Amnesty International (AI) demanded this Friday the Government of spain to suspend “immediately” the sale of small arms and riot control material to Peruconsidering that it might serve to suppress the protests that began on December 7 and that have resulted in at least 41 deaths.
It’s a statement, International Amnesty warned the Spanish Executive that there is a high risk that both the Peruvian armed forces and the Peruvian Police use riot gear, small arms and light weapons, and ammunition to commit “serious violations of human rights.”
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For this reason, it demanded that it suspend “immediately” any new authorization or shipment to Peru of this type of material, since for five years Spain has been the main supplier of weapons to Peru in the European Union.
This organization figures at 184 million euros the authorizations of arms licenses to Peru between 2017 and June 2022, of which close to 40 million were riot gear.
Regarding exports in the same period, Amnesty highlights the sales of 4.7 million euros in light weapons, ammunition worth 2.4 million and close to 1 million in riot gear.
AI has requested by letter the suspension of these exports to the Secretary of State for Commerce in Spain, Xiana Margarida Méndez, who also chairs the state entity that regulates the sale of arms.
The letter requests that unexecuted authorizations for lethal and riot control equipment be revoked, in accordance with the international treaty on Arms Trade, which obliges not to authorize exports when there is a substantial risk of their use to commit or facilitate serious human rights violations.
The organization asks that this measure be maintained until “those responsible for human rights violations committed by the Peruvian Army and Police are prosecuted and the security forces receive training that allows them to use this material in accordance with international standards on the use of the force”.
The crisis in Peru It was triggered on December 7, when the then President Pedro Castillo was dismissed by Congress and later arrested following announcing the dissolution of the Legislative, following which the Vice President assumed power In Boluarte.