The Minister of Energy and Mines of Peru, Óscar Vera, and the Deputy Minister of Health, Henry Rebasa, were attacked this Monday in regions of the south of the country, by anti-government demonstrators.
Óscar Vera was participating in the inauguration of the school year at a school in Abancay, capital of Apurimac, in southern Peru, and had to leave for security reasons, before the arrival of demonstrators who insulted him, reported the Efe agency.
When the Minister of Energy and Mines left the educational institution, about twenty people chased the official vehicles shouting “the minister is running away” and “murderer”.
In Apurímac, home region of President Dina Boluarte, there were strong protests in December against the head of state, in which seven people died in clashes with police forces.
The Deputy Minister of Health, on the other hand, was surprised by demonstrators from the Popular Defense Front of Ayacucho (FREDEPA) while having lunch at a restaurant in Ayacucho, also in southern Peru, from which he had to leave quickly because they started throwing objects in his direction.
Even after Henry Rebasa left the space in a vehicle of his entourage, the protesters continued to attack the security guards with fruits and other objects.
In a video released on social networks and in the local media, these people were heard shouting “murderers”, “miserables”, “out of Ayacucho” and some showed flags and protest posters.
Some demonstrators gathered at the Ayacucho airport with banners in protest and in memory of the deceased, as they awaited the arrival of the President.
In December, a few days after anti-government demonstrations began, a protest took place in Ayacucho in which ten people died in clashes with the police.
Following the arrest of President Pedro Castillo, accused of self-coup d’état, there were strong popular mobilizations that demanded his release, the resignation of his Vice-President Dina Boluarte, who assumed the leadership of the State, the anticipation of the elections, the dissolution of parliament and the convening of a constituent assembly.
Despite a pause in the protests in recent weeks, this Saturday there were riots in Moquegua, also in the south, where the Prime Minister, Alberto Otárola, went to present an economic recovery program.
In that region, the demonstrators did not attack Otárola because the National Police (PNP) prevented them from approaching the ceremony, using tear gas bombs.
The anti-government protests in Peru have already caused at least 60 deaths and hundreds of injured and detained in particular due to the actions of the police and military forces.
The political crisis that shakes Peru is also a reflection of the enormous gap between the capital and the poor provinces that support Castillo, of Amerindian origin, who was never accepted in the Presidential Palace by the capital’s elite and oligarchy, and by the main ‘media’ in the owned by millionaire businessmen.
In a report released at the end of February, Amnesty International (AI) denounced Peru’s “violent state repression” against anti-government protests in the country and the “indiscriminate use of lethal weapons” against demonstrators, in addition to arbitrary arrests and other violations of human rights, including alleged extrajudicial executions.