Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “Truckers engaged in the Feb. 15 protest to highlight a perennial problem in Mexico: cargo theft and highway insecurity. ‘The highways in Mexico are stained with blood,’ read one sign, signaling a harrowing evolution in Mexico’s criminal violence. Whereas once Mexico suffered mostly cargo thefts, criminal groups now resort to kidnapping or killing drivers, stealing cargo and stripping trucks for their parts. According to the Confederation of Industrial Chambers (Concamin), AMLO’s sexenio has witnessed over 85,000 trucks targeted for cargo theft, resulting in billions in annual losses for companies. Highway theft has increased year after year during AMLO’s term, and Mexico is second only to Brazil in suffering from the most cargo thefts of any country in the Western Hemisphere. (Rail theft is equally problematic in Mexico.) This dynamic threatens to convert one of Mexico’s greatest advantages….”