Poverty line divides Peru in presidential vote
Poverty line divides Peru in presidential vote
By Moises Avila, Roland Lloyd Parry (AFP) 33 mins ago.
Many Peruvians voting on Sunday want a new president who will stop the country's economic growth from slipping away. But millions never felt that growth in the first place.
Along a hillside ridge in southeastern Lima runs what locals call the "wall of shame."
Topped with loops of barbed wire, it divides the posh Las Casuarinas neighborhood from the hardscrabble district of Pamplona Alta.
The six-mile wall went up five years ago to keep crime away from the big houses, swimming pools and green lawns of Las Casuarinas.
For 7,500 residents on the other side, in dusty shacks without electricity or running water, it just keeps in place the social divisions that fuel crime.
"I was sad when they built the wall. I am not here because I like living in squalor, but because I need a job," said one resident, Amelia Gomero.
She migrated from the north of the country to seek her fortune in the city.
"With that wall, they just remind me that I am poor."
Locals say none of the candidates running for president has been around here meeting voters.
More:
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Bless these children. [/center]
