Peruvian security forces used violence against the protesters who took part in the large national march that took place in the streets of downtown Lima on Tuesday, injuring several and arresting them.
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The demonstrations against the Peruvian President continue
Independent media and organizations such as Coordinadora 14N (@coordinadora14n) denounced on their social media how police officers fired pellets and tear gas bombs at participants in the protest demanding the resignation of President-elect Dina Boluarte.
The sources counted at least four people being treated with pellets for injuries by first-aid brigades, while warning that at least six people were detained at a nearby police station.
#Alarm
Injuries from pellets are still being registered, the first aid brigades are providing support, and we are also made aware of 6 detainees at the Cotabambas police station. pic.twitter.com/zR3CFxLazW— Coordinator 14N (@coordinadora14n)
January 25, 2023
Twitter network user Alex Febrero (@AlexFebrero_) documented the “brutal repression in front of the Clínica Internacional, Alfonso Ugarte. The protesters advanced peacefully. There is one wounded person.”
He added that there were other injuries in Plaza San Martín in central Lima.
Despite police operations, thousands of Peruvians continue to call for Boluarte’s resignation, the closure of Congress, early elections for 2023 and the release of ousted President Pedro Castillo.
Since mobilizations began on December 7 in Peru, more than 60 people have been presumed dead, 46 of them during security forces’ actions.
Despite the documented crackdown on the protests by the security forces, the President-elect assured that the demonstrators themselves are responsible for the violence in the country.
“There are videos where one of the men who are on the march appears to be grabbing a guaraca and it is not a slingshot but a weapon that shoots and kills the compañero who is standing next to him or from private property Shot falls, killing someone at the protest. It’s not the police who shoot,” Boluarte said.
The President of Honduras expresses her solidarity with Castillo
This Tuesday, from Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, where the VII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) was held, the President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, expressed his solidarity with Castillo, who has been arrested since 7 last December for alleged accused of rebellion.
“We condemn the coup d’état in Peru and the aggression faced by the Peruvian people. Our solidarity with the legitimate and elected President Pedro Castillo and we order his immediate release,” said the Honduran President.
In this framework, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, after condemning the police repression against protesters in Peru, called on the member states of Celac to sign an agreement demanding the release of Pedro Castillo.