Dominican Republic’s ‘owners’ halt major port’s truck traffic

Boca Chica, Dominican Republic.- Freight movement at Caucedo Multimodal Port has been halted since early Friday when four armed men kidnapped a container dispatcher held captive for four hours, according to local union truckers president Rafael Caminero.

Members of Dominican Republic’s biggest truckers union (Fnatrado) halted the operations at the port, in reprisal for a freight boycott by rival Boca Chica Truckers Union.

Caminero said Fenatrado president Blas Peralta arrived at the port early Friday and instructed his truckers to take the vouchers away from the dispatcher whose job is to gives them to drivers to haul freight per shift.

He said if the shutdown continues, shippers will lose more than 200 million pesos.

Fenatrado, one of the powerful freight and passenger transport unions, is referred to as the “country’s owners” for their routine and often violent shutdowns that strike fear in Dominican government officials.