Lima. Public transport companies in Peru began a strike on Thursday to demand that the Government take measures against insecurity and a wave of extortion, in a protest that has restricted mobility and commerce mainly in the country’s capital.
The Government has urged employers to prioritize remote work and give tolerance of up to four hours for the entry of their workers; and suspended in-person school classes in Metropolitan Lima as a preventive measure against the protest, the second to take place in two weeks.
Fourteen districts of Lima were declared in emergency by the Government at the end of September to empower the military to help the police fight against insecurity, amidst criticism from formal companies that affirm that the State is losing the battle against the racketeering.
According to local television images, in the capital Lima hundreds of people were waiting for a few transport units that were circulating. Dozens of police and armed forces buses left to transport citizens in the city.
Several transport unions in the country, mostly informal companies, have called for a 72-hour strike. Lima’s municipal bus system and the city’s only electric train operated normally. In cities in the interior of the country, the protest was less effective, according to local media.
“Organized crime has penetrated the institutions, for how long? Today they are killing street vendors, they are not killing businessmen, they are killing the working class,” said Elmer Velásquez, leader of an urban transportation union.
Some shopping centers or popular markets in the country’s capital have closed their doors in support of the protests, whose leaders allege that they also suffer from extortion by criminal gangs that demand quotas to operate.
Hundreds of protesters, including drivers and people who support the strike, marched along avenues outside the city towards the Congress headquarters in the center of Lima.
Blockade arrests
The police reported that they arrested 13 people in the first hours of the protest, for blocking some roads in Lima with stones, burning rubber tires or attacking moving vehicles.
Some 10,000 police and military personnel have gone out to ensure security during the drivers’ strike, according to the Government.
On Monday of this week four people were murdered inside a small transport unit in the province of Callao, neighboring Lima. Among the victims was the driver. At least six other people have been killed in extortion cases since late August, according to police.
According to a survey carried out in August by the state statistics office of Peru (INEI) and released at the end of September, 86 percent of the country’s urban population perceives that in the next twelve months they may be the victim of some criminal act.
In 2023, police arrested 289 people for the crime of extortion throughout the country, an increase of 165 percent compared to 2022, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén said that some opposition parties and radical left groups are “politicizing” the protest and calling for a change to the Constitution and even the removal of President Dina Boluarte.
Last week, Boluarte’s government sent Congress a bill to punish up to life in prison for the crimes of kidnapping, hired assassination and extortion, for which it seeks to be classified as “urban terrorism.”
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