That for a few days the internal control of the region has been in charge of the Armed forcesIt seems that the extremists from Puno who continue to impose violence on their protests do not care. In the border district of Desaguadero, a mob of 300 people confronted a contingent of soldiers and police, who demanded with shouts and pushes that they withdraw from the area. The vandals also detained a police officer for a few hours.
Six troops and more than a hundred soldiers were intercepted by the mob as they descended from the Cristo Blanco hill viewpoint. Minutes before, this joint delegation had gone to the Carancas bridge, on the border with Bolivia, where the police authorities of that country handed over Omar Enrique Barrera Barrientos, a Peruvian justice wanted for illicit drug trafficking.
The detainee was received by officer Juan Uquira Gilinich and immediately boarded a Peruvian Army helicopter that would take him to Lima. The military guarded the aircraft against any attempt that it could be damaged.
After the diligence, and when they were heading back to their units, the protesters interrupted their tour. The police officers in charge of this diligence explained to the mob their presence in that area, but the violent ones opted for threats and the use of force. They only wanted the uniformed officers to withdraw from the place, since they assumed that their presence in that place would obey an order to unblock the roads.
In the midst of this scenario of violence and intimidation, soldiers and police officers were forced to leave the area and walked up to six hours to reach their destination.
Dozens of soldiers were attacked by extremists. Lieutenant Luis Alberto Rodríguez Monzón was detained by about 30 vandals who took him to the Lupaca-Desaguadero turnoff. When they were preparing to transfer him to the Plaza de Armas, a convoy with 30 agents managed to rescue him, without the mob reacting violently.
This group of violent men threatened to increase their aggression against the uniformed men if they return to this sector.
LATENT VIOLENCE
Puno has not stopped violence despite military control in the region. In the province of San Román, vandals yesterday set fire to a Serenazgo van and three motorcycles from the Las Casuarinas commune. There were also clashes on the Puno-Juliaca highway, in the Alto Puno sector.
The clashes last Thursday outside the Inca Manco Cápac airport in Juliaca ended with 35 injured, including 26 policemen, six of whom had to be transferred to hospitals in Lima.
A minor under the age of 11 was hit by a projectile that hit him in the arm. Another of the wounded had his hand amputated. The attempt to take over the Juliaqueño air terminal also left seven people arrested, who will be investigated for the crime of riots and for whom the Prosecutor’s Office has requested preventive detention.
A DEAD IN APURIMAC
The deaths since the protests against the government of Dina Boluarte began last December now total about 60, after confirming that Denilson Huaraca Vílchez died during the clashes that took place last Thursday in the province of Aymaraes, in Apurímac.
The day of violence, in which an interprovincial bus and a control booth in Quilcaccasa were set on fire by vandals, ended with three seriously injured and almost 40 people arrested.
