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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

political knowledge, governmental activism, Peru, pedestrian traffic

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

Downtown Lima, Peru is as metropolitan a place as one can find. Buses and cars blare their horns as they jostle for position on crowded streets. People brush shoulders as they weave their way though the crowds that fill streets dedicated entirely to pedestrian traffic. Suddenly, the air is filled with shouts and the sting of tear gas. Police emerge from every direction as piles of trash are ignited in the street. Protesters hurl bricks as they flee the clouds of gas and advancing officials. What changed? What drove these seemingly peaceful people to such seemingly extreme actions? And why was everyone else so calm? Protest had become so commonplace that the reaction of the average citizen was little more than a complaint in the delay of public transportation.

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