Organized crime is on the rise, attacking the poorest and most vulnerable people in the poorest neighborhoods, who are now protesting with a strike that has paralyzed Lima and Callao.
By Simon Lazara
The transport strike announced for October 10, 11, and 12 paralyzed Lima on its first day, causing real chaos in the city’s most popular neighborhoods. There was almost a total shut down of transportation, closures of markets and small businesses, marches, and a heavy police and military presence.
Many did not go to work, there were no classes, and the areas with the highest commercial density, such as the Gamarra emporium in the La Victoria neighborhood, or the “Mesa Redonda” in the historic center of the city, up to the residential and commercial area of the San Isidro neighborhood, seemed almost empty. This was a highly unusual event for a city of 11.5 million inhabitants.
This usually happens in real national strikes (not like the feint now called by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers – CGTP). Only this time, it is not the unions that are doing the work stoppage, but the mass of precarious and informal workers who live in the popular neighborhoods around the city center.
For this very reason, this work stoppage was stronger and more militant than the one organized by the big transport companies on October 3. These companies backed down this time, in agreement with the government or in the face of threats from criminal gangs. Those who protest now say: “I prefer to lose my daily income in order to defend my life.”
The previous strike achieved nothing. On the contrary, crime retaliated by striking back. The government and Congress, self-centered and arrogant, did not repeal Law 32108 (“Law of Organized Crime”), daughter of the most corrupt of the regime, which, by limiting the application of sanctions against organized crime, actually encourages it.
Instead, they declared a state of emergency in 14 districts of Lima and Callao, put the army on the streets, and introduced a bill on “urban terrorism” that seeks police impunity and greater repression… In other words, they have only curtailed rights and freedoms that affect everyone, making us all vulnerable to the very forces that are supposed to bring security.
In the face of this pantomime, organized crime counterattacked to show that they are in charge and not the authorities. There were burned buses, new deaths and more threats.
That is why the new protest this time comes from below: from the minibus and motorcycle taxi drivers, from the street vendors, from all those who go out every day to make a living. And they came out with more indignation against the reactions of the government and Congress, which they also view with hatred. It is these sectors that mobilized en masse from the peripheral neighborhoods to the center, where the Congress is located, only to find the police.
The repression, incapable of fighting crime, once again showed its effectiveness in suppressing the protest. Instead of confronting the criminals, they repress those who fight against them. What is worse, the government and the Congress, in the face of the basic demands, maintain the same arrogant discourse, which fuels anger even more.
From every point of view, this struggle is just. As in the 2022-2023 rebellion, those who are rebelling against the regime today are the poorest, this time in Lima. They are poor because of the corrupt regime and its economic policies that favor only the rich and corrupt. And now, as part of that same policy, or because of their own incompetence and indifference, they not only allow but encourage the growth of crime, both common and professional, abandoning the most needy to their fate.
If there is no immediate and effective solution, the people will not give up. Neither will crime, which will provoke more bloodshed. And new protests.
Faced with this, the task is to support this struggle and take up its banners, not only for the solution of the demands, but also to get rid of the government and the Congress, who are responsible for this situation and for many evils that affect the whole people, such as massive layoffs and collective dismissals in industry.
It is a just struggle that the working class must support and own. It is no coincidence that the CGTP and the electoral “left” organizations say nothing about it. Instead of joining the protest and building a single protest with the urgent demands of the workers, they turn a blind eye to their plan to channel everything towards the 2026 elections.
The Central has called for a day of struggle Thursday, October 17, to fight for an increase of the minimum wage and other demands. It is an opportunity to be present with all the rank and file, with the most militant banners of the working class and popular sectors in struggle.
