With cries of ‘Down with the cost of living!’, thousands of angry marchers filed past crowds of startled tourists in Cuzco’s main square. Over 500 years ago the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, was decapitated in this plaza by Spanish conquerors, and 200 years later his great-grandson was executed in the same square for leading an indigenous uprising. Now their descendants are rebelling against a new form of colonialism. Their enemy – the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) has chosen Cuzco for its annual meeting.
The nationwide strike – one of a dozen held during the past year – was called by Peru’s largest labour organization, the General Workers’ Union. Strike leaders blame rising food prices on the Peruvian Government’s neoliberal economic model, and on recent free trade agreements with the US and Canada. They accuse the Government of providing a banquet of opportunities for foreign corporations at the expense of its own citizens, many of whom can’t afford a basic meal.
