PERU: Student strike unabated amid bloody conflict

Students from Huancavelica National University in central Peru remain on strike despite concessions by the government in a conflict that has left three people dead, hundreds injured and several regional government buildings sacked and burned to the ground.

Since mid-June clashes have erupted between the people and students of Huancavelica.

The strike continues despite guarantees by the outgoing government of President Alan García that their university will not share budget, premises and teachers with the newly-created National Autonomous University of Tayacaja, which has been criticised as a hastily built pork-barrel project.

After winning the battle over their institution's resources, Huancavelica National University (HNU) students have turned against what they claim is a corrupt and inept administration. The resignation on 6 July of Rector Yda Camposano seems to have not solved matters.

Students are now calling for HNU to be completely restructured. Many teachers, however, say restructuring would be counterproductive. The final decision on how to proceed is now in the hands of an investigative team from the National Assembly of Rectors (NAR), which arrived in Huancavelica on 14 July.

A radio report from Huancavelica seems to have added fuel to the fire by reporting that the HNU had faired poorly in a just-released ranking by a national NGO that measures the transparency of Peru's public universities.

Huancavelica is only one of several conflicts in Peru related to the creation of new universities. Thirteen new public universities have been launched in the past five years. These have been added to the existing 35 public and 65 private universities.

Orlando Velásquez, President of the NAR and Rector of the National University of Trujillo, said that clientelismo político - that is, the practice of giving preferential treatment to interest groups in exchange for their support - lay behind the creation of the National Autonomous University of Tayacaja.

He said NAR was not consulted over the law that created the university, which was proposed by congressmen Miro Ruiz and José Saldaña. "It is incredible; they draft a project without studying it, with no budget and it is approved immediately, almost unanimously, creating serious problems," he said.

A recent editorial in the widely-read Peruvian daily El Comercio struck the same note: "The reason behind the creation of new universities is politicking, populism and the search for prominence by congressmen," and added that the authorities showed little interest in providing new universities with the necessary financing, infrastructure and teachers.

"Worse, they are born without mission, vision or an institutional project indicating where they are heading, what they want to be and what needs they are attempting to meet."

Local politics may also have played a part in the bloody conflict in Huancavelica.

Maciste Díaz, President of the Huancavelica region, claimed that the destruction by protesters of the regional government's headquarters was an attempt to discredit him by burning documents proving that the previous administration was corrupt.

Expectations raised in Huancavelica, Peru's poorest province, by the country's fast economic growth - gross national product grew by 8.6% last year - may also explain the upheaval.

The conflict in Huancavelica is only one of 277 social conflicts documented in a recent report from Peru's ombudsman.

Many national and international commentators say that the García government's failure to spread the new wealth may be behind the unexpected victory of left-leaning Ollanta Humala in Peru's presidential elections. .

Humala, who begins his five-year term on 28 July, has promised to increase the budget for education from 3% to 6% and to carry out "a revolution in education".