MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Escalating protests in Peru with at least three dead

Peruvian unions staged a second day of escalating national protests, leaving three dead and dozens injured prompting alarm over economic losses in tourism and agriculture, and the overall economy one of the fastest growing in South America.

Strikers demonstrating against the government and the distribution of wealth in Peru stormed sections of the Panamerican Highway, isolating the capital, Lima, from southern Peru, according to police reports. At 12 protestors were arrested in Lima's San Isidro financial district today. Peruvian President Alan Garcia on Wednesday called strikers in Puno, who swarmed that town's airport and today tried to take its train station "radical, suicidal and crazy", while Interior Minister Luis Alva warned they'd been "infiltrated" by Communist and Socialist party members. Protestors this week also derailed a train leading to the Machu Picchu ruins and the Sacred Valley stranding thousands mainly foreign tourists. "People are protesting because the economy is growing but nothing in their lives has improved, nothing has trickled to the working classes. Demands will continue until wealth is better distributed" promised Víctor Gorriti Candela, deputy chief of the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers. Unions and organized labor are demanding the government enforces labor laws, eliminates outsourcing of services, imposes higher taxes to the booming mining industry, reviews the free trade agreement with United States and gives workers the freedom to opt out of the private pensions system, among other actions promised by President García during his electoral campaign. With the first anniversary of his term of office only a couple of weeks away, thousands of Peruvians are demanding President Garcia keeps to his promises. Thousands gathered in the streets and plazas of Lima and in the southern regions of Cusco, Arequipa, Puno, Tacna and Moquegua. In an attempt to restore order, the government has deployed more than 15,000 police throughout the country, and has authorized the armed forces to intervene to prevent protesters from taking control of public buildings. The first victim of the escalating protests was a 13-year-old girl who was killed during clashes between police and teachers in the southern Andean region of Apurímac. In a jungle area in the central Andean region of Junín, farmer Alcides Huamaní Rivero was shot to death by the owner of a store where weapons were sold. The owner was trying to prevent a group of protesters from taking over his shop. A teacher died Wednesday night in the Lima hospital that admitted her last Friday. She had been beaten by police, according to spokespersons for the striking teachers. Teachers have been on strike for better pay and to oppose government sponsored education reform. On Wednesday 5,000 strikers occupied the international Manco Cápac airport in Juliaca setting fire to furniture, office equipment and local workers' houses, in spite of the presence of nearly 300 police who attempted to contain the protesters. In the central Andean region of Ayacucho, the governor of Huanta province, Erick Montero, was held hostage for five hours by members of the Regional Defence Front. The strikers demanded an apology from Montero for President García's remarks, two days earlier, in which he had said that the striking teachers were "resentful, fault-finding parasites" who didn't want to go and teach their classes. Teachers belonging to the Unified Trade Union of Education Workers of Peru, went on strike in public schools to protest the approval of legislation which the government argues will improve education, but teachers see as a move to "privatize". In a surprise move, Parliament passed the controversial law Wednesday without the expected second round of voting, and was immediately enacted by the national government. SUTEP leaders said Congress action's was "authoritarian and anti-democratic".