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Protestors Set Fire and Paralyze Airport in Cusco, Peru

(LIP-ir) -- 5,000 teachers decided to protest at Cusco's airport today in a strike which has been carrying on since the 5 July.

Not taking into account that Cusco is the main source of the city's income, protestors violently went through with their march.

Teachers belonging to, the now infamous, teacher's union (SUTEP) peacefully began their protest at 10 a.m. without causing any harm or damage while other teachers gathered at Cusco's main square.

Flights had to temporarily be suspended when fires began to break out along the 13 kilometers of fields which surround the airport. Although the airport has announced that flights can go back to normal. airline company LAN has said that for safety precautions it will not resume its flights for today.

All nearby fire departments were called to the area to control the 50 meter flames which had heavily impaired visibility and ended up burning a kilometer of land.

Peru's National Police had to drive back at least 1,000 protestors, which had knocked down walls around the airport, with tear gas. Runways were heavily guarded by Peru's National Police.

Reporters were attacked as they attempted to cover the dreadful event and police officers were injured. An RPP reporter is now in the hospital.

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# Juan Blake says :
19 July, 2007 [ 17:44 ]

Ah, this is a way of getting peoples attention. Like the article says. "Not taking into account that Cusco is their main source of the city's income." These SUTEP communist dead beats are a real pain in the _ss to the good Peruvians who are trying to make a honest living at the airport, and tourist sites. This SUTEP needs to be shut down in a major way. They don't represent anything, other than their pontential loss in union dues.

# Paul Seville says :
19 July, 2007 [ 17:55 ]

This is turning into a joke. On the one side you have a bunch of incompetent people who think they don't need to be qualified to actually teach, on the other side you've got an incompetent government that doesn't know how to put its foot down and kick these morons in the butt. This should've been taken care of weeks ago. Ahh well, nothing really new here I guess.

# souza says :
19 July, 2007 [ 18:26 ]

That's vandalism.

And vandals must be in jail.

# Sam says :
19 July, 2007 [ 18:39 ]

The ¨Not taking into account¨ bit is dumb - of course they know that, they are trying to hurt the roads, trains, and flights to get attention and change the current situation through protest. They are using calculated tactics, SMARTLY without killing or hurting too many people but causing the government to pay a lot of attention and lose money.

I´m not saying they are right, but they are doing a good job of getting attention.

# Juan Blake says :
19 July, 2007 [ 18:57 ]

Well Sam you say that, but at the end of the day guess what? Total distruction in the mean time. If you wanted to express anger towards your government, would you wreck havoc upon the one true means of providing income for your community as a whole? "Of course they know that?" I stand with the article. They don't know that.

# Alan says :
19 July, 2007 [ 18:59 ]

I don't think they are that smart. They have gone crazy and are just wrecklessly destroying things. If you ask them what they are fighting for half of them would look at you with a blank face. If they were smart they would realize they aren't hurting anyone but themselves.

# Austin says :
20 July, 2007 [ 08:38 ]

Chavez's workers of the world unite,  if you dont think his finger is in the middle of this somewhere you are fooling yourself

I dont think many americans will be spending there good hard earned green back dollars to go look at monkeys in the woods, till this is fixed

Some friends were stuck at the airport all day yesterday,  they have preaty much given up on Peru since both tours have been canceled, and the one they are planning at the end of the week is now in question.

# Juan Blake says :
20 July, 2007 [ 09:13 ]

It just dosen't stop there Austin. It is a domino effect. You have Baby Huey, "Chavez," pulling the strings of Ollanta Humala. Then you have Humala pulling on the strings of Luis Munoz & others with SUTEP. Then SUTEP pulls on the strings of the poor farmers, and so on, and so on. When people see that commie Humala has ties with SUTEP, then you are able to put everything together.

# Carlos Bagati says :
20 July, 2007 [ 09:38 ]

Yes indeed. So long as Ollanta is around, people will begin to notice more strikes will continue in the future. As soon as someone involved with SUTEP breaks their big toe, there will be a stike because the government did not provide the splint to help set the fracture. And Mr. Chavez does sit back and he does indeed smile the whole time.

# Jane Greer says :
21 February, 2008 [ 16:59 ]

Interesting comments.  I am flying to Peru next week on a trip that I've wanted to make since I was a teenager (45 years ago!) - to see the Andes and Machu Pichu. 

I can't pretent to understand Peruvian politics but at first glance it seems the strikers are doing most damage, economically and in other ways, to their own community.

For entirely selfish reasons, I hope things are settled very soon,  Going to be an expensive "non-trip" for me!

Jane Greer