Madre de Dios, Peru's dying region (El Búho [Spanish] - 2/4/2023)
Madre de Dios, Peru's dying region (El Búho)
Madre de Dios, Peru's capital of biodiversity, now looks desolate. Closed and bankrupt businesses, and a population without money and without food.
Inforegion, Regional Media Network of Peru
In the Pampa area, a kilo of tomatoes costs four soles; however, in the city of Puerto Maldonado they are scarce and can cost between 15 and 20 soles per kilo. A liquified propane cylinder costs 62 soles in La Pampa, while the last gas cylinder was sold for 350 soles in Puerto Maldonado. Basic necessities, gas and fuel for illegal mining arrive in the Pampa, but these same people are the ones who block the Interoceanic Highway to prevent cargo trucks from entering the city of Puerto Maldonado.
A case of papaya is sold for 12 soles, its price is 36 soles elsewhere in the southern market.
Most of the city's restaurants have closed and sent their workers on vacation: Califa, Puerto Hermosa, Cabaña Quinta, La Mechita, and El Pusharo. They do not have gas, there are no supplies for cooking, there is no fuel. "There is no way to operate like this," says Sergio Portocarrero, Califa's administrator. The pensions and food stalls live day by day avoiding vandals, who force them to close.
Seven bakeries have closed. “Without flour, the main input for making bread, we cannot operate,” says Eddie Pastor Del Alcázar, owner of the Magdalena bakery. Clothing stores and other clothing accessories are closed. The city's discos and nightclubs have run out of customers and are empty on weekends.
The papaya, a fruit that is sold in the markets of Lima and Macrosur, rots in agricultural plots. Its price in Madre de Dios has dropped from thirty-six soles per case to twelve soles. Prices are similar for other local agricultural products such as pineapple, cupuaçu, cocoa and bananas. There is no way to send them to the markets of the south and Lima.
The protesters do not respect the uniforms of health personnel, nor their vehicles, nor ambulances. They are stoned if they cross the streets. Tuberculosis patients who require daily treatment, pregnant women who receive prenatal care, dengue patients, diabetic patients, children with growth control and vaccination schedules, cannot reach health centers due to the lack of fuel and street blockades. “If this continues like this, in a few days we are going to have a serious health problem,” says nurse Pamela Ramos from the Nuevo Milenio Hospital.
There is no fuel at gas stations, but hundreds of citizens sleep in the streets standing in long lines, hoping that a fuel tanker will arrive, and they can provide themselves with this essential product. Other citizens come to the borders of Brazil and Bolivia to smuggle gasoline and resell it in the city of Puerto Maldonado at a price of 80 and 100 soles per gallon. This is how the black fuel market began to operate. But this fuel that has no control is sold adulterated, damaging the motors of vehicles.
A region under blackmail and anarchy
A member of the Tres de Mayo market tells this reporter that a group of vandals led by a thick-set lady "arrive every day to ask for collaboration, for the common pot." Everyone must collaborate with products or money, if not “looting”. The issue is that there are no longer any common pots actually feeding people in the city.
The four markets in the city are closed, their leaders have forced their associates under the threat of fines to go out to march. Those who refuse are threatened by groups of vandals forcing them to close. To date, all their products have rotted, and their capital is lost.
Groups of between 8 to 10 vandals roam the city through all the shops and businesses "asking for a collaboration for the brothers who traveled to take over Lima." Nobody knows the number of people who traveled and if they still remain in Lima. But collaboration is mandatory per business or store, from 200 to 300 soles. If they don't cooperate, the stores are looted.
The blockades of the Loromayo Bridge, Cigarra Bridge, Aguas Frías Bridge, Santa Rosa, Santo Domingo, the entrance to the city of Puerto Maldonado and in the town of Mavila, from the road to the Iñapari border, remain. Here the residents who must go through blockades to visit their agricultural plots or homes on the road have to pay quotas to the strikers. They do not let vehicles through, for that the protesters have prepared motorcycles and motorcycles that transport people for figures of 50, 80 and 100 soles, when the normal cost is between 8 and 10 soles.
Mavila is a drug passage point. It is a route for backpackers bound for Bolivia. Here the strikers maintain the blockades to collect quotas from the drug traffic that passes freely, since there is no police control. They charge the same for smuggling fuel that comes from the Bolivian-Brazilian border and a kind of “toll” for vehicles and people who pass through the blockade point.
“The international timber market, before the demonstrations, was already suffering a crisis. War-hit by Ukraine and Russia, China no longer bought hardwoods. In the national market, neither the regional governments, the mining companies, nor the population bought wood, due to the policies of former president Pedro Castillo. Wood that was felled in October and November 2022 is already rotting at the collection points. There is no fuel for the transport, sawing and drying of the wood”, says Alan Schipper Gerovich, a businessman who is a concessionaire for wood.
Ineffectiveness of the police in Madre de Dios
A group of vandals of forty people go through the city of Puerto Maldonado to close the warehouses and small businesses that refuse to survive. The vandals overturn the tricycles of the street vendors, overturn their carts that sell food in the streets, burn and set fire to vehicles, and chop the tires of those parked at the doors of public and private institutions. But to date, since January 4, the police has not captured a single person for vandalism, looting and attacks on people.
The last straw is that one of the blockades to enter Puerto Maldonado is located two blocks from a Peruvian National Police (PNP) Station and there is no reaction. We consulted junior personnel of the PNP, and they point out that they have been prohibited from stopping or intervening in vandals and protesters, under threat that if they do, they will be punished.
On the night of January 30 of this year, Melitón Sinarahua Tapullima (51) and his companion hit a tree trunk left behind by protesters at the Mavila blockade with their motorcycle. The victims of the accident were transferred in a police car to the city of Puerto Maldonado since an ambulance could not be sent due to lack of fuel. Unfortunately, Sinarahua Tapullima died upon arrival at the Santa Rosa hospital and his companion is in serious condition. Sinarahua is the first victim of the demonstrations in Madre de Dios.
Melitón Sinarahua Tapullima (51) died in an accident after his motorcycle collided with a tree trunk left in the road by protesters.
If this Saturday, when the Government finally decides to unblock the roads and the cars with food, gas and fuel arrive, it may be too late. “The population will not be able to buy them, because all the monetary resources have already been spent during the month of the blockade, or they have been taken by the strikers,” says businessman Alan Schipper.
With its fleet paralyzed, its businesses closed, its population with nothing to eat, and groups of vandals roaming the streets and attacking the city, Puerto Maldonado is the faithful portrayal of a horror movie.
Tags: #Peru #Protests #MadreDeDios #PuertoMaldonado
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