IncaKolaNews: Social Tensions Rising Again in Peru (3 posts)

[magbana]

"6/21/09
Doe Run Peru: Showtime

Workers at Doe Run Peru (DRP) are going on indefinite strike at La Oroya, Peru as of 10pm tonight.

This represents a significant acceleration in the ongoing dispute at the plant which is already closed due to lack of funds. What's happening is, in a nutshell, the workers fed up with the patsy patsy game of negotiation going on between owners Renco (owned by Ira Rennert) the Peruvian government and clients of the smelter (i.e. regional metals miners) and demanding action. They don't want to be laid off for the next 90 days as is the current plan. They want their jobs back.

This isn't a case of protestors stopping industry; au contraire, it's a case of a workers' movement sick to death with the intransigence of the suited brigade and getting busy to force them into a deal. But it also means that the strike could get nasty, as if the protestors get militant and start blocking the main central highway that runs through La Oroya (well, just next to it in fact) there are (according to reports) already anti-riot police on hand to make sure this vital link road is kept open."
http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-06-22T12%3A21%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=8

"6/22/09
Doe Run Peru: Peru's main central highway now blocked

As explained on IKN last night, workers at Doe Run Peru, La Oroya are now on indefinite strike. Same people have also blocked the main "carretera central" highway that runs inland from Lima and is an important trunk road for the country's mining activity.

According to reports, police are turning back all traffic before it gets to the site of the block, thus isolating the protest (from view?....nasty feeling in pit of stomach about the near future, anyone?). And although there are 2,900 fed up DRP workers present and on strike the gov't is already spinning the protest as the work of "extremists" in its usual "blame anyone but the culprits" manner.

That same "extremists" argument is also being used to explain the protests today in Cusco that threaten the annual "Inti Raymi" festival that's always popular with foreign tourists. In fact, the protest has been rumbling on for months on end and is all about how local tour guides are under threat from new gov't plans to make the job of tourguiding available to anyone, thus making a mockery of the three to five year studies that current guides went through to get their qualified positions. But hey....free markets always favour quantity over quality....it's progress, ya knowz...


UPDATE: Good Spanish language coverage, with original on-the-spot photos and all that jazz, can be found at Huanca York Times"
http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-06-22T12%3A21%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=8


6/23/09

Social Tensions Rising in Peru Agains

After listening to PM and dumbass Yehude Simon say last night that Peru's gov't was "not weak" in the face of protests, this morning we have news that the Armed Forces have been given authorization to intervene in troublespots, such as Cusco, Andahuaylas (11 day protest and counting) and of course the Doe Run Peru (DRP) roadblock at La Oroya, which happens to be on a strategically important highway. The measure is by decree and lasts for the next 10 days in the Cusco, Apurimac and Junin regions.

Also, Gran Combo Club made a very sharp observation over the weekend when comparing El Comercio (Peru's lapdog newspaper of record) and its current coverage of Peru's social troubles with Chile's El Mercurio in the 1970's and 1980's when Pinochet was in power. Here are the two examples shown in GranCombo for those of you versed in the local language.

The similarities of blaming "infiltrators" for any social problem is disconcerting...to say the least.

Now I gotta run. Have a cool day, people.

http://www.incakolanews.blogspot.com/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Must come back to this thread to completely read the info. What a shame Doe Run's owner,

Ira Rennert, who has plundered and ravaged the countryside first in the U.S., then moving to Peru, where he could really go for broke, has made a life's work of pushing and shoving and exploiting, and stealing the very air and water and health and life years from Peruvian poor who were unfortunate to live too close to his filthy destructive operations in La Oroya. He is hated throughout the world for what he has done in order to make his way to living in the largest private residence in the United States.



http://images.timnhanh.com.nyud.net:8090/blog/200806/04/886479_1212565443.jpg http://www.panachemag.com.nyud.net:8090/Web/BeSeen/FoodAllergy2/images/FoodAllergy_19.jpg http://www.panacheprivee.com.nyud.net:8090/Web/BeSeen/NYPhilharmonic2008/NYPHIL8.jpg

Mr. Philanthropist, yeah, you bet!

http://filer.livinginperu.com.nyud.net:8090/news/img/smelter.jpg

http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/020409/040209_peru_lead_hmed8a.hmedium.jpg http://www.davidrochkind.com.nyud.net:8090/content/photos/peru008.jpg

[Peace Patriot]

2. Stunning pictures! Thank you, Judi--and for your commentary as well.

We truly are living through the second "Robber Baron" era--never moreso than in places like Peru where the majority has not yet managed to evict "Robber Baron" lapdogs like Alan Garcia and elect real leaders like Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. But there is certainly hope that Peruvians will be able to do this. They have examples all around them--not just Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, but also the majorityist leaders in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. The trend toward real leadership, real democracy, social justice and regional independence--and away from the "Washington Consensus" (corpo-fascist rule)--is overwhelming. I just hope that Peru can get there without more pain and grief and U.S.-funded death.

[Judi Lynn]

3. It's time Peru makes some serious choices right about now, isn't it?

What a hellacious government they've had there all this time.

It's a shock to see Garcia has not given even more to the owner of Doe Run. No doubt he would have already if his popularity weren't totally in the tank. He has thrown open all doors and windows to ALL the maggots of industry from everywhere, and put his country and people up for sale.

Hope they will use the latest unforgiveable war on Peruvians by Alan Garcia as a spring board to important unity, and solidarity as they all come together to chart a real future for the REAL people of Peru. If the oligarchs can't accept it, they should move to South Florida and meet their new neighbors, the REST OF THE SCUM of Latin America.