Angry down south

摘要

Last year the economy grew by 9% and poverty fell by five percentage points. But many Peruvians feel their lot is not improving fast enough. That is especially so in the country's southern Andes. On July 8th-9th trade unions staged a general strike, claiming the government had reneged on various promises. While having little impact in Lima, the strike was widely backed in southern towns, with protesters blocking roads and the railway to the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu. Earlier this month miners struck to demand a bigger share of bumper mining profits. In the same cause a group in the southern department of Mo-quegua last month took scores of police hostage and burned government offices.rnBut it is to Puno, a poor and remote region of 1.3m on the border with Bolivia, that those Peruvians who fear an impending populist shift look most closely. The head of its regional government, Hernan Fuentes, clashes regularly with Peru's president, Alan Garcia. He has attempted to legalise production of coca, the shrub from which cocaine is extracted.