Leftist groups announced mobilizations in Lima for this Thursday to demand the resignation of the president Dina Boluarte and early elections, as part of the protests that left at least 42 dead in a month, with major outbreaks in Andean areas such as Cuscotourism mecca.
“Not one more death, down with the civic-military, racist and classist dictatorship,” says the slogan on the networks for the march in Lima called by a conglomerate of social groups, unions and left-wing parties.
The protests enter their second week after a truce at the end of the year and are promoted by radical sectors and peasant unions that also demand justice for the bereaved and punishment for those responsible for the disproportionate use of force.
On Thursday the country woke up with blockades in 10 of the 25 regions of the country, affecting cities like Tacna, on the border with Chile; Puno, Cusco, Arequipa and Madre de Dios, among others, detailed the Superintendency of Land Transportation.
The rallies resumed in Arequipa, Tacna and Cusco, while in Puno, the epicenter of the movement, the burial of 17 of the deceased is expected after clashes on Monday with law enforcement in the highland city of Juliaca.
A 16-year-old protester who had been hospitalized since Monday died this Thursday in Juliaca. his death raised to 19 the death toll in that city.
In addition to the resignation of Boluarte and anticipating the elections, the protests demand the closure of Congress and the call for a Constituent Assembly to replace the Magna Carta of 1993, promoted by the then president Alberto Fujimori, which establishes the market economy as the axis of socioeconomic development
“Riot against Lima”
The mobilization in the capital is part of a “coup that they want to carry out against Lima in the next few days, as they have probably announced on the 14th,” the chief of staff, Alberto Otárola, had said on Monday.
According to the senior official, the protests “are being financed with dark money from drug trafficking,” supposedly coming from the coca-growing valleys of the southern Andes.
Otárola, who obtained a vote of confidence for his inauguration in the right-wing-dominated Congress on Tuesday, then depicted a virtual situation of war, pointing out that the forces of order will defend Lima.
The official blames the detained ex-president Pedro Castillo for being “the one who encourages people and coordinates these mobilizations to seek impunity.”
The leftist Castillo was dismissed by Congress and imprisoned on December 7 after a failed self-coup, when trying to close parliament, intervene in justice and govern by decree. He was replaced by Dina Boluarte, 60, his vice president.
Castillo, who was being investigated for corruption, is serving 18 months in pretrial detention ordered by a judge on charges of rebellion.
Cusco, tourism and protests
In Cusco, one of the meccas of world tourism for the Machu Picchu citadel, the Marriot hotel was attacked with stones by vandals during a march through the streets of that city on Wednesday night, with angry protesters after the death of a peasant leader during a confrontation with the police.
The Ombudsman’s Office reported more than 50 injuries, 19 police officers among them.
Also in Cusco, the residents burned a booth at the regional land transport terminal, attacked commercial premises and placed stones on the railway line. According to the police, 11 people were arrested, including a Colombian citizen.
The violent protests that began a month ago have so far left 42 dead, including a policeman who was burned alive by a mob, according to the institution.
In Ayacucho, there was a vigil on Wednesday night for the victims of the protests with empty, black cardboard coffins.
As a result of this crisis, Chile recommended to its citizens “as far as possible to postpone their trip until the situation normalizes due to the protests in various regions” of Peru.
The tragic balance provoked a call from the United States for “restraint” to all parties, while an observation mission of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is in Peru to assess the human rights situation.
The United Nations system urged the government to respect human rights and avoid the disproportionate use of force to suppress the protests in the face of the increase in deaths, the majority from firearms.
The exhortation is also addressed to the various organizations behind the protests, which were asked to “refrain from acts of violence and exercise the right to protest peacefully, respecting life and public and private property.”
The economic losses due to the crisis exceed 300 million soles so far this year (about 78.9 million dollars), with a “very negative” focused impact on the troubled areas, according to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alex Contreras.
