At least 17 dead in clashes between protesters and riot police in southern Peru

First modification: 01/10/2023 – 09:31

With Carlos Noriega, RFI correspondent in Lima, and AFP

The protests grow and the repression adds deaths. On Monday, 17 people were killed when police fired on protesters against the government of President Dina Boluarte and the right-wing-controlled Congress.

“Up to this time of night (10:00 p.m. local), we have confirmed 17 deaths in Puno during clashes with law enforcement in the vicinity of the Juliaca airport,” a source from the Ombudsman’s Office told AFP.

This occurred in the city of Juliaca, in the highland region of Puno, on the border with Bolivia, when protesters tried to take over the airport. In this southern region, a supermarket and a store were looted and the house of a congressman was burned down.

Puno has become the center of the largest protests, which are mainly concentrated in the southern Andes, the poorest and most excluded area of ​​the country.

The victims had projectile impacts on their bodies, explained a health official from the Carlos Monge hospital, where they were transferred, in statements to the N television channel.

“What is happening is a massacre among Peruvians, I ask you to calm down, do not expose yourselves,” exclaimed the mayor of Juliaca, Oscar Cáceres, in a desperate appeal to the population through La Decana radio station of that town.

The violent actions on Monday occurred when a mob of some two thousand people tried to storm the airport in the city of Juliaca, located 1,300 km south of Lima, in the Puno region.

“Today, more than 9,000 people approached the Juliaca airport and approximately 2,000 of them began an all-out attack against the police and the facilities, using improvised weapons (improvised weapons) and double charges of gunpowder, creating an extreme situation. “, the chief of staff Alberto Otárola told the press.

The aerodrome is under police and military protection. A similar takeover attempt had occurred on Saturday, but without deaths.

There are already 45 deaths during the protests that broke out after the dismissal on December 7 of then-President Pedro Castillo. In December there were 28 deaths, 22 of them shot by the army and the police. So far no culprits have been identified.

The government has backed the security forces and accuses the protesters of being terrorists and financed by drug trafficking.

With this burden of deaths from the repression, this Tuesday the ministerial cabinet will go to Congress to ask for a vote of confidence. The right-wing and far-right benches, which support the government and applaud the repression, would give it to him, which would ensure that he would obtain it.

While the country is plunged into a serious institutional and political crisis with demonstrations and road blockades, the Boluarte government prohibited the entry of former Bolivian president Evo Morales into Peru until further notice for “intervening” in the country’s internal political affairs. .

“Nine citizens of Bolivian nationality, including Mr. Juan Evo Morales Ayma, were registered to prevent entry into the country through all immigration checkpoints,” the Interior Ministry said.

Morales has expressed his support for the protests against the Boluarte government, which broke out after the dismissal and arrest of his predecessor Pedro Castillo.

Morales, who presided over Bolivia between 2006 and 2019, has had an active presence in Peruvian politics since the leftist former president Castillo came to power in July 2021 until his dismissal on December 7. In November he visited Puno.

Castillo was ousted after a failed coup and is serving 18 months in prison handed down by a judge accused of rebellion.