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Brazil's security forces ordered to remove trucker blockades

Brazil truck blockades

May 25, 2018 | 08:32 PM
Truckers attend a protest against high diesel prices in Duque de Caxias near Rio de Janeiro on Friday.
Brazilian President Michel Temer ordered security forces on Friday to clear roads blocked by truckers staging a five-day-old strike that has left the country virtually paralysed.
"The government has had the courage to dialogue, the government will have the courage to exert its authority," he said in a televised address.The truckers pressed on with the strike on Friday, despite a deal between the government and unions late Thursday to suspend the protest for 15 days.Temer said he had "mobilised the security forces" to clear the roads."We are not going to permit that the population does not have access to essential goods... that hospitals do not have the necessary medicines to save lives.""We accepted the 12 main demands of the truckers, who agreed to immediately end the blockades. Unfortunately, a radical minority continues to block the roads."
May 25, 2018 | 08:32 PM