Peru’s Indigenous Sacrifice Livelihoods in a Quest to Oust the President
Poverty in Puno has shot up to 80% as road blockades and boycotts hobble mining, tourism.
Residents block a highway in Cabanillas in Peru’s Puno region on March 7.
Photographer: Marco Garro/Bloomberg
Alejandro Paricahua wants Peru’s president to resign. An apparel vendor and the head of the largest merchant group in Juliaca, Paricahua has been helping coordinate a monthslong economic boycott that regularly brings this city of almost 300,000 people in the Puno region to a near-total standstill. The goal: to pressure President Dina Boluarte to hold new elections.
“We knew this was going to be a sacrifice,” says Paricahua, standing in a market stall, where he’s surrounded by rainbow-hued piles of shirts, jackets and sweaters. “We didn’t know this was going to drag out. We didn’t know this woman would stubbornly cling to power.”