LIMA—Thousands of Peruvians protested Wednesday to denounce President Alan Garcia's free-market policies, which they say have failed to benefit the poor during six years of booming economic growth.
Protesters waving red banners put up road blocks on highways in the regions of Ica, Puno and Cuzco, snarling traffic and closing rail service to the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, Peru's top tourist destination, police and local radio reported. The capital, Lima, where most of Peru's recent economic growth has been concentrated, saw fewer protests.
The rallies, which coincided with a two-day farmers' strike that started Tuesday, were the latest in a series of protests held to demand the government do more to spread the Andean country's new wealth to workers and the poor. The poverty rate has fallen since Garcia took office two years ago, but still remains a lofty 40 percent.
"This is a government of the rich and of multinational corporations," Mario Huaman, the leader of Peru's largest labor confederation, told reporters."
Unions called a one-day general strike involving transportation, construction and manufacturing in cities across Peru, but Labor Minister Mario Pasco said 93 percent of employees reported for work nationwide.
Left-wing parties have supported the walkout, and the ultranationalist leader Ollanta Humala, who nearly won the presidency in 2006 and is considering running again in 2011, has backed the strike.
Garcia, whose approval rate hovers near 30 percent, has said free trade will help lift incomes.
He has said the rallies could scare away foreign investors, who Garcia believes have helped turn Peru into one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Last year, it expanded some 9 percent.
The main federation of mining unions, which was on strike last week, did not ask its member mines to join the one-day protest, federation leader Luis Castillo said. But he added that a few local mining unions might put down their tools.
Farmers say they are frustrated by the rising cost of living, want debt relief and say a free-trade deal underway with the United States will flood local markets with imports of subsidized U.S. agricultural goods. They are also upset at a recent law that will make it easier for foreign investors to buy land in Peru's interior.
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