false version. A doctor in weapons and ammunition design, Sergio Casanave Quelopana, pointed out that this type of expansive projectile cannot have been manufactured by hand, as President Boluarte said.
According to the official narrative, the fatal victims during the protests in Juliaca, Puno, were hit by “Dum Dum” projectiles, which they allegedly smuggled in from Bolivia. According to this argument, the same demonstrators they might have fired this type of ammunition at the 18 civilians reported dead.
Last Tuesday, the President Dina Boluarte said, during a press conference, that the deaths in Puno were caused “by the impact of an artisanal weapon called ‘Dum ‘Dum”. However, engineer Sergio Casanave Quelopana, a doctor in weapons and ammunition design, objected: “Dum Dum ammunition has not existed for more than 100 years. Unfortunately, there is a lot of ignorance among the president’s advisers.”
The expert explained to this newspaper that this type of projectiles left the market in 1909, following being in circulation since 1890. “It was a hollow projectile that carried a drop of mercury. When this projectile hit, it did brutal damage inside because the mercury entered the bloodstream and was capable of poisoning,” Casanave explained. The current law that governs the use of weapons and ammunition, Law 30299, prohibits it. Neither that nor any other type of expansive projectiles are allowed.
This version, which first circulated profusely on social networks, on accounts of far-right organizations and individuals, was repeated by the Head of State, In Boluartein a conference with the foreign press, on Tuesday, January 24:
“Unofficially, what they tell us is that the deceased on January 9 in Puno, (…) most of them are due to the impact of a handmade weapon called ‘Dum Dum’. The police don’t use those lethal weapons.”
What Boluarte implied is that the protesters handcrafted devices to fire said projectiles.. One of the country’s leading experts on the matter, engineer Sergio Casanave Quelopana, told La República that it is completely false that “Dum Dum” bullets circulate in the country.
Lie following lie
“There has been no ‘Dum Dum’ ammunition for over 100 years. Unfortunately, there is a lot of ignorance among the president’s advisers,” Casanave told this newspaper.
The Republic revealed that nine of the victims of Juliacain whose bodies the forensics found remains of projectiles, none of them were of the characteristics of “Dum Dum”.
“It is impossible for them to be made (the ‘Dum Dum’) by hand. A person, in order to make a bullet, needs black powder, which is not commercial. A gunpowder that is corrosive, incendiary, explosive. An expansive ammunition cannot be made by hand,” Casanave said.
President Boluarte also expressed that “these lethal weapons have entered the Peru-Bolivia border.”
Given this, Casanave observed: “The ammunition that they have captured on the border is 5.56mm caliber. It is a projectile to hunt vizcachas or birds, and that by law it has to have a hollow point. It’s not the (shells) that expand,” he said.
The specialist was able to observe the wounds on the bodies of the policemen and concluded that they were not caused by expansive ammunition let alone “Dum Dum” projectiles because they don’t exist anymore.
When reviewing the reports of the Institute of Legal Medicine published by this medium last week, where the remains of projectiles found in nine bodies of the deceased in Juliaca are shown, Sergio Casanave determined that they are not of an expansive type either.
There is no official information
National Police sources told this newspaper that they have no information available on the “Dum Dum” projectiles. And that in any case, if it existed, it would be in the hands of intelligence agencies, which, due to their nature of work, cannot disseminate it.
The type of projectile found in the corpses of the protesters of Juliaca corresponds to bullets from AKM riflesFor use by the National Police.
In the case of the deceased ayacuchobullets were found with characteristics that correspond to Galil rifle ammunition, for official use by the Army.
There are video records in which policemen and soldiers can be seen with absolute clarity firing their AKM and Galil rifles indiscriminatelyon the days and hours in which the protesters died from bullet wounds.
