She holds a frame of the photo of her son, Beckham Romario Quispe, 18, then smiling and full of life, dressed in a football shirt, firmly in the hollow of her chest. Below, another photo, difficult to support, shows him on a hospital bed: his skull is cut open and part of his brain is damaged. In an uninterrupted sob, Raquel Garfias, who does not speak Spanish but Quechua (the country’s second language), demands justice for her son. She made the trip to Juliaca, in the far south of Peru, from her region of Apurimac (South), two days by bus “We want to know the truth, why was he killed? He didn’t deserve this, he had his life ahead of him. » Beckham is one of the very first victims of police and military repression during the demonstrations triggered after the dismissal of ex-president Pedro Castillo on December 7, 2022, during which forty-nine people were killed.
Saturday 1is April, Juliaca was the site of the first national meeting of families of victims from different regions of Peru. For the past three months, the city of the Andean Altiplano has been the epicenter and the last stronghold of the protest in favor of the resignation of the president, Dina Boluarte, named after Mr. Castillo. The theater, too, of a repression of great violence. After being paralyzed for several weeks by a strike and roadblocks, the city has regained a semblance of normality, like the country. But this Saturday, the city is in mourning.
Dominga Hancco and her husband, Demetrio Aroqui, parade in silence, dressed in black. They can’t get out of their minds that moment when a 9 millimeter bullet took the life of their eldest daughter, in these streets they tread today. Jhamilet, almond-shaped eyes and dark hair, was 17 years old and a psychology student. “The pain of his loss is so strong… All of our family’s dreams have been shattered. If I didn’t have to take care of my two youngest daughters, I wouldn’t want to live, murmurs Dominga, overwhelmed with grief. Those responsible must pay for their actions. »
weapons of war
In several cities of the country, the repression turned into a massacre. In Ayacucho and Juliaca, on December 15 and January 9, while demonstrators tried to enter the airport compound, the soldiers and police responded with weapons of war, AKM and Galil assault rifles, aimed at the head, thorax or abdomen. They also fired lead projectiles – weapons prohibited in demonstrations – and tear gas canisters, launched at short distance. Result: 10 dead in Ayacucho, 21 in Juliaca. The national coordination of human rights in Peru has denounced “extrajudicial executions”. To the forty-nine killed nationwide are added a thousand wounded, some mutilated and disabled for life.
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