Image from archives/RHC
Lima, April 4 (RHC) – Peruvian President Pedro Castillo this Monday asked his compatriots to let him rule amid a new day of protests and unrest, this time at the start of a strike by the city’s transport companies.
“After 200 years of Republican life, give a teacher a five-year chance,” he said of his term, which runs through 2020 and faces his administration’s deepest crisis, which began just over eight months ago.
At the inauguration of works at a school in Lima’s populous community of San Juan de Lurigancho, he hailed the act and said, “This is how we want to see the country, steady, without setbacks and with confidence.”
“For many years this country has been run by great political experts, by great authorities. I ask the country and the Peruvians to let us work,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Highway Authority (Provías) reported 30 roadblocks in the outskirts of Lima and the capitals of the Lima, Piura, Cusco, La Libertad, Pucallpa, Huánuco, Ica and Cajamarca regions, among others.
In Lima, the main blockades and riots were recorded in the first sections of the central highway and in the Manchay neighborhood in the northeast of the city, while a toll booth was burned down in the southern city of Ica.
In different parts of the capital, merchants closed their shops after rumors of impending looting were denied by the authorities.
Defense Minister José Gavidia went to kilometer 13 of the central highway, an urban area, and urged the protesters to refrain from blockades and confrontations with the police.
He pointed out that the government had, among other things, decreed the exemption from fuel taxes and went to a nearby petrol station with a group of strikers to check the discount that had not yet been applied.
President Castillo consolidated the solution to the freight strike that began a week ago by signing an agreement with leaders of the National Front of Heavy Haulers and Drivers that ended the strike.
The government is also preparing tax exemption for a group of staple foods to ease the chain of price hikes caused by fuel price hike, which in turn is caused by oil price hike.
On the other hand, the progressive parliamentarian Ruth Luque and her colleague from the center, Flor Pablo, agreed that the government had to anticipate protests and avoid them as a preventive measure.
For its part, the right-wing opposition stepped up efforts to end the Castillo government, blaming him as the culprit for the crisis, and the conservative mayor of Lima has urged him to call snap elections, a possibility the president had previously weighed in Considered a second attempt by Congress to fire him. (Source:PL)