A group of hundreds of truck drivers have been driving around Washington, capital of the United States, to protest against the demand for vaccinations and the use of masks. Some participants carry flags and posters criticizing President Joe Biden and supporting former President Donald Trump.
The caravan, called the People’s Convoy, departed Adelanto, California, on February 23, and arrived in the outskirts of Washington on Friday night (4). The group set up camp at a racing circuit in Hagerstown, Maryland, 129 km from the nation’s capital.
The movement is made up of truck drivers and drivers of SUVs, pickup trucks and smaller cars. On Sunday (6), the convoy made two turns on the I-495 highway, known as the Beltway, a 64 km ring road that surrounds the capital. Some of the participants made live broadcasts of the action on social networks.
The trucks were moving at low speeds, concentrated in one or two lanes, and never stopped on the road. The line of vehicles was over 40 km at the beginning, but it thinned out into smaller blocks during the day. They honked their horns as they passed under bridges and walkways, where people displayed flags and messages of support. Some also went to the side of the road to criticize the movement.
The motorcade lasted about four hours, but had little impact on traffic, as it was a Sunday. This Monday (7), truckers staged a new protest on the Beltway, with about 130 large trucks and hundreds of other smaller cars, during off-peak hours. The vehicles carry American flags and phrases such as “freedom” and “end the warrants”, in reference to vaccination requirements.
The District of Columbia, where Washington is located, is surrounded by neighboring cities, which belong to the states of Maryland and Virginia. Thousands of people drive daily to the capital, through roads and tunnels that give access to the city center and Congress.
“If we close the Beltway, we lose our public support. We don’t want to close the Beltway. We just want them to hear us,” said Brian Brase, 37, a truck driver from Ohio and one of the movement’s leaders.
He has said several times that he does not intend to take the protest into the capital. However, some isolated vehicles have been driving around the city with US flags and phrases like “Let’s Go Brandon”, a motto whose real meaning is something like “Screw it, Biden”. On Monday, Brase said he was concerned that people who do not belong to the movement would try to infiltrate to create problems and that there were pressures to bring the vehicles into Washington. “Many people want me to say certain things and put this convoy in a certain direction. I will not listen to them. I will listen to the people,” he said.
Brase said there was no deadline for ending the protest. He promises to carry out acts in the coming days to press for the end of the national emergency declaration against Covid, removing requirements for the use of masks and vaccination. Another objective is to pressure Congress to investigate actions to combat the pandemic. The rally leader said Republican congressmen should meet with activists.
However, the protest comes at a time when restrictions brought by Covid are being relaxed, even in cities that have adopted stricter measures, such as New York. Last week, during his State of the Union address, Biden repeated that measures such as closing establishments to contain the virus will no longer be adopted and that the trend is for restrictions to continue to be reduced.
There was a possibility that part of the truckers’ convoy would arrive in Washington on the date of the president’s annual speech. Therefore, security in the city was greatly strengthened. A fence was put up around Congress, and more agents were sent to bolster the city’s protection, including New York police. Military vehicles have been stationed on several streets for a few days.
Robert Contee, chief of police for the District of Columbia, said that peaceful demonstrations were welcome, but that “there are certain things in the district that we will not tolerate”, without saying what the limit would be.
The great fear is the repetition of scenes like the one on January 6, when activists invaded Congress to try to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden as the new US president. Another precedent is that of Canada. In February, truck drivers held lockdowns for weeks in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, to protest against the vaccination requirement. They also closed one of the main bridges connecting Canada and the US. The protest only ended after the government took tough measures, such as arresting around 200 protesters and blocking the activists’ bank accounts.
For the next few days, another convoy from Ohio and Pennsylvania is expected to join the group.
Partly due to the war in Ukraine, rising fuel prices, cited by some protesters, could also stir up tempers. This week, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline (3.6 liters) has surpassed $4, a level not seen since July 2008, and $1.30 more than a year ago, according to data from the Automobile Association. American.
