Lime-. Fresh protests and unrest were registered in Peru today, with roadblocks partially disrupting urban transport, dozens of skirmishes between police and protesters, and isolated incidents of looting and vandalism.
The demonstrations came in contrast to the ceasefire and the start of the resolution of the strikes by truckers and farmers reached over the weekend by a ministerial delegation in the central Andean city of Huancayo, the scene of violent protests on Friday and Saturday.
The 48-hour disruption to city traffic affected the outskirts of Lima, with the blockade of the first sections of the central highway – which connects the capital to the Andes and the Amazon – and the north side of the city, as well as the neighborhood of Manchay, in the north-west of the city, where it there was the greatest unrest.
Groups of strike activists blocked roads with fire, rocks and other objects, and punctured the tires of buses and minibuses that did not comply with the disruption; while the Metropolitano, a massive bus service with exclusive routes and stops, operated normally.
The protest was attended mainly by informal drivers, working on their own and linked by routes, demonstrating against the rise in fuel prices despite their reduction due to the government’s fuel tax suspension yesterday.
The strikers are opposing transport sanctions and demanding legalization, as well as the disappearance of the sector’s control and regulation bodies, which the executive has agreed to reform with the freight transport union.
The strike had varying intensities in the interior and in the southern region of Ica, the strikers blocked the South Pan American highway and clashes with the police were recorded.
Looting and other acts of vandalism, including the theft of a TV reporter’s camera, cellphones and other belongings, were reported from the same region.
In the same region, according to the RPP radio station, agro-export workers also closed another point on the road in protest at the general price increases.
President Pedro Castillo visited a school in the municipality of San Juan de Lurigancho where the strike had had no effect, and when he left a small group displayed anti-government placards.
Meanwhile, right-wing opposition parties blame the government for the social turmoil and appear to be promoting protests that they have always rejected and discredited.