The Peruvian government extended for 10 days the validity of the curfew in Puno, one of the nerve centers of the protests, after a new day of demonstrations that left several injured by the repression in the capital, Lima, as far as marches from all over the country.
The extension is complementary to the state of emergency established in the framework of the escalation of social conflict in this city in the Peruvian highlands, where demonstrations and repression were registered yesterday.
The decree, published on Tuesday night in an extraordinary edition of the Legal Standards bulletin of the Official Gazette, specifies that during the “mandatory social immobilization” people can circulate on roads for public use for the acquisition, production and supply of food , which includes its storage and distribution for sale.
In parallel, the blockades on several routes in the country began to cause shortages of some basic products and increases in the prices of fuel and food in southern Andean provinces, after six weeks of political and social crisis.
The shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the main supply for vehicles and domestic use in Peru, began to be felt in the sales services of the southern regions of Arequipa, Tacna and Puno, which claim in their statements to be the poorest, forgotten and discriminated against by their populations. indigenous majority.
“We, all the Peruvian people, are not going to give up. We have nothing to talk about with Mrs. Boluarte. The lady knows very well: the only thing the people want is for her to resign and for there to be new elections.”
“They already informed me that the LPG ran out in Arequipa,” said Alexander Cornejo, representatives of the taxi drivers, alluding to the situation in this area where some 7,000 taxi drivers are suffering from fuel shortages, local radio station RPP and the news agency reported. AFP.
due to scarcity, market traders in the city of Puno tripled the prices of items such as potatoes and tomatoes.
According to the transport authorities, This Wednesday, 85 pickets were reported blocking the passage on routes in nine of the 25 Peruvian regions that demand the resignation of Boluarte and the trucks that carry the food were stranded on the highways of the Ica and Puno regions.
Peru has experienced a wave of protests since December 7, when Congress dismissed Pedro Castillo, hours after he announced the closure of the Legislature and the establishment of an emergency government with the suppression of constitutional guarantees, after several attempts by the blocs opponents to remove him from office.
During the protests, at least 46 people died in clashes, nine due to traffic accidents and events related to blockades and one policeman due to acts of violence in the context of the conflict, the Ombudsman’s Office reported in its latest report.
On Tuesday, when Lima lived its most violent day of protest, with several injured by pellets and stones, the social upheaval forced a new closure of the Cusco airport, the epicenter of tourism in Peru.
In the center of Lima there were clashes and a strong repression against the protestersand the historic center became a battlefield where tear gas bombs were flown.
Two international media photographers, one of them from Agence France-Presse, were hit by pellets and stones in one of their legs while they were covering the demonstration that, called by peasants and university students, had a peaceful start but turned into violence with the entry of hooded demonstrators with homemade shields.
In the Ica region, 300 kilometers south of Lima, eight non-commissioned officers of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) were injured in an attack on the sidelines of a massive demonstration to block a section of the Panamericana Sur highway, reported the Ministry of the Interior.
“We, all the Peruvian people, are not going to give up. We have nothing to talk about with the lady (President Dina) Boluarte. The lady knows very well: the only thing the people want is for her to resign and for there to be new elections.” Carlos Avedano, a 35-year-old farmer who arrived in Lima from Andahuaylas, a city 754 kilometers southeast of the capital, told AFP.
In Cusco, 1,350 kilometers south of Lima and where the most violent protests have taken place, which resulted in 18 deaths at the beginning of January, a military contingent entered marching down the main street, exclaiming harangues in defense of the homeland.
