For the past three months, Carlos Flores has wanted to hear a quiet voice at the end of the day every time he comes home, asking him how many people he has helped. Her nine-year-old daughter encourages her to continue an altruistic mission: to help the wounded of the anti-government marches, whether they are protesters, civilians or police officers. “Life knows no differences,” says this tough-looking single dad next to his pickup truck parked on one of the corners of Plaza San Martín in Lima’s historic center. Where the toxic air stings and brings tears several times a week.
Carlos Flores is the founding leader of Brigade 141120. He’s not an emergency services expert, he’s a rescuer. An off-road driver who took paramedic courses and learned first aid. This brigade, made up of 20 people, takes its name from a sadly famous date: the night in November 2020 that Inti Sotelo and Brian Pintado, two twenty-somethings marching against the ephemeral government of Manuel Merino, were assassinated. It was a baptism of blood and fire. They have since taken part in other demonstrations and joined forces during the pandemic to get critical patients to hospitals. When people took to the streets in December to express their dissatisfaction with the political class, they were reactivated.
Members of the Hampi Camayoc rescue brigade move during a demonstration in the streets of Lima César Campos
“As long as we’re glued to the wall in a group, we’re a great chain that we don’t want a link to slip out of. Let’s always keep calm,” Flores says to a new volunteer. It’s four o’clock in the afternoon on a Thursday in February, and the brigade has gathered around the van that serves as the operations center. Here they collect their paraphernalia – helmet, vest, goggles and gas mask – and change their clothes in the middle of the avenue. They are usually divided into groups of four: two paramedics, a nurse and a rescuer. They have serum, hydrogen peroxide, gauze, anesthetics, and rigid boards to move the wounded around. His job is to stabilize the patient and get him to the nearest hospital as quickly as possible. “We are the only mobile unit going in. And it’s like that minute that a person is removed can mean the difference between life and death,” says Flores.
On Saturday February 4, a brigade member was detained for 48 hours. A video went viral of a group of agents shoving her into the Cotabambas police station in downtown Lima. Her name is Rosamery Benítez Contreras, she is a sociologist from Huanca and has been accused of alleged crimes against public tranquility in the form of rioting against the state. She says her only sin was worrying about the condition of a protester arrested by police. That on the outskirts of the police station someone sprayed cash and blamed her, who was wearing a light blue apron and had alcohol and vinegar in her backpack.
Three brigade members with pepper spray masks and a stretcher taped to a street wall in Lima during a protest by César Campos
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“It’s not fair what happened to me. No one will give me back this bad time. I will be examined for 30 days. When I was in the dungeon, I thought about leaving everything there and never going out again. But I’ve thought it through and I won’t hide like the parrots. I will continue to help,” says Benítez resolutely.
The bachelor of medicine, Rodrigo Rojas, also complained about the hostilities of the law enforcement agencies. “The police have always been very abusive and used insults on us. I got kicked in the back for removing a girl who was having cramps. There was no opening to dialogue. The repression exists. And it’s a shame because our flag is our neighbor. We don’t belong to any political party and nobody finances us,” he emphasizes.
At this point, where hands are missing, the Ministry of Health’s Mobile Emergency Care Service (SAMU) and the Peruvian Red Cross have been left out. The argument they use is that security is not guaranteed. The managing director of SAMU, María Inés Quiroz, did not want to take part in this report.
Luis Atilio Ruiz, president of the Peruvian Red Cross, who resigned from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies since last August for abuse of power, limited himself to saying that “the conditions do not exist”. “Everything was so violent that it was not even allowed to create a humanitarian corridor. In addition, some brigade members have taken sides in this conflict and this does not allow them to have a clear vision of their mission,” he added.
Some groups, in addition to those in Lima, have trained brigade members from Juliaca, the southern Sierra town where some twenty protesters were killed. They assure that the task will continue after the mobilizations.
Brigade Hampi Camayoc Cesar Campos
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