Living in Peru : your everyday companion

by Virginia Velasco

The vans called “combis” in Peru were introduced to the public transport scenery by former president Fujimori. At that time the service of public transport was inefficient and the government decided to import used vehicles from Japan and other Asian countries in order to solve the problem. With this law thousands of combis were imported increasing the chaos of the Peruvian traffic.

What do we usually see in the streets of Lima? chaos, due to people and drivers who do not respect the law. A friend who is an anthropologist told me “The traffic in a city shows the culture of a country”…this phrase impressed me as well as the article “The combi culture” published in El Comercio on March 5th, maybe we can find out why the traffic is chaotic in Lima and other cities in Peru.



Driving in Lima can be an adventure or a discovery, but it is mainly stressing due to the continous lack of respect to the laws, the possibility to be robbed or the increasing chance to hit a pedestrian. The chauffeurs of the buses and “combis” drive in a very aggressive and careless way. Kindness is a word which does not exist in that world. Most of the drivers stop whenever they see a possible “passenger”, the busstops and the corners to pick up passengers are ignored. The “cobradores” (person who collects the money) shout the destinations even though it is 1:00am, more than half of them would avoid giving a ticket. No one inside the “combis” use the security belts unless they see a policeman, then they driver would shout “The police! Put on the security belts” but he really doesn’t care about the safety of the passengers. It is about doing whatever I want when ever I want and do not think about others.

It would be unfair to blame only the public transport drivers, a very high percentage of the Peruvian drivers do not respect the traffic rules. It is also common to see someone driving an expensive car not respecting a red light or throwing papers to the streets. Even employees of the government would not listen to a policeman. Kindness is unusual, pedestrians would doubt to cross the street if someone politely stops the car and ask them to cross, meanwhile the drivers of the cars behind will use the horn and even insult the kind driver. The traffic in Lima is upside down.


The pedestrians and the owners of motocycles and “mototaxis” have a responsability too.
A mother with small children would rather cross the highway instead of using the pedestrian bridges. Is she too tired or does she not care at all? Street vendors use the streets as their working place regardless to the danger they are exposed to. There are so many accidents caused by negligence of pedestrians and mototaxis that the insurance companies do not want to insure the mototaxis anymore.


How can we understand this so called “combi” culture? The sociologist Max Meneses answered to El Comercio about this matter: “This is the reflex of an anomic society were the law is not fulfilled, it is not respected by the citizens nor the governing body and no one identifies themselves with the State as an authority”. Gonzalo Portocarrero author of the book “Los rostros criollos del mal”(The Creole faces of Evil) says that in this society the laws are not “felt” as something legitimate but as an imposition that hinders the way to enjoyment and pleasure of personal benefits.


Max Meneses also mentions that there is a lack of citizen participation and acknowledgement and identification with the citizen rights and duties. This means that “each person make the law under a personal perspective and not as general interest, they create a lifestyle out of their particular interest”. Who has the responsability of teaching the values and rules of society? In one hand is the family and on the other hand is the educational system. What happens when a child is told that he must not throw papers to the street, but he sees that many people do it... The teachers have a big responsability because they have to explain the students about these contradictions, though the most important is to teach the students about their rights and duties to live in a social coexistence respecting the rules. It is not possible to give the whole responsability to the teachers, everyone should participate in order to improve the quality of life in the country: Parents, governants, politicians, policemen, customers, etc. Therefore it is important to make an effort and expect that schedules and punctuality are respected, not bribing a policeman if we cross a red light, respecting the lines and teaching our children to respect the others no matter their social class or race. Each one of us could do something about it.

Will Peru ever become a “very nice place to live”?

tags : peruvian culture traditions

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