Banners are displayed on the windshield of a truck during preparations for a caravan of truckers protesting COVID-19 restrictions in Adelanto, California, on February 23, 2022. afp_tickers
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–This content was published on February 23, 2022 – 18:28
(AFP)
Dozens of truckers and their supporters started a caravan this Wednesday morning in California that will cross the United States in protest at the restrictive measures against the pandemic.
“It’s time to reopen the country,” the organizers of the “People’s Caravan” said in a statement, inspired by the mobilization that recently paralyzed the Canadian capital, and called by truckers to express their discontent against the closure of activities, vaccines and use of masks, among other measures promoted by the federal government of Joe Biden to stop the spread of covid-19.
In the parking lot of the stadium in Adelanto, a small city in southern California, about two hundred people gathered despite the thermometer touching temperatures below zero, to mark the beginning of the mobilization. Many waved American flags and banners with the word “Freedom.”
The organizers began a rally in which the participants questioned the measures used globally to contain the pandemic.
Paul Alexander, adviser in the health service during the administration of former president Donald Trump, and who favored herd immunization to face the pandemic, affirmed that “vaccines failed”, despite the fact that the effectiveness and safety of the use of vaccines is scientifically proven.
To applause, Alexander urged supporters not to get immunized against the virus that has killed nearly a million Americans.
Although the organizers announced on their website that the movement was nonpartisan, slogans questioning the electoral victory of President Joe Biden and in favor of Trump dominated the rally.
After the speeches, a few dozen drivers got into their trucks and vehicles and started the march.
The organizers exhorted the protesters to act “peacefully” and asked to continue contributing to the movement that has raised more than 460,000 dollars for the march that should arrive on March 5 outside of Washington, but “not to Washington proper”.
The authorities, however, announced measures to reinforce security in the capital, with the memory still fresh of what happened on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters invaded the Capitol to try to prevent the certification of the election of the Democrat Biden.
The Pentagon has approved the dispatch of 700 unarmed National Guardsmen, and local security forces have requested reinforcements, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
– ‘Let’s get back to normal’ –
A supporter of Donald Trump, Shane Class traveled from Idaho, 1,300 km away, to participate in the caravan, and said he hopes to reach Washington with his wife and protest “peacefully.”
“I think we’re all here for a different reason, but it boils down to the same thing: Freedom,” said Class, 48, who wrote “Legalize Freedom” on his car.
“Let’s get back to normal,” said Bryan Brase, one of the truckers at the front of the caravan.
“We are protesting the states of emergency that have been decreed and we hope to end all mask and vaccination decrees for federal employees and health workers,” he added.
“For me it’s because of the vaccine decree, but it’s bigger than that,” said a Los Angeles nurse who did not want to be identified.
“I can’t work at my health center without filing a religious exception [para no ser vacunada]”Said the young woman who traveled two hours to Adelanto with her husband.
Vaccines against covid-19 in the United States are free and widely available, but along with the use of masks and social distancing, they have become a point of division for society, with people resisting immunization and control measures. imposed by the authorities.
“I am here with the intention of peacefully protesting but I understand that wherever people rise up, there will be a response from the government. And this may be our last chance to protest, because it was for Canadians,” added the nurse who carried the flags. from the United States and Canada.
In Canada, protesters held blockades and protests for three weeks in the capital Ottawa, until they were cleared out by police this weekend.
Another caravan of truckers from Pennsylvania, in the eastern United States, is scheduled to arrive on the outskirts of Washington on Wednesday, while the portal “Great American Patriot Project” announced several routes that will leave the first week of March with the same destination.
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