Protesters “defuse” tear gas in Peru

When police officers fire tear gas at protesters demanding the resignation of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, most of them run away.

A few, however, run at full speed towards the containers to neutralize them.

They are called “deactivators”. Wearing gas masks, safety glasses and thick gloves, these volunteers hold the hot containers and dump them into huge plastic bottles filled with a mixture of water, baking soda and vinegar.

Deactivators first appeared in Peru in street demonstrations in 2020, inspired by protests in Hong Kong, where new strategies were put forward in 2019 to counter the irritating and suffocating effects of tear gas. Protesters in Lima face these gases almost daily, before which more and more people have joined the ranks of deactivators who try to protect the dissatisfied and keep the protests going.

Peruvians have been demonstrating since December 2022, when former President Pedro Castillo was ousted after a failed attempt to dissolve Congress. His vice president, Boluarte, took office immediately and has met with staunch opposition ever since.

In total, 58 people have died in events related to the protests, including a police officer, and 46 of the deaths have occurred during direct confrontations between protesters and police officers.

The protests have exposed the deep divisions in the country between the urban elites and the rural poor. At first the protests were concentrated in southern Peru, a long-neglected region that was particularly attached to the humble origins of Castillo, a rural teacher in the Andean highlands. But a few weeks ago, thousands of people moved to the Peruvian capital and the police greeted them with tear gas. Lots of tear gas.

On Thursday, as protesters gathered in downtown Lima, Alexander Gutiérrez Padilla, 45, gave an intensive course near Plaza San Martín on how to mix vinegar and baking soda with water, and the best way to to hold the tear gas canisters.

“If we don’t deactivate, the people disperse and the march breaks up,” Gutiérrez declared. “That is why we are pillars of this march.”

Next to him was Wilfredo Huertas Vidal, 25, who has taken on the task of collecting donations to buy gloves and other protective equipment and distribute them among those who want to help.

“Who wants gloves? Who wants gloves?” he yelled, standing next to several bottles of water, gas masks and safety glasses.

When the protesters moved to Lima, old networks were reactivated and the tactic resurfaced, which was first seen in the country at the end of 2020, during the protests against then-President Manuel Merino.

Vladimir Molina, 34, who participated in the 2020 protests, now leads what he calls a “brigade.” It consists of about 60 people, including paramedics, deactivators and “frontline” activists, who stand between the protesters and police with shields, in an attempt to block any pellets or tear gas canisters that police officers might throw at them. the crowd.

“Every day more and more people come in,” Molina said. There is so much interest in his group that he has requested that anyone interested in joining have their own team.

By dumping the tear gas canisters into the aqueous solution, “what they do is extinguish the pyrotechnic charge so the gas can no longer come out,” said Sven Eric Jordt, a professor of anesthesiology at Duke University.

The protesters could get what they want using just water, though the carbon dioxide created by mixing vinegar and baking soda could “form a foam bath that suffocates the charge” even further, Jordt speculated.

It could only be a matter of time before the authorities start using methods to hinder the effectiveness of the deactivators. Now manufacturers are producing tear gas with plastic cartridges that are attached to the asphalt so that “it can no longer be picked up,” Jordt said.

Fearing reprisals from police and prosecutors, many of the deactivators prefer to remain anonymous, keeping their faces covered even when there is no tear gas.

Boluarte has given strong support to the police force, and the government recently announced a bonus for police officers. The president has said that the work of the police officers who control the protests in Lima has been “immaculate”, despite the fact that they often throw tear gas and pellets indiscriminately. In contrast, she says the protesters are violent and are financed by drug trafficking groups and illegal miners.

Andrea Fernández, 22, has just started working on deactivating tear gas.

“I really like adrenaline,” he said shortly after receiving a pair of gloves from Huertas and listening carefully to the instructions.

He acknowledged that at first he didn’t really care about the country’s political crisis. And then the dead began to accumulate.

“There are many peasants who have come from many parts of Peru and come to march face to face, but they don’t have the necessary protection,” Fernández declared.

Felix Davillo, 37, also said the number of deaths prompted him to become a deactivator.

“I made that decision because of all the death that is taking place right now in Puno,” he commented, referring to the region of the country where some of the most lethal demonstrations have occurred.

The general lack of protective equipment has also resulted in many protesters being injured by the widespread use of less lethal weapons.

Between January 19 and 24, Doctors Without Borders treated 73 patients from the demonstrations in Lima who suffered from exposure to tear gas, wounds from rubber bullets, bruises or psychological distress, the agency reported.

The fact that deactivators are at greater risk of injury doesn’t scare Julio Incarocas Beliz, who grabbed one of the large bottles of water in the plaza for his first day as a deactivator.

“I did military service and I have never been afraid,” said the 28-year-old. “I fight for my country.”

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and activate notifications, or follow us on social networks: Facebook, Twitter and instagram.