Aug 31, 2007 4:38 pm US/Pacific
U.S.-Mexico Border Re-opens After Protest
SAN DIEGO (AP) ―
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The California Highway Patrol lifted its blockade on all vehicles heading into Mexico just before 1 p.m.
Traffic is moving freely again through the nation's busiest border crossing.
Teachers demonstrating against changes to the Mexican pension system blocked all traffic northbound into the U.S. for about two hours this morning, ahead of the Labor Day weekend.
Protesters waving signs and flags briefly sat down in the roadway a few hundred yards south of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. A line of Mexican police in riot gear blocked their progress toward the U.S. border.
The California Highway Patrol lifted its blockade on all vehicles heading into Mexico just before 1 p.m. That traffic was diverted ten miles east to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry until that crossing was closed by San Diego police.
Traffic Otay Mesa is now also back to normal.
Pedestrians remain unaffected by the closures.
In June, about 10,000 demonstrators in Mexico briefly blocked traffic between San Diego and Tijuana.
The demonstrators, including many teachers, protested a Mexican law passed earlier this year that raises the retirement age for workers to 60 from 50 and introduces individual retirement savings accounts for government workers.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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