Clash with police at pro-Castillo rally in Peru leaves at least 17 dead

At least 17 people were killed in clashes with police in southern Peru, the country’s human rights office said on Monday, the deadliest day yet of protests demanding early elections and the release of the former president. arrested Pedro Castillo.

The clashes took place in Juliaca, a town near the shores of Lake Titicaca in the Puno region of southern Peru, and left 68 people injured, Henry Rebaza, an official at the Ministry of Health in Puno, told state television channel TV Peru. .

Among the dead are at least two teenagers, according to the ministry.

Some of the bodies had gunshot wounds, Puno regional health director Ismael Cornejo told local radio station RPP.

The latest casualties bring the death toll in anti-government clashes with security forces to 39 since protests began in early December after Castillo was ousted and jailed shortly after he tried to illegally dissolve Congress.

Castillo is serving 18 months in pretrial detention on the rebellion charge, which he denies.

Rebaza also told Peru TV that 28 injured police officers could not be evacuated from the airport in Juliaca. Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said thousands of protesters tried to storm the airport along with a police station.

gunshots and smoke

During the day in Juliaca, a Reuters witness recorded footage of gunshots and smoke in the streets as protesters took cover behind large metal signs and road signs and threw rocks at police using makeshift slingshots.

Other footage showed people administering CPR to a man lying motionless on the floor in a bloodstained sweater and people with serious injuries in a crowded hospital waiting room.

An unidentified woman told Reuters that her relative was hit by a bullet while walking with a friend who lived nearby.

“I want to appeal to the central government – ​​how can we have so many dead?” said Jorge Sotomayor Perales, head of the intensive care department at a hospital in Juliaca.

Peru’s human rights office, known as the Ouvidoria, called on police to meet international standards in the use of force and investigations into the deaths, while urging protesters to refrain from attacking property or impeding the movement of ambulances.

Earlier on Monday, the Ombudsman said that a newborn had died while being transferred from the town of Yunguyo, southeast of Juliaca, to a local hospital in an ambulance that was delayed due to a roadblock.

Protests calling for early elections and Castillo’s release resumed last week after a holiday break. Protesters also demand the resignation of new president Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress and changes to the constitution.

Speaking at a “national accord” meeting on Monday with representatives from the country’s regions and various political institutions, Boluarte said he could not meet some of the protesters’ main demands. She urged citizens to “reflect”.

“The only thing that was in my hands was to bring forward the elections, which we have already proposed,” she said. “What you are asking for is a pretext to continue creating chaos in cities.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported that it will visit Peru from Wednesday to Friday, visiting Lima and other cities to assess the situation.