At least 17 people died on Monday in Juliaca, in southern Peru, during clashes between the police and demonstrators demanding the departure of President Dina Boluarte, according to the Defender of the People (local mediator).
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“We have confirmed 17 deaths today in Puno during clashes with law enforcement in the vicinity of Juliaca airport,” in the Aymara (Amerindian people) region of Puno, AFP told AFP. a source from the office of the mediator, also reporting more than thirty injured.
The victims have gunshot wounds, said an official at Carlos Monge Hospital in Juliaca where they were taken.
The clashes erupted as protesters attempted to invade Juliaca airport, located about 1,300 km south of Lima in the Puno region. This airport had already been the subject of an attempted assault on Saturday.
“Today, more than 9,000 people approached Juliaca airport and about 2,000 of them launched a merciless attack on the police and the facilities, using improvised weapons,” the police told press the president of the Peruvian Council of Ministers Alberto Otarola, evoking an “extreme situation”.
“The people don’t like you!”
“Gentlemen the police fired at us,” a protester told AFP. “We are asking Madame Dina to resign. Accept the fact that the people don’t like you! he launched.
“What is taking place is a massacre between Peruvians, I ask for calm, do not expose yourselves”, exclaimed the mayor of Juliaca, Oscar Caceres, in an appeal to the population on the local radio La Decana.
These new deaths bring to 39 the number of people who died during anti-government demonstrations in almost a month of protests in Peru, a country plunged into a serious institutional and political crisis.
The demonstrators demand the resignation of Dina Boluarte, who arrived at the head of the country after the dismissal in December of the socialist Pedro Castillo. They also demand a new Parliament and the immediate holding of elections, already brought forward from 2026 to April 2024.
The region of Puno, bordering Bolivia, is the epicenter of protests in the country. An indefinite strike has been taking place there since January 4. It is also the starting point of a march organized by several collectives of citizens and peasants, whose arrival in the capital Lima is scheduled for around January 12.
The protests began after Mr. Castillo was impeached by parliament and then arrested on December 7, following his attempt to dissolve parliament, described as a “coup” by his political opponents.
On Monday, Peru banned former Bolivian President Evo Morales from entering its territory for his “intervention” in the country’s internal political affairs.
The former Bolivian president has been active in Peruvian politics since Pedro Castillo came to power in July 2021 until his ousting on December 7.
Since then, Mr. Morales has expressed his support for the demonstrations demanding the departure of Dina Boluarte, and in particular those taking place in the region of Puno, which he visited last November. The Peruvian right accuses him of pushing the south of the country to secede in order to be annexed by Bolivia.
Dina Boluarte is the sixth person to hold the presidency in five years, in a country that is experiencing a permanent political crisis punctuated by suspicions of corruption.