GUATEMALA CITY – Hundreds of union members and peasants grouped into the so-called National Front for Struggle, or FNL, on Tuesday blocked at least nine important roadways in Guatemala to demand that the government, among other things, provide solutions to the problems of finding work for landless peasants and Indians.

About 1,200 people, according to what an Interior Ministry spokesman told Efe, paralyzed vehicular traffic at different points along the highways leading to the country’s ports and borders, but no violent incidents were reported.

One of the FNL leaders, Roberto Madrid, told reporters that the protests have the support of the health care and education unions as well as the country’s youth and peasant organizations.

“We want a quick response on the part of the government to the requests we put together last July, to which we have received no reaction,” Madrid said.

In July, the FNL presented a list of requests to the government of Alvaro Colom in which it demanded solutions to the problems confronting thousands of peasants and Indians who have no land to work.

In addition, they asked the government not to set up any more military camps in the country’s interior, to authorize more financial resources for health and education and to nationalize the electricity services.

The blockades did not affect the traffic inflow or outflow from the capital.

A small group of union activists also demonstrated outside Congress, where they publicly presented their demands.

The government has not made any statement with regard to the protests, and the security forces, although they were deployed at the roadway blockade sites, did not try to disperse the demonstrators. EFE