By Ana Mano
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s Paranagua port authority said on Thursday the main access road to the port is no longer being blocked by demonstrators protesting the result of Sunday’s election, according to a statement.
The protests in the area began on Monday afternoon and lasted until Thursday at around 6.30 a.m.. The authority said it is extending working hours at the port’s sorting area to avoid delays to unload trucks.
On Wednesday, Brazilian authorities said they had begun making headway in efforts to clear blockades, which were set up across the country by truckers after President Jair Bolsonaro narrowly lost to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in an Oct. 30 runoff vote.
During the protests, which are fizzling out, just 672 trucks were able to unload cargo at Paranagua – a sharp drop from the normal average of 700 trucks a day, according to the port authority.
Wednesday saw just 45 trucks arriving, Paranagua said, but about 1,200 trucks are scheduled to arrive at the port on Thursday.
(Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Steven Grattan, Kirsten Donovan)
