The new measure extends the state of emergency to allow the armed forces to support the police in controlling public order.
Peruvian President Pedro Castillo decreed a curfew and extended the state of emergency in Lima on Tuesday, amid protests over rising fuel and food prices. Four people died in the protests in the last week.
In a message to the nation around midnight on Monday, Castillo announced on public television that he would be banned from the streets of the capital of 10 million people, including the port of Callao, due to “the acts of violence” that on the eve left toll booths on fire, small looting in some stores and clashes with the police.
The president indicated that the roadblocks have created “anxiety for workers, mothers and the population in general” and that the decreed measure seeks to “restore peace and internal order.”
The curfew will begin at two in the morning on Tuesday and will end at the end of the day. The capital, Lima, has been in a state of emergency since the beginning of February, which implies the limitation of several constitutional rights, including the inviolability of the home, and the freedoms of assembly and transit.
The new measure extends the state of emergency to allow the armed forces to support the police in controlling public order. The curfew allows the operation of essential services such as food markets, pharmacies, hospitals and garbage collection.
The Minister of Justice, Félix Chero, told the local RPP radio that the measure seeks to “pacify the country”, due to the fact that violent people have infiltrated the social protest to commit acts of vandalism.
The ban on people on the streets for almost 24 hours on Tuesday recalls the past closures ordered to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, which left more than 212,000 dead in Peru since the start of the pandemic.
The last week of protests by truckers and carriers over the rise in fuel and food prices left four dead, as well as several injured. Blockades on key highways in the country prevented the supply of some food markets in the capital that receive trucks from the Andes.
In response, the government suspended on Sunday and until the end of June a tax on some types of gasoline and diesel that raised the final price between 28% and 30%. Thus, the most used diesel lowered its price by 0.47 dollars per gallon, but several protesters said that on Monday the fuel was still high and unchanged at gas stations.
The rise in fuel prices has raised the cost of food. The president has admitted in recent weeks that Peru is experiencing an economic crisis and points out that the rise in prices driven by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic has been fueled by Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has led the country to a “ war economy.
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