A protester died on Saturday in Lima and raised to 58 the number of victims during protests in peru which add up to almost two months to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte as well as members of Congress.
The Ombudsman’s Office confirmed at night on its Twitter account the death of Víctor Santisteban Yacsavilca, 55, and indicated that the doctors at the Grau Emergency Hospital coordinate the proceedings with the prosecutor’s office.
Santisteban received a serious head injury while demonstrating against the Boluarte government on the street called Abancay in the historic center. Another injured person was admitted to an intensive care unit.
Protests have multiplied in Peru since Boluarte assumed the presidency on December 7 after Parliament that day dismissed the then president Pedro Castillowho had earlier tried to dissolve Congress.
The protesters demand the resignation of Boluarte and the members of Congress, the call for a constituent assembly, the advancement of the elections and justice for those who died during the protests. Other nonconformists demand the freedom and reinstatement of Castillo in the presidency.
In another area of the historic center, hundreds of protesters remained until late at night very close to the popular Plaza San Martín, where they usually congregate to protest.
Several began to dance, others fueled a fire with logs, and a couple of musicians played a protest song. Then the police arrived and dispersed them by throwing dozens of tear gas canisters at them.
“They are damned, but we will not get tired,” said Julián Martínez, who had a Peruvian flag on his back with the phrase: “Dina assassina.”
Several patrons at a bar next to Plaza San Martín drank mojitos as they watched the protest but abandoned their glasses and fled when tear gas invaded the area.
Then the streets around the square were silent to the point that the chirping of the crickets that inhabit the gardens of the square could be heard.
The mobilizations have so far left 58 dead, one of them a policeman in a patrol vehicle on fire.
On Friday, a bill that sought to advance the general elections to the end of 2023 was not approved by the plenary session of Congress. A total of 45 legislators voted in favor, another 65 against, while 2 abstained.
The legislators presented on Friday night, shortly before the closure of the parliamentary plenary session, a reconsideration of the vote in which the project to advance the elections was rejected.
The Peruvian presidency regretted that Congress has not defined a date for the advancement of the general elections as thousands of Peruvians request, among other demands during the incessant protests.
“Peru is no longer interested in what Congress does. Congress is not necessary for the Peruvian people. We will continue on the march, the police have to get tired, we can already see their deterioration, we are going to enter there. Each time the districts of Lima are being incorporated,” said Juan Cruz, a protester wearing an orange helmet.
The protests, which began in the interior of the country, moved last week to Lima where the day before a group of more than a thousand protesters marched for the first time along the main avenue that connects the northern part of the capital with the historic center .
The Ombudsman’s Office said on Saturday that there were blockades at 80 points and a confrontation between protesters and drivers in a town in Cusco.
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