The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, extended the state of emergency that suspends some fundamental rights of citizens in the face of the spread of protests against her government, in which almost 50 people have already died.
The mobilizations began in December, as soon as he assumed power after the dismissal of his predecessor, Pedro Castillo, for having tried to close Congress illegally.
The Boluarte government decreed a state of emergency starting this Sunday, January 15, and for 30 days in three departments, three provinces, and one district. The norm was published on Saturday night in an extraordinary digital edition of the official newspaper El Peruano.
The state of emergency suspends the constitutional rights of inviolability of domicile and, as well as the freedoms of transit, assembly and personal security.
The president imposed a state of emergency throughout the country in December for a month, which has already been completed.
This new state of exception was decreed for the department of Lima, where the capital of the country is located, and the regions of Puno and Cusco, in the south; the region and province of Callao, adjacent to the capital; a province of the Apurímac region; another two from Madre de Dios, and a district in Moquegua, the latter also southern jurisdictions.
The norm establishes that in these places the National Police maintains control of the internal order with the support of the Armed Forces in order to contain possible convulsions.
The measure includes five highways that cross the country, after several incidents of roadblocks in the protests that paralyzed the transport of people and goods.
In addition, a night curfew was established in Puno, one of the epicenters of the protests, for 10 days from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. This measure had been given before for three days from Tuesday the 10th to Friday the 13th.
The Ombudsman’s Office had reported on Saturday afternoon new mobilizations, strikes and roadblocks in 33 provinces, most of the southern regions of the country.
In addition, it registered 100 cuts on national highways and an attack on public transport units to force them to join protests in the southern region of Arequipa.
Since the protests began, 49 people have died: 41 civilians in clashes, seven due to traffic accidents and events linked to blockades, and a policeman who died after being attacked by a mob, according to the Ombudsman’s report.
The protests, which demand an advance of general elections, the resignation of Boluarte and the closure of Congress, gained new momentum this week after resuming on Wednesday the 4th, after a partial truce due to the end of the year holidays.
Among the protesters there are those who also demand that Castillo, Boluarte’s predecessor who was deposed and remains in preventive detention for 18 months while being investigated for alleged rebellion, be released.
Boluarte assumed the government after Castillo, who had been president since 2021, was removed by Congress after trying to dissolve this state power with a television message on December 7.
The current president was vice president and was elected on the same list with her predecessor. Parliament swore her in on the same day Castillo’s dismissal for being her constitutional successor.
Castillo was arrested when he was in a vehicle with his entourage on an avenue in the center of Lima. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, he was going to the Mexican embassy to seek political asylum.
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