Peru: New Transport Strike Over Rising Fuel Prices

Featured image: Transport workers blockade a highway. Source: El Popular.

Transport unions issued an ultimatum to Keiko Fujimori’s government, demanding solutions to rising fuel prices and warning that, if they do not receive a response, the wave of protests could spread and affect up to eight regions of the country. The government announced a subsidy intended for transport workers in the formal sector, but the reality is that in Ucayali, it is estimated that “only between 20% and 30% are formally employed.”

More than 400 organizations have issued an ultimatum to the Fujimori administration, warning that new days of protests would take place in the regions of Ucayali, Loreto, Arequipa, Tacna, Junín, Apurímac, and Piura.

Following the ultimatum, heavy-haul truck drivers, along with other groups, have declared an indefinite strike in Pucallpa, Ucayali, where they blockaded multiple sections of the area’s main highway, the Federico Basadre Highway. According to local media, concerns center on “fuel supplies, due to difficulties related to the transport of tanker trucks from the La Pampilla Refinery and a dispute over payments from Petroperú.” It is reported that in Loreto, river transport and transport unions have joined the calls for action in recent days, and in Arequipa there has been a massive shutdown of urban transportation. Protests also continue in Tacna.