Las protests once morest the government of Dina Boluarte continued in southern Peru, where one person died today due to police repression, bringing the death toll since December to at least 46, while in Lima the authorities forcibly entered the University of San Marcos where dozens of protesters who had traveled to the capital for the “taking of Lima” were staying.
«We have a deceased person in Key due to the protests on Friday. He is an injured resident who was being taken to the hospital in Puno, but a corpse arrived,” Jacinto Ticona, ombudsman for the town of Ilave, in Puno, in the south of the country, told the AFP news agency.
“We call on the police not to use disproportionate force,” he added.
The repression of the protests on Friday in Ilave unleashed the anger of the populationwhich at dawn today burned the police station of that city.
Clashes between residents and security forces They also left 10 injured, according to hospital sources.
Images viralized on social networks showed how policemen shot protesters at the body in the main square of Ilave, a small town at 3,800 meters above sea level, near Lake Titicaca, on the border with Bolivia.
Another police station in Puno, in the Zepita district, it had also been burned on Friday, causing no casualties.
Meanwhile, in Lima, The police forcefully entered the National University of San Marcos breaking a huge fence with a riot vehicle and detained dozens of protesters and students who had been sleeping there for several days.
Peru’s top prosecutor Alfonso Barrenechea, national coordinator of the Crime Prevention Prosecutors, confirmed that there were 205 people detained during the intervention of the Police in the university campus, according to the RPP radio station.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged to “ensure the legality and proportionality of the intervention and guarantees of due process” and stressed that bringing the detainees “before judicial authorities and fiscal supervision is essential for the protection of the rights of all people.”
Lawyers from the Puno region who arrived at the scene, such as Efraín Sullca, denounced that the presence of the defenders was not allowed. The protesters had slept there despite the denial of the institution.
The university said in a statement,The Police acted “ex officio” because the protesters did not fulfill the supposed promise to withdraw on Thursday.
Thousands of people came to Lima to protest
Thousands of people from the interior marched on Thursday and Friday in Lima in protests which in some cases led to clashes near Congress, when the Police prevented them from advancing with tear gas and water jets.
Las Protests so far leave 46 dead, 45 protesters and a police officersince they broke out in December, following the dismissal and arrest of the then president Pedro Castillo, who was succeeded by Boluarte as vice president.
Also, another 13 people died from various causes related to the protests, such as accidents resulting from roadblocks.
On December 7, Congress dismissed Castillo, hours following he announced the closure of the Legislature and the establishment of an emergency government with the suppression of constitutional guarantees.
Since then and until yesterday, the Peruvian National Police (PNP) arrested a total of 378 people accused of causing disturbances, reported the Minister of the Interior (Mininter), Vicente Romero Fernández.
They closed the roads to Machu Picchu
The protests led to the closure of access to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, the main tourist attraction of the country.
“The Inca trail network and the llaqta (citadel) of Machu Picchu have been closed due to the social situation and to safeguard the integrity of visitors,” the Ministry of Culture reported today, noting that the measure will apply “until new notification”.
The measure is taken following the railway service from the city of Cusco to Machu Picchu was suspended due to damage to the tracks, allegedly caused by protesters.
At least 400 tourists were stranded in Aguas Calientes/MachuPicchu, the foothill town of the Inca citadel, which is a tourist gem of Peru.
After the massive demonstration on Thursday in Lima, President Boluarte ruled out that she is going to present her resignation and called for dialogue to restore calm to the country
“The situation is under control, because we know that these gentlemen are not going to stop their process of breaking the rule of law (…) The Government is firm and its cabinet is more united than ever,” he assured.
In an attempt to appease the demands, in December the Parliament brought forward the elections from 2026 to April 2024, but the demonstrations persist and the demand is for the immediate departure of Boluarte and the members of Congress.
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