Some 25 Peruvian police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators protesting once morest President Pedro Castillo in Lima, which caused damage to the Palace of Justice and the national headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office, the government reported.
“Around 25 members of the Special Services Unit (USE) of the National Police of Peru (PNP) were injured by acts of violence carried out by a group of people during the demonstrations,” in downtown Lima, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The riots began while Castillo was holding a meeting with opposition leaders who control Congress.; Hundreds of people protested around the legislative building and other points in Lima.
During this meeting, the leftist president announced the end of the daytime curfew that he had decreed for this Tuesday, in order to contain protests over the rise in fuel and food prices.
Protesters clashed with the police near Congress, while some of them “caused damage to premises of the Public Ministry, the Judicial Branch and commercial establishments in downtown Lima,” the Ministry said. In addition, in the Palace of Justice, the demonstrators stole computers and other equipment, according to the Police.
Police tried to stop violent protesters from approaching public buildings with mounted officers, but their horses were stoned, footage from local television channels showed. In addition, they caused damage to a patrol car, the Police said on their Twitter account.
The end of the curfew was greeted with cheers by the hundreds of protesters gathered near Congress and in other parts of Lima, feeling that Castillo’s hand had been bent, AFP journalists observed.
Deaths in demonstrations in other regions of Peru
The stoppage of transporters has already been going on for a week in Peruvian territory and, according to authorities and the media in that country, There would already be four fatalities recorded so far, one of them was a minor who fell into a river, as confirmed by media such as The newspaper and BBCNews. The Peruvian National Police confirmed another of the deaths in the town of Huánuco.
The protests hit Lima and the regions of Piura, Chiclayo, La Libertad, Junín, Ica, Arequipa, San Martín, Amazonas and Ucayali, among others, and led to the suspension of classes in schools due to the restriction of public transport.
“Transit remains restricted on the different highways in the country, due to the stoppage of heavy cargo carriers,” reported the Superintendency of Land Transportation of People, Cargo and Goods (Sutran).
The Union of Multimodal Transport Guilds of Peru claims once morest the rise in fuel prices and tolls. The stoppage will last until Tuesday. The protest occurs at a time when Peru is also suffering from a rise in food prices. In Ate, several vehicles suffered broken windows when they were attacked with stones, local media reported.
In the regions of Ica (south) and Junín (east) there were looting in shops and pharmacies, according to images broadcast by local television stations. In Ica (300 km south of Lima) some toll booths on the Pan-American highway were burned.
With information from AFP