Truckers blockading a major refinery in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais disbanded on Friday, allowing fuel supplies to normalize in the nation's second most populous state.
Breaking News, Latest News and Current News from OANN.com. Breaking news and video. Latest Current News: U.S., World, Entertainment, Health, Business, Technology, Politics, Sports.
Truckers blockading a major refinery in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais disbanded on Friday, allowing fuel supplies to normalize in the nation's second most populous state.
By Roberto Samora and Gram Slattery SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Gas stations in Minas Gerais, Brazil s second most populous state, are running out of fuel, as truckers calling for tax cuts blockade two major refineries. The dispute underlines a delicate economic situation in Brazil, where the federal budget is already stretched uncomfortably thin. The protesters, principally truckers who deliver fuel, are demanding a decrease in taxes on diesel. Since yesterday, they have blocked roads near the REGAP refinery in Minas Gerais and the REDUC refinery in neighboring Rio de Janeiro state. Truckers here have grown increasingly vocal in recent months as a rise in global crude prices has pushed up the cost of fuel domestically and eaten into margins. Trucker groups have threatened a general strike next week, a move that could prove crippling for Brazil s economy, if widely observed. A truckers strike over high fuel prices in 2018 ground the economy to a halt, and destroyed the remaining political ca