Peru News and Links

“The police dragged me, kicked me and one of them crushed my head with his foot while they called me terruca!” (Spanish) Several people report having been physically and verbally assaulted by the Peruvian National Police (PNP) after the arrest suffered on the campus of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UMNSM), on January 21. These are the testimonies that reveal serious abuses.  By Ghiomara Rafaele “They grabbed me and my partner by the hair. The police began to drag me all over the ground, on the ground they began to kick me and one of them crushed my head with his foot while they called me terruca”, narrates Flor Susaya, a young woman from Ayacucho who was detained -without a court order or presence of the Ministry Public- with another 193 people by the Peruvian National Police at the facilities of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Flor is 18 years old and lives day by day with injustice, poverty, and inequality in Ayacucho. But the murder of ten fellow Ay...

Why is police violence invisible to many people? by Marco Avilés (Spanish) In a live broadcast, a news cameraman manages to capture the exact moment in which a police officer hits and throws a detained woman to the ground, during the government intervention at San Marcos University. The scene is brutal. But the most amazing thing about the clip is that, while this is happening, while the cameraman or camerawoman is trying to show that episode of violence, the host of the program is more concerned about the fence that everyone saw being knocked down by a police tank. And for this reason, from the set he asks the reporter on the street: Has that fence been knocked down by the police or by students? That small moment, apparently insignificant, contains an essential part of the climate in which we live in Peru. For almost six weeks now, the government's messages (amplified many times by its political allies on social networks and the media) have focused on reinforcing a key association...

Anahí Durand: "There are testimonies of sexual violence against detainees in San Marcos" (Spanish) "This is how they instrumentalize women's rights," she said. Anahí Durand denounces sexual abuse of women protesters after arrest in an operation . The former Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP), Anahí Durand, denounced through her Twitter account abuses against the protesters detained on the UNMSM campus, last Saturday, January 21, after the police operation.  Abuses against women Anahí Durand begins her Twitter post by indicating that "there are testimonies of sexual violence against women detainees in San Marcos" (the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM)), then she specified that some television hosts did not address the situation in their Sunday programs. "Yesterday neither Mónica Delta nor Sol Carreño said a word on the subject." Durand also blamed the current leadership of the MIMP and the Congress of the Republic for ...

Lima: over 200 students and protesters detained in PNP operation at National University of San Marcos The Peruvian National Police (PNP) entered the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM) today, January 21, to remove protesters who had been staying there for three days. Protesters from various parts of Peru had been using the University to be part of the March to Lima, also known as the 'Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos'. Just after 11:30 a.m. this morning, PNP forces, led by an armored personnel carrier, stormed the entrance to UNMSM and arrested over two hundred students and demonstrators. University Dean Jerí Ramón had requested police intervention, after earlier indicating that the protesters could only stay in the facilities for a single night, according to the University Council. Later, in an interview with Latina Noticias, Dean Ramón stated police entered the University because there was an attack on security guards by the protesters. She said that she did not know that the...