A visit to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, in a Peru in the throes of chaos, turned into an unexpected emergency for a group of Italian tourists, who were stranded for a few hours in the historic site by the suspension of rail links to Cusco.
In fact, as it had already done weeks ago, a group of demonstrators tore up the tracks in several points of the railway route, forcing the Ferrocarril Transandino company to block the trains
to undertake the necessary repairs which were completed in the evening, allowing tourists to set out for Cusco.
Among the compatriots who are assisted by the Italian authorities, it appears, there would also be cooks, who had signed up for a culinary tour of eight Peruvian locations, of which Machu Picchu was the last stop.
Overall, the tourists who were stranded in the citadel, which the Peruvian authorities have even decided to close, are 430, of which 300 are foreigners.
The Italians would be a few dozen
.
It is not the first time that the anti-government mobilization, which began on December 7, involves Italians visiting the Andean country.
By December 14, 50 had been reported in distress in various locations, including four girls.
After spending about 36 hours on board a bus, the young women were transferred to a hostel and then to the Cusco airport to return to Italy.
Meanwhile, due to tensions in Lima and in various central-southern regions, it is still confrontation
.
The Catholic Church has launched an appeal for dialogue that has fallen on deaf ears, while clashes continue between demonstrators and security forces, which have left 55 dead, over 1,200 injured, and serious material damage.
Hotbeds of protest are active in at least 12 of Peru's 24 regions, with particular intensity in Puno, Cusco, Arequipa and Lima.
In recent days, in addition to having imposed almost 100 roadblocks throughout the country,
protesters have occupied various mining centers
and tried, without success, to occupy the airports of Cusco, Arequipa and Juliaca.
Since January 19, the protest has moved to the capital, where tens of thousands of demonstrators (many of the Quechua and Aymara ethnic groups) are participating in a 'Toma de Lima' (Taking of Lima), also known as the March 'de los Cuatro Suyos'.
The forces of order generally respond to the action of the demonstrators with tear gas, but also with the use of weapons of various kinds, shooting, according to human rights organisations, even at point-blank range.
In Lima, fires broke out in the accidents, including one that destroyed a historic building a few meters from Plaza San Martin, the 'Casa Marcionelli', purchased last century by the Swiss Severino Marcionelli
, who was active in the Peruvian mining sector.
And while the president Dina Boluarte, whose resignation the demonstrators are calling for, remains silent, the interior minister rejected the demands of the streets, denouncing that with these protests "they intend to blackmail the current government through violence".