Four Peruvian policemen were injured this Tuesday in clashes with demonstrators protesting against President Pedro Castillo in Lima and that caused damage to the Palace of Justice and the national headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office, the government reported.
“They are telling me about the injured, they have been initially treated by firefighters. They are vandals who are attacking the Police“, said the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Chávarry, specifying that the injured agents were four.
The disturbances began in the afternoon while Castillo was holding a meeting with opposition leaders who control Congress and hundreds of people protested around the legislative building and other parts of Lima.
During this meeting, the leftist president announced the end of the daytime curfew that he had decreed for this Tuesday in order to contain protests over rising fuel and food prices.
Some demonstrators clashed with the police near the Congress, while a group of them violently entered the Palace of Justicelocated nearby, where they caused damage and stole computers and other equipment, according to the Police.
The demonstrators also broke some windows of the Prosecutor’s Office, also located in the central area of the Peruvian capital.
Police tried to stop violent protesters from approaching public buildings with mounted officers, but their horses were stoned, local television footage showed.
In addition, they caused damage to a patrol car, the Police said on their Twitter account.
The end of the curfew was greeted with cheers by the hundreds of protesters gathered near Congress and in other parts of Lima because they felt that they had shaken Castillo’s hand, AFP journalists observed.