At least 17 are killed in Peru as anti-government protests intensify

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At least 17 people were killed in clashes with police in southern Peru on Monday, in the bloodiest day since demonstrators took to the streets to demand the release of the arrested and the reinstatement of former President Pedro Castillo.

Analysts said the violence suggested the crisis engulfing Peru would continue to hurt the government of President Dina Poulwart, who took office on Dec. 7, hours after Castillo was arrested for trying to preempt an impeachment vote in Congress by seizing emergency powers.

39 civilians have been killed in the unrest since Castillo’s arrest, according to the country’s independent human rights office, while the defense ministry said 75 police officers were injured. The demonstrators, mostly in rural and poor counties where Castillo has strong support, sporadically blocked roads and disrupted airports, although they took a break over Christmas.

Officials said Monday’s clashes began when 9,000 protesters tried to storm the airport in Juliaca, in the southern province of Puno. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is sending a delegation this week to assess the crisis, after it condemned the violence in December.

Lawmakers are expected to hold a vote of confidence in Boulwart’s new government on Tuesday, another test for the administration. She is the sixth president of Peru since early 2018.

Bridging the country’s social divisions is one of Poulwart’s most pressing priorities. While the world’s second largest copper producer has suffered from constant political instability over recent years, its economic growth has been generally healthy.

But the headline figures mask the inequality gap, with most of the country’s wealth and investment concentrated in the capital, Lima. For his supporters, Castillo — a former primary school teacher and subsistence farmer from the rural province of Chota in the northern Andes — represented a departure from the status quo.

Polls conducted by the Institute of Peruvian Studies in late November found that Castillo maintained the support of 45 percent of the country’s rural areas, but only 31 percent of the entire country.

In an effort to quell the demonstrations, Boulwart proposed moving the election date forward from 2026 to April 2024, which Congress has tentatively approved. However, it is not clear if this will satisfy the demonstrators.

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Peruvian problems, including its fragmented and corrupt political parties, will not be solved by holding snap elections, said Paola Muñoz, a political science professor at Universidade del Pacifico in Lima.

She added that “early elections are the only way out of this escalation of violence, as the space for dialogue closes and each side shows less interest in doing so.” “This political crisis has been coming for years.”

Prime Minister Alberto Otarola held a press conference Monday night blaming the unrest on “foreign interests” and “drug traffickers”, though he offered no evidence to support the allegations.

Earlier on Monday, Peru’s Interior Ministry banned former socialist Bolivian President Evo Morales from entering the country along with eight other unidentified Bolivians. Morales, one of Latin America’s most prominent leftists and indigenous politicians, has been an outspoken defender of Castillo since his arrest.

Otarola accused Morales of fanning the unrest. “We are closely watching not only the position of Mr. Morales, but also those who work with him in southern Peru,” he said at the news conference. They have been very active in promoting the crisis. “

Castillo is serving 18 months on remand. Prior to his dismissal in December, he had survived two impeachment attempts amid multiple criminal investigations for alleged influence peddling.

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