Peru News and Links

Amnesty accuses Peruvian authorities of ‘marked racist bias’ in protest crackdown (full article) By Tara John and Claudia Rebaza, CNN Relatives and friends of victims of recent clashes with the Peruvian police -- within protests against President Dina Boluarte -- carry pictures of their loved ones during a march commemorating one month of their death on February 9, 2023, in Juliaca, Puno region. Amnesty International has accused Peruvian authorities of acting with “a marked racist bias” in its crackdown on protests that have roiled the country since December, saying “populations that have historically been discriminated against” are being targeted, according to a report released on Thursday . Drawing on data from the Peruvian Ombudsman’s Office, Amnesty says it “found that the number of possible arbitrary deaths due to state repression” were “disproportionately concentrated in regions with largely Indigenous populations.” Amnesty also says that areas with majority indigenous population...

Protests in Peru: deaths reported in Puno and La Libertad (Spanish) 19:31 - 18/1/2023 Ministry of Health places hospitals on 'Red Alert' for tomorrow's national March of the "Cuatro Suyos."   18:29 - 18/1/2023 Puno: confirm first death during clashes in Macusani This afternoon, January 18, the first fatality was confirmed during the clashes in Macusani, Puno. To date, the Ombudsman's Office has registered a total of fifty deceased in Peru's ongoing protests: including minors, non-protestors and one member of the Peruvian National Police (PNP). 18:16 - 18/1/2023 Protesters block Salaverry Avenue A group of protesters is already at the intersection of Salaverry Avenues and 28 de Julio near the center of Lima. They have made a human cordon preventing the passage of vehicles in one of the ovals of the sector. The PNP is trying to disperse them. 17:58 - 18/1/2023 Lima: protesters leave the UNMSM for Miraflores Protesters who arrived from various provinces and s...

Puno: Ombudsman reports nine deaths from clashes near the Juliaca Airport (Spanish) In addition, many protesters have been reported around the Inca Manco Cápac Airport in Juliaca, Puno. The Ombudsman's Office (Defensoría Peru) reported the death of at least nine people during the clashes that took place today (Monday) in the vicinity of the Juliaca Airport, in the Puno region. Hours before, El Comercio was able to confirm the death of a citizen identified as Gabriel Omar López Amanqui, 35 years old, who was injured with a pellet to the head when he was going to his home. Translated Tweets by the Ombudsman's Office read as follows: "We regret the death of 9 people after clashes in the vicinity of the Juliaca airport, who were transferred to the Carlos Monge Hospital and the La Revolución Health Center. We request that the forces of order make a legal, necessary, and proportional use of force and we urge @FiscaliaPeru to carry out a prompt investigation to clarify the facts....

Justice is what relatives of 15-year-old child ask for (Spanish) Relatives said their last goodbye . Luis Frank Tacuri The relatives of Christopher Ramos Ayme, only 15 years old, who was one of ten people killed in the confrontation that took place on December 15 at the Ayacucho airport, are asking authorities for justice. Through tears, his mother said that her son always went to work every morning at the Ayacucho Cemetery and that it was under these circumstances that he died. Security cameras captured the precise moments when a soldier shot him at point-blank range when he was trying to get to safety. The bullet landed in his back, causing his death almost immediately. His mother mentioned that Christopher was coming home from work that day. “My son worked in the cemetery, as a mother I didn't follow him that day, he thought he was at his work. They have killed him like a dog, he was not a gang member, much less a terrorist to be killed that way,” she said. The bereaved, like th...

National Strike: four deaths reported from clashes in Juliaca, Puno (Spanish) Updated 4:34 p.m. Protests intensify in the southern part of the country with clashes and road seizures in regions such as Cusco, Arequipa, Ica, and Puno. Follow here for minute by minute news from Monday, January 9, 2023. Winny Moya 16:17 - 9/1/2023 Puno: death toll rises to four after clashes with National Police. After confrontations with the Peruvian National Police (PNP), the death toll rose in the city of Juliaca, Puno to four persons. They lost their lives during social demonstrations against Congress and the President Dina Boularte. According to local media, three bodies were taken to the morgue of the Carlos Monge Medrano Hospital. This is in addition to the death of Gabriel Omar Lopez Amanqui, a man who arrived lifeless at the La Revolución post in Juliaca. Photo: Capture La Dean Radio-Juliaca 15:23 - 9/1/2023 National Strike: they confirm the first death in Juliaca during the demonstrations Pro...

Caught in the Crossfire, Peru Protest Deaths Keep Anger Burning (full article) By Alexander Villegas AYACUCHO, Peru (Reuters) - Edgar Prado, 51, a mechanic and driver from the city of Ayacucho in southern Peru, spent most of the day on Dec. 15 in his garage tinkering on his white Toyota Hilux pickup, even as protests began to build in the airport just a block away. At 5.56 p.m. that day he would suffer a fatal gunshot wound to the chest and by 6.00 a.m. the next morning he would be dead, according to security camera footage reviewed by Reuters and his autopsy, one of ten people killed in the city in the bloodiest violence that has roiled Peru in recent weeks. The protests, the worst in years even in tumultuous Peru, have seen twenty-two people killed, the youngest just fifteen. The deaths threaten to keep anger fired up despite a lull in violence over the festive period in the heavily Catholic country. The clashes with the Dec. 7 ouster of former president Pedro Castillo after he tried...

Crisis in Peru: Armed Forces Caused 167 Deaths During Protests Held Between 2003 and 2020 (full article) According to the National Human Rights Coordinator, Most of These Crimes Have a High Rate of Impunity and There are No Penalties Whatsoever. Due to the intervention of the Armed Forces to restore order in the face of the wave of protests in the country following the dismissal of former president Pedro Castillo, who is serving 18 months in pretrial detention in the Barbadillo prison for the failed self-coup on March 7. December, its role has been put into discussion considering that there have been human losses and assaults. According to the latest report from the Ombudsman's Office, there are twenty-eight dead and more than six hundred injured because of clashes between protesters and law enforcement. Most of the fatalities come from Apurímac, Arequipa, La Libertad, Cusco, Ayacucho, and Junín. For this reason, the National Human Rights Coordinator has revealed a diagnosis of the...

Peru's Armed Forces Caused 167 Deaths During Protests Between 2003 and 2020 (Spanish) Deadly balance. This was reported by the lawyer of the National Human Rights Coordinator (CN.DD.HH.), Mar Pérez, who warned about the high rate of impunity in these murders. No one has been sanctioned for these acts of blood. Pamela Palacios, La República The repression by the Armed Forces and the Peruvian National Police has so far caused twenty-five deaths throughout the country, according to information from the National Human Rights Coordinator (CNDDHH). This, after the protests of the citizens who, after the failed coup d'état that Pedro Castillo tried to carry out, generated a social upheaval. The regions where the deceased come from are Apurímac, Arequipa, La Libertad, Cusco, Ayacucho, and Junín. “The murders in protests are not a new fact in Peru. From 2003 to 2020, there were 167 deaths at the hands of the armed forces. The most serious situations occurred when the Army intervened. Th...

Social protests and legal alternative after the presidential vacancy in Peru (full article) By Antonio Peña Jumpa* December 22, 2022.- The social protests that began after the presidential vacancy and the inauguration of the new president on 7 December 2022 in Peru, have increased in recent days. In addition to the protests and violence in the streets, there has been coercion by the forces of law and order, which, in their need to control internal order, has led to an increase in the number of deaths, affecting the legitimacy of the institution and the central government. What should be done legally? Protests reached regrettable results in the region of Ayacucho on 15 December 2022. During a massive protest of the population (not only of alleged supporters of the former president or violent people) there was a confrontation with a group of soldiers that resulted in eight dead, forty-two seriously injured and twelve less seriously injured. (RPP audio news, 2022-12-16). In ot...

Today the body of Loretano who died during confrontation in Arequipa arrives in Iquitos (Spanish) Relatives ask for financial help to cover the expenses of the wake and burial. Through a collection carried out by the parents of Xavier Candamo Dasilva, a 30-year-old Loreto who died during a confrontation between protesters and the National Police to free the Panamericana Sur highway in Arequipa, he managed to raise enough funds for the transfer of the young man's body to his native city of Iquitos. According to Mrs. Sadith Dasilva, Xavier Candamo's mother, through a collection with her friends who also work as miners, her daughter-in-law obtained enough money to pay a funeral home to make the transfer. "My daughter-in-law told me that my son is going to arrive at 10 in the morning, we are going to bring him to my house to watch him," she said. The young miner's family stated that they still need financial help to be able to cover the expenses of the wake, the buria...

Ayacucho: 19-year-old boy injured during protests dies while waiting for his transfer to Lima Jhonatan Alarcón Galindo became the tenth fatality in the region, where National Police and Army agents staged violent confrontations with citizens, who are calling for the closure of Congress and the advancement of general elections. In Ayacucho, 19-year-old Jhonatan Alarcón Galindo lost his life after being admitted to the intensive care area of ​​a hospital, waiting to be transferred to Lima. With him, the number of deaths during the protests unleashed after the vacancy of Pedro Castillo rises to twenty-one. Since last December 7, thousands of people from different regions of the country have taken over public entities, main squares, highways, and airports to express their rejection of the management of the current Government. In addition, they requested the dissolution of Congress and the advancement of general elections to elect a new President of the Republic. Jhonatan's death joins ...

“We are on the way to authoritarianism. There are no deaths, there are murders" Servindi December 20, 2022 - The National Human Rights Coordinator, organizations and social groups all denounced the violations of human rights in social protests. They demand the lifting of militarism, investigations, punishment and not one more death. They also announced the visit of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to the country. The press conference began with a minute of silence in memory of the families of the victims and for those who are no longer there. Jennie Dador, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Coordinator (CNDDHH), pointed out that, in the face of the crisis being experienced, the IACHR will visit the country. In addition, she warned that they are not willing to put up with one more death. “Militarization and the discourse of 'terruqueo'* must be lifted because it is not the appropriate response from the State. Currently, 147 detainees have ...

 Number of Bus Accident Deaths in Chumbivilcas Rises to Seven Five seriously injured are recovering in hospitals in Cusco. The state of health of a child under 8 years of age is the most delicate. The number of deaths due to the oversight and overturning of the bus belonging to the transport company Olivares in the community of Totora in the district of Livitaca, in the province of Chumbivilcas, Cusco region, increased to seven. The victims were identified as Virgilio Colque Mendoza (40-year-old driver), Bécquer Julio Bustinza Herrera (46), Luis Guillermo Lacuta Limpe (57), Luis Guillermo Quispe Uniysoncco (50), Juana Luna Caillahui (59), YCB (a year and seven months) and Mirian Mamani Cuba (died on the way). The corpses were transferred to the Livitaca health center, while the most seriously injured were transferred to the Regional and EsSalud hospitals in the city of Cusco. Five of the wounded were admitted to the Regional Hospital of Cusco A total of five were injured because of...

Protests in Peru: the number of deaths during the nationwide clashes rises to nineteen (Spanish) Protests in Peru over the early elections and the closure of Congress continue to intensify. The Diresa de Junín reported in the last hours of Friday, December 16 that three people have died in this region. Therefore, at the national level there are nineteen dead citizens, because in the last report of the Ombudsman's Office a young man who was in Pichanaqui was included. It should be noted that earlier there were seventeen deaths because of the confrontations in Apurímac, Arequipa, La Libertad and Ayacucho between civilians and members of the National Police. Meanwhile, six more people lost their lives due to traffic accidents linked to the road blockade. Faced with this situation, the Executive declared the entire country in a state of emergency, likewise, they established a curfew in fifteen provinces of eight regions. This was the situation during December 15 and 16. 10:15 - 12/16/2...

Protests in Peru: the number of deaths during the nationwide clashes rises to 19 (full article - [Spanish]) Demonstrations, road closures and pickets were registered in different regions in the National Strike on Friday. Winny Moya, La República 22:53 - 16/12/2022 Diresa Junín reports that three people have died from protests in the region The Junín Regional Health Directorate reported that three people have lost their lives, only in this region, because of protests in favor of early elections and the closure of Congress. They also indicated that there were fifty-two injured. 22:41 - 16/12/2022 Certificates confirm deaths from firearm projectiles in Ayacucho The Republic agreed to four death certificates of the victims of the first day of the strike against the government of Dina Boluarte and the Congress, in Ayacucho. The documents confirm that the deaths were caused by projectiles from firearms (PAF). One of the victims was a minor of just 15 years old. According to information from ...