Roadblocks cause shortages and inflation
Deficits and inflation are worsening in many parts of southern Peru due to several roadblocks set up by protesters.
A gas station in Arequipa on January 25, 2023.
AFP
Fresh clashes erupted on Wednesday during another national day of protest as the crisis entered its sixth week. In Ica, about 250 km south of Lima, fighting broke out between protesters blocking the Pan-American highway and police trying to disperse them. Masked protesters pelted stones at police, who fired tear gas, television footage showed.
In the morning, several dozen demonstrators protested Washington’s support for the Tina Bolvarte government in front of the US embassy in Lima.
On Tuesday, the capital was the scene of the most violent demonstrations since the unrest began.
Demonstrators demand the resignation of the president, dissolution of parliament, early elections by 2024 and the creation of a constitutional assembly. During the six-week crisis, 46 people, including a policeman, were killed in the clashes.
“I will not submit to authoritarian groups that want to impose solutions that are not part of our constitutional order or democratic tradition,” insisted Tina Poluarte on Wednesday during a virtual intervention before the Organization of American States (AEO).
Deficit and Inflation
According to officials, 85 roadblocks were identified Wednesday in nine of Peru’s 25 regions. The airport in the country’s tourism capital, Cusco, was closed on Tuesday evening but was able to reopen on Wednesday. Those in Puno and Arequipa are closed.
The impossibility of exchange of goods, especially in the southern regions, the heart of the protest, has begun to cause shortages and price hikes.
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the main vehicle fuel in Peru, is not available at service stations in Arequipa, Dagna and Puno. “Arequipa has run out of LPG,” Alexander Cornejo, who represents taxi drivers, told RPP radio, expressing alarm at the plight of 7,000 local drivers.
In the Puno region, 1,350 km south of Lima, where violent protests took place that left 18 people dead, prices of staple foods, tomatoes and potatoes, have tripled. “Prices of fruits and vegetables have gone up. Everything has become expensive. It seems to me that they should let the vehicles that supply us pass through,” Puno resident Jacqueline Flores told AFP.
At the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva on Wednesday, where representatives of several states condemned the “excessive use of force” by authorities during the protests, Justice Minister José Andrés Tello said “we are convinced that we are acting appropriately”. Defending democracy and human rights in a “complicated situation”.
Luis Sugihuara Sil, the Peruvian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, pledged that Peru respects “peaceful demonstrations” and that security forces are working to “restore social peace.”
The Peruvian government protested to the Chilean ambassador in Lima on Wednesday after Chilean President Gabriel Boric made statements at a Latin American summit in Buenos Aires. Gabriel Boric said protesters in Peru were “being shot by people who were supposed to protect them”.
The unrest began on December 7 after the impeachment and arrest of Socialist President Pedro Castillo, accused of plotting to dissolve parliament as he prepared to oust him from power. Dina Boluarte, his former vice-president and running mate in the 2021 election, who is similarly modest and of Andean descent, constitutionally replaced him but is considered “a traitor” by demonstrators.
The crisis mainly reflected the large gap between the capital and the poorer provinces, which supported Pedro Castillo and saw his election as revenge for what they saw as Lima’s humiliation.
AFP
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