Farmworkers and residents in Mexico’s San Quintín Valley blocked Baja California’s Transpeninsular Highway for more than a week in January, disrupting the route used to move strawberries north. President Claudia Sheinbaum visited on February 2 and announced a federal “Justice Plan” for the agricultural region, including measures tied to labor rights, social security enrollment and expanded public services.
In January, farmworkers and other residents in the San Quintín Valley in Baja California repeatedly blockaded the Transpeninsular Highway, the main overland route through the peninsula and a key corridor for trucking strawberries and other produce toward the United States. The Nation reported that the blockades lasted about a week and involved hundreds of workers, with trucks halted on the highway.
The protests drew attention to longstanding complaints in the valley’s export-oriented farm economy, where large numbers of Indigenous migrant workers—often Mixtec and Triqui and recruited from southern states including Oaxaca and Guerrero—harvest strawberries and tomatoes during the winter season, according to The Nation.
Sheinbaum traveled to San Quintín on February 2 and announced what her government calls a San Quintín Justice Plan, described by The Nation as a pledge she made at her inauguration. During the visit, Sheinbaum publicly admonished members of her Morena party, criticizing what she cast as a focus on photo opportunities rather than addressing social problems such as child labor and pesticide exposure. “San Quintín is an area with a lot of poverty [with] many struggles by farmworkers for their rights,” she said, according to The Nation.
A central element of the initiative is a new labor-related certification intended to condition agricultural exports on compliance with basic labor standards. The Nation reported that Mexico plans to create a “labor certification” that exporters would need in order to ship farm products to U.S. markets, including requirements that employers enroll workers in Mexico’s social security system and follow labor rules.
The plan also includes the creation of an Integral Service Center, education initiatives, a federal labor-and-social-services justice center, and support aimed at helping workers secure legal land titles, The Nation reported.
Independent organizing in the valley remains active a decade after the 2015 strikes. The Nation reported that the union SINDJA—formed after that movement—continues to document worker complaints and allege ongoing abuses, including discrimination against Indigenous workers, reprisals and blacklisting for organizing, and dismissals that the union describes as wrongful.
The Nation also described the protests as entangled with local political conflict in the recently created San Quintín municipality. It reported that Baja California state authorities announced on January 23 that they would hire outside accountants to audit the administration of Mayor Miriam Cano amid accusations of corruption and diversion of funds for social services—allegations raised publicly by political opponents and some residents. Separate local reporting in January 2026 also described blockades linked to demands for Cano’s resignation and complaints over municipal management and public services.
As the federal plan moves toward implementation, the durability of labor and service improvements in San Quintín is likely to depend on enforcement capacity and follow-through, amid a regional economy deeply tied to export agriculture and investment, as well as ongoing disputes over water and working conditions that have fueled repeated protests in the valley, according to The Nation.
