A body has just collapsed in front of the television cameras of a cable channel. It’s ten minutes to eight in the morning on Abancay Avenue in central Lima, and a group of protesters are standing on the sidewalk watching the police. They don’t throw rocks or bottles or anything. Behind it, a toxic smoke composes the image of a war scene. Then a noise is heard and a man falls to the ground. People shout, “Bala, bala, bala” as a pool of blood begins to stain the sidewalk. Instead of reporting the attack, Channel N’s camera director switches frames and doesn’t get back to the point.
The only images available are of the people. Then you see them carrying Víctor Santisteban Yacsavilca (55 years old) seriously injured and unconscious on a stretcher, with a bandage covering his entire forehead. He had been shot in the head and at point-blank range. Whether it was a bullet or a bullet has not yet been released, but it hit him. The volunteer brigades took him to the Grau de EsSalud Emergency Hospital. And there settled a large group of protesters, which half an hour later was dragged back by the police with sticks.
Around nine o’clock in the morning, Dr. Antonio Quispe, who held a public office at the Ministry of Health and is currently coordinating the medical brigades that are providing assistance in the mobilizations, live and live the death of the protester shot in the head: “We did what we could, but the Patient had a severe head injury with exposure of a brain mass. In short, they blew his brains out,” he lamented on his Twitter account. Then the ombudsman confirmed it. Víctor Santisteban Yacsavilca is the first to die in the capital Lima. According to some analysts, what this government fears so much already has 58 dead on its shoulders (47 civilians and one policeman due to clashes and 10 civilians due to road blockades).
The day was the most repressive of the week. Three serious injuries were recorded, two of them by firearm bullets. Of the other person involved, Taine Isidoro Bedon Maguiña (47 years old), there is only one video in which rescue workers load him in a sheet and take him to a taxi near Plaza San Martín. He was also unconscious. Due to the seriousness of his injuries, he was taken to the Guillermo Almenara Hospital. His prognosis is conservative. At least four police officers are injured. As in the days before, attacks on journalists were also reported.
While the center of Lima became a massive parade of indignation and courage, the so-called “Concert for Peace” was held in Jesús María on Avenida de la Peruanidad by groups opposed to the civil lawsuit demanding the resignation of President Dina calls for Boluarte to promote elections and change the constitution. The call wasn’t massive. Saturday ends with the first protester in Lima losing his life. It hadn’t happened since the November protests during the short reign of Manuel Merino, who resigned the next day after losing two boys.
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