English translation of Peru Defensoría del Pueblo's Pronouncement "In Defense of Life and Democracy"

English translation of Peru Defensoría del Pueblo's Pronouncement "In Defense of Life and Democracy"

The following is an English translation of a pronouncement by the Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsman's Office) issued the day after violent confrontations between protesters and the Peruvian National Police resulted in the death on one protester and the injuries of numerous protesters and police. To date, protests in Peru over the government of President Dina Boluarte have resulted in more than sixty deaths.

Defensoría del Pueblo

PRONOUNCEMENT No. 05/DP/2023

IN DEFENSE OF LIFE AND DEMOCRACY

  1. Peruvians periodically ratify, through popular vote, our faith in democracy. And we hope that this democracy considers the lives of each one of us a priority: students, police officers, doctors, soldiers, indigenous people, businessmen, journalists and public officials. All and all, whose stories cannot be interrupted by bullets, stones or fire.
  2. We note with regret that sensitivity to value life has been lost; then, it is exposed or attacked without considering its unique and unrepeatable condition. The death of people in protests is not a "social cost" or "collateral damage." It is an irremediable affectation that plunges families into deep pain and deepens the emotional and cultural cracks between all of us.
  3. In this scenario of notorious urgency, the most morally repulsive way to act is to let people die when you have in your hands the political power to pacify and change the tragic course of these days. The Legislative Power and the Executive Power can do so. Every day that passes, someone's life is in danger, and democracy -that great republican longing- is falling apart before our eyes.
  4. Our personnel are in hospitals, police stations, in the places of the marches, and in communication with state entities and social organizations; Accepted by some, rejected by others. It will never be enough to defend human rights in Peru. But we are also here to remember and recover the ethical sense of public function and citizen conduct, at the center of which is and will always be human life.

Lima, January 29, 2023

Tags: #Peru #DefensoríaDelPueblo #Pronouncement #InDefenseOfLifeAndDemocracy


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