CNN –
According to Amnesty International, earlier this year Peruvian security forces carried out widespread attacks on protesters with “extrajudicial executions” and “widespread use of lethal ammunition” while attempting to contain mass protests that began in December 2022.
The human rights group was investigating the deaths of 25 people killed between December 7, 2022 and February 9, 2023 in the regions of Ayacucho, Apurimac and Puno. A total of 49 civilians were killed in the protests.
Amnesty International’s report found that many of the victims were under the age of 21, including six children among the documented cases.
The Andean country’s week-long protest movement was sparked by the impeachment and arrest of former President Pedro Castillo in December and fueled by deep discontent over living conditions and inequality in the country.
While protests erupted across the country, violence was worst in the rural and indigenous south, where Castillo’s ouster was another attempt by Peru’s coastal elites to devalue them.
According to Amnesty, the country’s armed forces and national police used lethal force, such as bullets, and prohibited weapons, such as pellets, in law enforcement duties in “unlawful ways” during the documented period.
Less lethal force, such as tear gas, was also used in “excessive, disproportionate and sometimes unnecessary ways,” the report said.
Juan Carlos Cisneros/AFP/Getty Images
Residents of the islands of Uros and Taquile in Lake Titicaca on the border with Bolivia protest January 24 in the city of Puno, Peru.
Peruvian authorities said the country’s security forces acted in self-defense. However, according to evidence collected by Amnesty International, the injuries that led to the 25 deaths were “inflicted on parts of the body where they will most likely be fatal, suggesting the shooting was deliberate rather than random.”
“In none of the cases was evidence found that the deceased posed a threat to the life or integrity of officers,” the report said.
“In several cases, both those killed and those injured were mere spectators or passers-by,” the report concludes.
Of the 25 deaths documented by Amnesty International, at least 20 were considered extrajudicial executions. Fifteen of those victims were under the age of 21.
The first known victim during the protests was a 15-year-old boy, David Atequipe, who, according to the autopsy report documented by Amnesty, was shot in the back on December 11 while watching protests outside Andahuaylas airport in the Apurimac region.
Another 15-year-old, Christopher Ramos Aime, was shot dead a few days later while crossing the street in Ayacucho on December 15. Ramos worked at the local cemetery near the airport, cleaning graves and headstones and helping visitors with flowers.
According to the autopsy viewed by Amnesty International and evidence collected by the group, Ramos was killed by a “gun projectile” that caused chest trauma. Ramos was not armed and posed no threat to security forces, the organization concludes.
“They killed innocent people, my son was innocent, he was crossing the street when they shot him,” Hilaria Aime, Christopher’s mother, tearfully told CNN on Wednesday.
Aime hopes her family can find justice after the report’s release, adding that protesters and their communities have often been unfairly demonized by Peruvian authorities.
“We hope that justice will be done and that people will respect us. They call us terrorists and vandals and that is not the truth of what happened in Ayacucho.”
CNN has not verified the circumstances of these two deaths as described by Amnesty.
Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images
Dany Quispe and Ruth Barcena, who lost their son and husband respectively in various demonstrations, attend a news conference with Amnesty International representatives in Lima, Peru, February 16, 2023.
Amnesty also mentions the death of Beckhan Quispe, an 18-year-old football coach, who was shot in the head in Andahuaylas, in the Apurimac region, in December. His case was previously reported by CNN.
As CNN previously reported, Amnesty also said attacks against protesters “were carried out with strong racial bias” in southern Peru, where security forces cracked down on protesters, killing dozens.
Similar protests took place in the Peruvian capital Lima, but resulted in only one death.
Amnesty’s preliminary findings have previously been reported by CNN.
In this final report, Amnesty International notes that Peruvian authorities – including Peru’s President Dina Boluarte and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM) – praised the country’s security forces during the protests and “consistently supported and justified law enforcement actions”. , despite mounting evidence of their wrongdoing.”
“Additionally, the state narrative stigmatized protesters as terrorists and violent individuals, which contributed to the escalation of violence and encouraged law enforcement to continue to act in the same way,” the report points out.
Authorities at the highest level did not demand accountability from the armed forces and police, despite “substantial evidence” suggesting that the security forces were responsible for the dozens of deaths, Amnesty said.
Angela Ponce/Portal
Boluarte speaks during a meeting with the foreign press January 24 in Lima, Peru.
In a recent interview with local media, President Boluarte said that she and her ministers would not decide on protocols for the armed forces or police, despite criticism for the way her government had dealt with the protests.
“They have their own laws and protocols. Who do they obey? your commanders. We have no power over them. I can be the supreme commander of the armed forces, but I have no command (over them) and the protocols are set by them,” Boluarte said.
CNN has contacted the President’s office, which declined to comment on the report’s findings. The Peruvian Ministry of Defense and Interior was also contacted. Both ministries told CNN in February that they could not comment until an ongoing investigation by prosecutors was completed.
Peru’s prosecutors launched a preliminary investigation on January 10 into President Boluarte, Peru’s Prime Minister Alberto Otarola and other ministers on alleged genocide, murder and serious injuries sustained during the protests.
On Wednesday, Boluarte’s office told CNN en Espanol that the president was invited to testify before prosecutors on May 31.
The Peruvian public prosecutor’s office was also criticized in this final report for failing to conduct criminal investigations into the protest killings “swiftly, thoroughly and impartially”. CNN has reached out to prosecutors for comment.