Peru: The art of attracting attention to your cause

Y'see, some Peruvian protestors start their actions and do nothing but group up together on some sideroad that's not a vital national artery. They then get totally ignored by the national government for weeks on end until patience is lost on one side or another...then a Bagua situation happens.

Other protest organizers are smarter. Take for example the miners complaining about their lot at the La Escondida gold mine, high up in the Andes of the Puno region in the south of Peru. Rather than block their own side road, they decided to walk a couple of days down to the city of Jukliaca and block not one but three vital links. Immediately they get attention, as today a whole bunch of congresspeople are flying down to talk with the leaders and find some sort of solution (and all they really want is to get the road up to the mine asphalted...the work started in 2007 and still hasn't moved forward).

Moral

• One side protests.
• The other side ignores them.
• One side protests more.
• The other side says, "Don't be idiots".
• One side says, "Ok, if you like we can be really big idiots".
• The other side says, "Ok ok...what's the problem?".
• One side says, "Why didn't you bother with us before, idiots?".
• The other side says, "We thought you weren't important enough, but now you're stopping me from making money I care."
• One side says, "So let's talk".
• The other side says, "Yeah, let's talk...we don't want no trouble round here."

File this post under "Ah...so that's how South America works, is it?".