Two taxi drivers were arrested in Cancun, Quintana Roo, for attacking a van carrying foreign tourists, state authorities said on Friday.
The incident that occurred on Thursday in that tourist town. It was the latest in a series of attacks carried out by taxi drivers against private vehicles on suspicion that they operate under the Uber application.
When condemning the act, the authorities of the state of Quintana Roo indicated that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.
“The law will be applied, and action will be taken in accordance with the law, so those acts do not go unpunished and to safeguard the integrity of the people,” the Quintana Roo State Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
Residents posted a video on social media showing at least two uniformed taxi drivers hitting a van with objects.
In the midst of the attack, the driver tries to escape with the rear door of the vehicle open, while the luggage of the tourists who were in the unit fell down the street. Later, three women are seen collecting their bags on the street.
“What are they doing?” a woman shouts in English as taxi drivers gather next to the car they attacked while carrying makeshift clubs.
The local business owner who filmed the incident invited the women to take refuge in her store. In the video you can see how the taxi drivers chase the driver of the minivan down the street until he reaches a police officer.
The state prosecutor’s office said that the two taxi drivers were charged with the crimes of robbery, damage and injury.
Local media reported that the minivan was not from the Uber app, but from a local private transportation service. Previous incidents of taxi drivers attacking private vehicles in Cancun were also based on the mistaken assumption that they were operating with Uber.
In January, residents of Cancun organized a boycott of taxis after a week of blockades and violent incidents involving drivers protesting against Uber.
Roadblocks, stone throwing and taxi drivers physically getting in the way had prevented tourists from boarding Uber vehicles. The United States issued a travel advisory warning that “past disputes between these services and local taxi unions have occasionally turned violent, resulting in injuries to US citizens in some cases.”
The transportation app was blocked in Cancun until January when a court granted an injunction allowing Uber to operate.
Source: Latinus
