People and noise

No hay atención por motivo el paro*

An odd day, but perhaps as good a place to start as any.

Today Iquitos was closed. The streets, normally roaring with hoardes of motortaxis, were quiet. The vast majority of shops were shuttered up. A few had signs in their windows like the one in the title (seen in a local bank) but most hadn’t bothered to explain themselves.

This is because everyone knew ther was a regional strike to support the indigenous peoples campaigning for their rights. Everyone, that is, except me and Helen.

Of course, that’s not strictly true. Helen and I work with indigenous groups, so of course we’d heard about the shutdown. We really had no idea, however, quite how comprehensive it would be. Plus, despite my vaguely formed morning reservations, Helen needed to go to work to prepare for her imminent trip to the communities.

And so it was that we found ourselves flagging down one of the few remaining motortaxis, and making a weaving journey through the streets which, we were shocked to discover, had been semi-blocked with rubbish, building materials, and seemingly whatever was to hand. We even passed a building site where people supporting the protest were picking up bricks and throwing them into the road to create an obstruction.

It’s heartening to see a big city uniting behind the cause of one of its countries poorest, most troubled and largely forgotten minorities, though I occasionally sensed there was an element of compulsion behind the solidarity. Some shops seemed to be open, but pretending not to be (shutters half-down, staff probably ready to close up at a moments notice). For fear of what? A bad reputation? Possible reprisals? Apparently there were violent confrontations in the night between the police and protesters, though both are supposed to be in support of the strike action. Add in our friend Jorge’s reflection that he wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea of a total shutdown in a city where some people need their daily earnings to be able to eat that same day, and you get the feeling that the picture isn’t as rosey as it first appeared.

But then I guess it rarely, if ever, is. It was still interesting to see, for perhaps the first time in my life, a city united behind a worthy cause. And I enjoyed the piece and quiet.

*It basically means “Closed because of the strike”.

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