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Mexican farmers and transporters blocked roads on Monday in at least 20 states across the country and highlighted one of the most striking moments of the day by holding signs featuring the message "No more gifts to Cuba, Mexico first".
According to TeleSur, this occurred amid an indefinite national strike called by the National Front for the Rescue of the Mexican Countryside (FNRCM) and the National Association of Transporters of Mexico (ANTAC).
The mobilizations spread across Morelos, Tlaxcala, Zacatecas, Veracruz, State of Mexico, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Michoacán, among other states, disrupting traffic on key routes such as the Arco Norte, the Mexico-Puebla highway, and the Siglo XXI motorway.
In Nayarit, producers blocked specifically federal highway 15 at the San Blas intersection, demanding the marketing of products, outstanding payments, and the opening of warehouses.
The posters held by the protesters—many of them wearing cowboy hats and with John Deere tractors blocking the roads—also demanded "Fair prices for the countryside: sorghum, rice, corn, beans" and denounced that "the people also deserve justice for the Mexican countryside."
The background of the banners against Cuba is straightforward: under the government of Claudia Sheinbaum, Pemex sent hydrocarbons to the island worth between 496 and 560 million dollars in 2025, the highest amount in 25 years, with an average of 17,000 barrels per day, officially classified as "humanitarian aid."
Pemex suspended those shipments in January 2026 under pressure from the Trump administration, but in February the Mexican government announced the dispatch of Navy vessels with food and supplies to the island, while the Mexican agricultural sector accumulates a deep crisis without a response.
The organizing bodies declared an indefinite strike after deeming the federal government's counterproposals presented on April 1 at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to be insufficient.
Baltazar Valdez, leader of the FNRCM in Sinaloa, stated that the response was sent by Carlos Augusto Morales, personal secretary to Sheinbaum, and that it did not include the request for a direct meeting with the president.
Eraclio Rodríguez, leader of the FNRCM in Chihuahua, was more emphatic: "What he says is that we must commit to not holding any demonstrations throughout 2026 regarding the World Cup, but it's our right."
The Ministry of the Interior responded with a statement asserting that "there is no reason to protest, much less to affect others," and emphasized that the government has allocated 3.4 billion pesos in support to the sector.
This strike on April 6th is the second major mobilization of FNRCM and ANTAC in less than five months: on November 24, 2025, both organizations had already paralyzed at least 23 states for three days.
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