Last week, members of Mexico's electricians' union blocked major streets and access roads to Mexico City, preventing people from going to work and school. Simultaneously, in Buenos Aires, there was even more than usual traffic chaos when a strike by subway workers forced tens of thousands of people to drive downtown in their cars.

During the first nine months this year alone, Buenos Aires has suffered 440 street blockades, or more than one a day, according to Argentina's daily La Nación. The Mexico City Chamber of Commerce says there have been nearly 200 traffic-obstructing marches in Mexico City, or about 22 a month, over the same period. They cost the city an average of $140 million a month in lost sales because people can't get to stores, the Chamber says....

.... The street blockades ``complicate an already difficult business environment,'' says Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, a New York-based group representing 190 firms doing business in Latin America.

``They make it more difficult for workers to go to work, and for products to get to markets. They also hurt investment, because companies do not want to go or expand where the local environment is volatile.'' 

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