Thousands of people flooded the streets in several Peruvian cities on Oct. 6 for an organized national day of protest.
In Lima, workers, teachers and youth marched on Congress demanding that the cabinet step down. The protesters chanted, “The government is stealing while the people are struggling.”
The demands of the demonstrations and strikes were better living and working conditions and an end to the free-market neoliberal economic policies of the Peruvian government led by Alan Garcia.
The largest trade union in Peru, the General Workers Confederation (CGTP), helped to organize the day of protests. CGTP President Mario Huaman announced that if conditions do not improve, the people will organize more militant actions. Huaman has called the deployment of armed forces alongside the police “dictatorial.”
