Farmworkers strike despite crackdown

SAN QUINTIN, Mexico — Farmworkers in Baja California vowed to continue a strike that threatens the region’s harvest after negotiations broke down late Wednesday and authorities refused to release dozens of laborers arrested during protests that degenerated into rock-throwing and looting.

The Mexican government has sent hundreds of soldiers, state and municipal police to secure the region about 200 miles south of San Diego after thousands of protesters shut down the main highway linking the coastal agricultural fields with export markets in California.

The strike has crippled the region. Schools, stores and gasoline stations were shuttered on Wednesday. Crops went unpicked inside the enormous greenhouses that line the highway. And dozens of families of people arrested camped outside the state government building in San Quintin.

Laborers are demanding higher salaries and government benefits like social security that they say agri- businesses have long denied them. Laborers make about $8 to $12 per day on average picking strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Union leaders, in a meeting with government and industry officials Wednesday night, added to their demands, asking authorities to release the arrested laborers from jail and to lift arrest warrants against several union leaders.

About 170 people were arrested and several dozen remained in custody Wednesday night, according to state officials.