Peru Teachers Strike - The Uneasy Aftermath

The 15-day teachers strike that sparked protests across Peru ended last Thursday when the teachers union, SUTEP, agreed to return to work and begin discussions with the government.

The strike began on July 5 when Peru’s congress passed a law that requires Peruvian teachers to pass a basic competency test. The union, which represents the country's 350,000 educators, claims the law is a means to undermine its political power by allowing the government to fire teachers at will.

The government and the union have agreed to begin talks to mediate the dispute and classes are expected to resume on July 30, the first day following the country's Independence Day holiday. Although SUTEP leaders in some regions, particularly in the south of the country, have vowed to continue the strike and protests.

What is clearer is that the resolution of the strike has revealed a division in the leadership of the union - notably between the SUTEP Secretary General, Luis Muñoz, and Robert Huaynalaya, who leads the more radical faction of the group.

After the announcement of the end of the strike, Huaynalaya held a press conference blasting Muñoz as a traitor and claiming he and the more than half the teachers in the union who support him will continue to oppose the new law.

Several authorities have alleged that the protests - particularly those in rural highland areas - were acerbated by insurgent groups, including the remains of the Sendero Luminoso terrorist organization. The accusation is that the more extreme leftist leaders of the unions were in collaboration with the communist insurgents to organize protests in rural areas.

A poll taken during the strike by Apoyo indicated that almost 3/4 of Peruvians disagreed with the union and believe the law will lead to better teachers. Almost 60 percent of those polled believed the protests were organized by extremist groups working subversively.

The government also estimates that more than 15,000 tourists have canceled their planned trips to Peru due to concerns about the strikes and protests. Typically July is the busiest season for foreign visitors.


Find out more about Peru, South America and my varied interests over on Klephblog.

Technorati Tags: Peru, teacher, protests, strike, SUTEP

The Andean Cold Crisis

It has been a cold winter in the Andes - deadly cold.

For the past few months, temperatures in the Andean highlands have plummeted to record lows leading to a crisis that aid groups and government agencies are scrambling to handle.

In many of the highland areas of Peru and Bolivia lows are reaching -13 Fahrenheit. More than 200 people, including at least 55 children under the age of five have perished and more than 6,000 cases of Pneumonia have been documented so far, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

And it promises to get worse, there are still two-and-a-half months of winter remaining to go and forecasters are fearful even more severe cold snaps are in the wings.

So far in Peru alone, more than 200,000 people have been affected – often the poorest and least prepared segment of Peru’s society. Aid groups report that the worst hit areas are in the provinces of Puno, Apurimac, Ancash, Cajamarca and Cusco.

In response, the Peruvian government has placed half of the country’s 24 departments under a state of emergency and has stepped up efforts to provide aid and provisions to the areas impacted the worst. But the country is not alone. Bolivia, in particular, has been struggling to deal with the impact of the severe weather as well.

Bolivia has been forced to shut down the La Paz airport several times due to snowfall and the country’s main highway has been closed at least once so far, the AFP reported. Its been a similar story in the Chilean Andes where the Cristo Redentor tunnel between Chile and Argentina was shut down by a blizzard in early July leaving several thousand trucks stranded on the roadside for days.

The impact of this record cold is magnified by the fact these regions have been buffeted by unusually cold winters for several years now. The frigid weather has left these area with few food reserves and tens of thousands of livestock – mostly llamas and alpacas which these communities rely on for survival – have perished.

Then things began going bad early this year. In January an unseasonable cold spell destroyed up to 60 percent of the harvest for the mountain regions. This new cold spell has effectively finished off everything. Latest assessments show agricultural losses of 134,000 acres, and another 225,000 acres affected.


Find out more about Peru, South America and my varied interests over on Klephblog.

Technorati Tags: Peru, Boliva, cold, freeze, crisis, temperature