Cusco halted its ordinary business today. Its streets emptied of vehicular traffic and, near noon, marchers pounded up the Sun Avenue to protest Peru’s Ministry of Transport cancellation of the contract for the much promised international airport in Chincheros.
The action, called by the Departmental Federation of Workers of Cusco is called a “measure of pressure” in order to encourage the national government to put in practice a contract to build the airport and to actually begin the much-promised construction in the province of Chincheros some 28 km from the city of Cusco.
The stoppage is scheduled to last for twenty-four hours and will be followed tomorrow by an indefinite strike organized by the Front for the Defense of Chinchero. This group has convoked other organizations as well as regional and national authorities to meet in the town of Chinchero tomorrow to seek a solution to the lack of progress on the airport that local authorities see as essential for the continued development of Cusco.
According to the Diario Sol of Cusco, the regional police have guaranteed the transit of tourists between the city of Cusco and the sanctuary of Machu Picchu despite the strike. If the route through Chinchero and Urubamba were to become impassable due to the civic action, they claim another route will be made available.
