At least 17 killed in Peru’s “deadliest” anti-government protests

Lima/Juliaca:

At least 17 people were killed in clashes with police in southern Peru, the country’s human rights office said on Monday, the deadliest day of protests demanding early elections and the release of jailed former President Pedro Castillo. .

Puno Health Ministry official Henry Rebaza told state TV channel TV Peru that clashes broke out in Juliaca, a town on the shores of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru’s Puno region, and 68 people were injured. At least two teenagers were among the dead, according to the ministry.

Ismael Cornejo, Puno’s regional health director, told local radio station RPP that some of the bodies had bullet wounds.

The latest casualties in anti-government clashes with security forces rose to 39 since protests broke out in early December after Castillo was ousted and arrested shortly after trying to illegally dissolve Congress.

Castillo is serving 18 months of pre-trial detention on a charge of insurrection, which he denies.

Rebaza also told Peru TV that 28 injured police officers could not be evacuated from Juliaca’s airport. Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said that thousands of protesters had tried to storm the airport along with a police station.

gunshots, smoke

During the day in Juliaca, a Reuters witness recorded footage of gunfire and smoke in the streets as protesters took cover behind large metal plates and road signs and threw stones at police using improvised sling-shots.

Other footage showed a man lying on the ground in a blood-stained sweater and CPR being administered to seriously injured people in a crowded hospital waiting room.

An unidentified woman told Reuters that her relative had been shot while out walking with a friend who lived nearby.

“I want to say to the central government – how can we have so many people dying?” said Jorge Sotomayor Perales, head of the intensive care department at a hospital in Juliaca.

Peru’s human rights office, known as the ombudsman’s office, asked police to follow international standards for using force and investigating the deaths, while asking protesters not to attack property or disrupt the movement of ambulances. urged to avoid

Earlier on Monday, the ombudsman said a newborn baby had died while being transported from the city of Yunguio, southeast of Juliaca, to a local hospital in an ambulance that had been delayed due to a road blockade.

Protests for early elections and Castillo’s release resumed after a holiday last week. Protesters are also demanding the resignation of new President Dina Boluaarte, the shutdown of Congress and changes to the constitution.

Speaking on Monday at a “national accord” meeting with representatives of the country’s regions and different political institutions, Boluaarte said she could not accept some of the protesters’ key demands. He called on citizens to “reflect”.

“The only thing I had in hand was to go ahead with the elections, which we have already proposed,” she said. “What you are asking for is an excuse to create chaos in the cities.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said it would tour Peru from Wednesday to Friday, visiting Lima and other cities to assess the situation.

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