Lima, October 14 (RHC)-- In Peru, riot police cracked down on a diverse group of protesters against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in downtown Lima, with university student collectives, labor unions, health-based groups, leftist political parties, Indigenous communities, cultural movements, neighborhood associations, feminists and environmentalists all taking part. 

The march, which was the latest in over a dozen major protests in the Peruvian capital over the past year, faced tear gas and heckling from police as they denounced the neo-liberal policies that will see the vulnerable populations suffer the most. 

There are a number of issues being raised by citizens protesting the TPP including opposition to monopoly rights on medicines: opposition to the protection of genetically-modified foods, opposition to the degradation of environmental standards and opposition to potential mechanisms that would force the state to relinquish its sovereignty to international courts for commercial disputes.