US embassy cable - 04TEGUCIGALPA1985

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 001985 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EB/ESC, WHA/EPSC, DRL/IL, AND WHA/CEN 
DOL FOR ILAB 
TREASURY FOR DDOUGLASS 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAM 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/02/2014 
TAGS: ECON, ENRG, ELAB, PGOV, KMCA, HO 
SUBJECT: HONDURAN OIL TRUCKERS' STRIKE BLOCKS NORTHERN 
HIGHWAY FOR A DAY 
 
REF: A. TEGUCIGALPA 1439 
     B. SAN JOSE 2297 
     C. SAN JOSE 2339 
 
Classified By: Economic Chief Patrick Dunn; reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Striking oil truckers blocked the main 
highway to Puerto Cortes in northern Honduras for 19 hours 
from the night of August 30 to the afternoon of August 31, 
before Honduran police cleared the road and detained two 
strike leaders.  The strike was triggered by a contract 
dispute with Texaco, but also was also fueled by discontent 
over high fuel prices, wage demands, and complaints that 
firms are seeking to hire foreign truckers over Honduran 
firms.  The Honduran authorities acted relatively quickly to 
end the strike and open the highway, which is the only 
transportation artery linking Honduras' industrial zones with 
its major port.  End Summary. 
 
2. (U) More than a thousand truckers went on strike the night 
of August 30, blocking heavy cargo traffic at four different 
key points of the country.  The most significant blockade was 
on the toll road between San Pedro Sula and Puerto Cortes, 
approximately 5 kilometers south of the main entrance to the 
port.  Striking truckers allowed private cars and small 
trucks to pass through, but not tractor-trailers or 
containerized shipping.  The strike came to a peaceful end 
Tuesday afternoon August 31 when the National Police arrived 
on the scene and detained the two leaders of the strike, 
Erasmo Flores of the National Transportation Union of Heavy 
Cargo (NTUHC), and Celin Aranky of the Honduran Independent 
Transporters' Union (UTIH).  The other striking truckers 
dispersed without incident or violence. 
 
3. (C) Econoff met with Minister of Transportation Jorge 
Carranza on the margins of another meeting on August 31 and 
raised the matter of the strike.  Minister Carranza said 
Texaco is the only one of the four major gasoline companies 
operating in Honduras (Esso, Dippsa, and Shell are the 
others) that does not own its tanker fleet.  Instead, they 
have contracted with about 75 private haulers since 2001. 
Starting at the end of this year, they wish to move to a 
five-year contract, but only with trucks that are well 
maintained and operators that are trained and safe.  Those 
criteria led Texaco to sign with only 45 of the current 
operators, while rejecting 30 more.  Those 30 promptly went 
on strike, and demanded that the GOH force Texaco to renew 
their contracts as well.  Carranza said he has no intention 
of doing so, and that furthermore the businessman in him is 
appalled at the demand.  Carranza said that he had met with 
President Maduro the morning of August 31 over the issue and 
offered his good offices to at 
tempt to reach an amicable resolution, but he said he would 
not pressure Texaco to sign for services with unsafe haulers. 
 
4. (U) Press statements made August 30 by strike leader 
Erasmo Flores of the NTUHC support this version of the 
origins of the strike, explicitly stating that one goal of 
the strikers was to pressure Texaco-Chevron to renew the 
transportation contracts of the two transport companies. 
However, the broader appeal of the strike (which included up 
to 1,000 drivers) was likely due to an expanded set of 
striker demands.  Flores called on the GOH to increase 
salaries for drivers, and complained of high fuel costs. 
Flores also alleged that Texaco's true motive in failing to 
renew certain transport companies' contracts was their 
preference to work with Salvadoran and Nicaraguan haulers. 
Flores complained that Salvadoran and Nicaraguan transport 
companies are not paying their share of the new fuel taxes. 
(Note:  Honduras' fuel taxes, and consequently its fuel 
prices, are the highest in the region.  If haulers from 
neighboring countries are fueling up in Nicaragua and El 
Salvador prior to making their runs to the reg 
ional Atlantic port of Puerto Cortes, then their lower fuel 
costs could indeed provide them with a competitive advantage. 
 End Note.) 
 
5. (SBU) EconOff spoke with President of the Honduran 
Manufacturers' Association, Jesus Canahuati, who expressed 
his satisfaction with the relatively prompt response of the 
GOH authorities to this strike.  (During previous strikes in 
June and July near Tegucigalpa, (reftel A) the GOH had 
allowed roads to remain blocked for longer periods of time 
before taking action.)  The highway from San Pedro Sula to 
Puerto Cortes is the most economically important stretch of 
road in the country, as the entire maquila sector relies on 
Puerto Cortes for imports and exports, as do most other 
sectors of the Honduran economy (the major exception being 
agricultural products exported by Dole, which use the 
facility at Puerto Castilla near Trujillo).  Canahuati 
reported that several U.S. companies were concerned about the 
strike, but pleased to see it dispersed peacefully and, by 
Honduran standards, quickly. 
 
6. (S) Comment:  It is worth noting that Costa Rica just went 
through a week of similar troubles over similar issues (in 
their case, relating to the fees charged to inspect tankers 
and the high failure rate of trucks -- mostly for brakes). 
On August 31, the GOCR caved in to protesters' demands 
(reftels B and C) following several days of road blockages 
and resultant gasoline shortages.  The GOCR alleges that 
"foreign powers" (read Venezuela or Cuba) might have been 
involved in fomenting the protest.  To date Post has heard 
nothing to suggest that this week's truckers' strike in 
Honduras was the work of external forces, though Post does 
not fully discount that possibility.  More likely, however, 
is the possibility that Honduran truckers, at a competitive 
disadvantage from high fuel costs, might simply have seen 
that the tactic worked in Costa Rica and adopted it for 
themselves.  End comment. 
Palmer