Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Peru’s capital, Lima, on Thursday in a mass demonstration against the government as clashes broke out between demonstrators and police.
Over the course of the day, the death toll from more than a month of violent protests in the southern regions of the country continued to rise.
Some protesters in Lima, demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and new elections, threw stones and bottles at police officers in the city center.
The police were forced to temporarily retreat before burrowing behind protective shields and firing tear gas. At least two people were injured.
One building near the central square of San Martin caught fire, although it is not clear exactly how.
Peru has been rocked by protests since the ouster of Boluarte’s predecessor Pedro Castillo in early December, with violent clashes so far mostly taking place in the country’s south and east.
In the southern city of Arequipa, about 1,000 protesters tried to storm the airport on Thursday morning but were also pushed back by police who fired tear gas, local television showed.
Peru’s human rights ombudsman later announced that one person had been killed in Arequipa, adding to two other deaths from Wednesday’s clashes and raising the national death toll to 53.
Demonstrators in Lima, mostly from the Andean regions, set out from several points around the capital to reach the heavily guarded presidential palace by the end of Thursday.
“Dina is listening, the people are disowning you,” they chanted, while others called for the assassination of the president.
“We are here, fighting for our right cause. We want them to shut down the Congress,” Ayda Aroni, a village resident from Ayacucho, 330 kilometers southeast of Lima, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We are outcasts, they say we are vandals, they call us terrorists, we demand our rights.”
“I am in Lima to defend the country because there is too much corruption. Dina does not represent us. We are going to stay for a week to continue the demonstrations,” said Demetrio Jimenez, who traveled from Puno, near the border with Bolivia. .
Demonstrators again tried to take over the airport in Cusco, a popular tourist destination. However, it was closed while similar protests took place in regions such as Puno, Huanuco and Tacna.
Ready to give my life
Protesters in Lima are trying to maintain pressure on the government, ignoring the state of emergency declared to maintain order.
“We have 11,800 riot police on the streets, more than 120 vans and 49 military vehicles, and the armed forces are also involved,” Police Chief Viktor Zanabria said Thursday.
However, the protesters are not embarrassed.
“In Lima, wrestling matters more. When we are being repressed in our regions, no one mentions it,” said Abdon Felix Flores, a 30-year-old resident of Andahuaylas village in the Cusco region.
Flores said he was willing to “give his life” to bring about change.
“We arrived in an organized manner to capture Lima, to paralyze Lima, to be heard,” said Jesús Gomez, an agricultural engineer from Chumbivilcas, also in the Cusco region.
One of Peru’s largest unions, the General Confederation of Workers, went on strike for Thursday, although there were no visible signs of such a strike in Lima.
“The struggle of the Peruvian people will not end tomorrow,” General Secretary of the General Confederation of Workers Geronimo López said at a press conference late Wednesday evening.
“This will continue until Ms. Dina Boluarte listens to people,” Lopez added.
“This is a fair, democratic mobilization.”
Traitor
Earlier this week, Boluarte urged the protesters who flooded Lima to assemble “peacefully and calmly.”
But she warned that “the rule of law cannot be held hostage to the whims” of one group of people.
The Sports Institute of Peru has suspended the start of the national football league this weekend due to unrest, while almost 100 roadblocks remain in Peru.
Castillo was removed from office and arrested on December 7 after trying to dissolve the country’s legislature and rule by decree amid multiple corruption investigations.
The crisis also reflects a huge gap between the capital and the rural provinces, which supported Castillo and saw his election as revenge for Lima’s contempt.
Boluarte, who was Castillo’s vice president, succeeded him. But, despite Boluarte’s belonging to the same leftist party, Castillo’s supporters rejected her, even accusing her of “betrayal.”
