Truckers in California planning protest over pandemic restrictions
Los Angeles, Feb 23 (EFE).- A group of truckers, inspired by the recent anti-vaccination demonstrations in Canada where protesters blocked border crossing points with the United States, gathered on Wednesday in California to kick off a caravan to Washington DC with an eye to staging a protest against Covid-19 restrictions.
The aim of the group, which calls itself the “People’s Convoy,” is to have at least 1,000 trucks and other vehicles from all across the nation join them in what they estimate will be an 11-day road trip to the US capital, where participants will stage a their anti-Covid-mandate demonstration.
“This convoy is about freedom and unity: the truckers are riding unified across party and state lines and with people of all colors and creeds,” said the group in a communique published by the Los Angeles Times.
The group said that the protest is against the US government, which “has forgotten its place,” adding that they intend to deliver the message that Washington’s mask and vaccination mandates are unconstitutional.
The demonstrators gathered on Wednesday morning at the stadium at Adelanto, California, a city northeast of Los Angeles. At least 25 big rig cargo trucks were in the parking lot there along with a group of protesters carrying signs with message against anti-Covid mandates, according to posts the group placed on the social networks.
The group is following in the footsteps of the “Freedom Convoy,” the members of which blocked several border crossing points between the US and Canada for a number of days, negatively affecting bilateral trade.
The Canadian demonstrators also managed to shut down the downtown area of Ottawa, the Canadian capital, where more than 400 trucks and hundreds of people blocked the streets around Parliament. It was not until last Saturday that Ottawa police were able to disperse a large portion of the anti-vax protesters, who had barricaded themselves downtown for three weeks.
The People’s Convoy protest comes as the Covid-19 pandemic appears to be on the wane in the US and a large number of states are relaxing pandemic restrictions.
EFE amv/msc/bp
