use fiscal savings to support MEPCO
• It also plans to send a bill to prevent weekly fuel price increases of more than 20 pesos ($0.02) per liter
• A cruise ship canceled a planned stop in Iquique due to the potential impact of protests, according to Diario Financiero newspaper
($1 = 967.0000 Chilean pesos)
(Reporting by Fabian Cambero; writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
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