2023-05-04 05:22:35
From Lima
The government of Dina Boluarte continues accumulating complaints for human rights violations. This Wednesday the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented a report on the repression of anti-government protests in which reference is made to extrajudicial executions and talk of massacres. The inter-American body demands that those responsible be punished and indicates that investigations must have “an ethnic-racial focus.” The largest number of victims are indigenous people, peasants from the Andean areas. “The state’s response (to the protests) was characterized by the disproportionate, indiscriminate and lethal use of force,” the report states.
The IACHR, as before other human rights organizations, denounces shots fired by the security forces against demonstrators and against people who did not participate in the mobilizations, including against health brigade members who were treating the wounded, actions that, this Commission indicates, “could constitute extrajudicial executions”. This report specifies that the protests and repression have taken place “in a marked context of historical discrimination based on ethnic-racial origin and socioeconomic situation”, mainly against the indigenous population, and in a framework of “strong tension” between Lima and other regions. , especially those of the Andean south. The document denounces a stigmatization campaign that accuses the populations mobilized against the government, the majority of whom are indigenous, as “terrorists” and “violentists”. Stigmatization extended to those who denounce human rights violations. Government authorities and their wingers from the parliamentary right and from the hegemonic media are a central part of this stigmatization.
Since December, when the protests broke out after the removal and imprisonment of former President Pedro Castillo, the repression has left 49 people dead from shots fired by the police and the army. The total deaths in the framework of the protests are 67. There are more than a thousand injured and numerous arbitrary arrests. The IACHR report analyzes the massacres in the Andean areas of Ayacucho, where on December 15 the military killed ten people, and Juliaca, where on January 9 18 residents were shot by security forces.
The IACHR indicates that there were acts of violence by some protesters who tried to take over the airports in both towns, but it denounces that shots were fired at unarmed residents far from the airports that a group had tried to take over, so it was not a defense response. of these facilities, as the authorities allege, but of an action “of a persecutory nature.” It is denounced that he shot to kill aiming “against vital organs”. The deceased died from shots to the head, thorax, abdomen or back, as autopsies have confirmed. “Acts that, being perpetrated by State agents, could constitute extrajudicial executions,” denounces the IACHR. It adds that as they are “multiple deprivations of the right to life” these events “could be classified as a massacre.” Testimonies of relatives of victims who have been injured by the repression who denounce that they are discriminated against in health centers, for having participated in the protests and for being indigenous are reviewed.
“The Commission strongly condemns the indiscriminate use of force by means of firearms against an unarmed population by agents of the Peruvian State,” reads the IACHR report. Among its recommendations, it is demanded to ensure comprehensive reparations for the victims and their families, which include access to justice and the right to the truth, attention to their physical and mental health, and financial reparation. The body demands a “quick, serious, effective, independent” investigation carried out by prosecutors specialized in human rights, trials with independent judges, and punishment for those guilty. The opposite of what is being done. The Prosecutor of the Nation, Patricia Benavides, close to the right of the authoritarian coalition that governs, has weakened the human rights prosecutors and has formed a prosecutor team for these investigations in which only one of ten prosecutors has experience in human rights cases. humans. The investigations are advancing slowly, at a pace of impunity.
In response to the IACHR, President Boluarte declared that her government respects human rights and promotes dialogue and social peace. She seemed like she was talking about another government, very different from hers. Despite the evidence, she insisted on denying responsibility for the deaths due to the repression and she once again blamed the deaths during the protests on the demonstrators, whom she once again called “vandals”. “We reject the alleged existence of extrajudicial executions and the classification of a massacre,” she said, referring to the central part of the IACHR report. The evidence leaves this rejection groundless. She said that she was aware of the importance of avoiding a repetition of what happened, but her government publicly congratulates and protects the repressors, which is an invitation for human rights violations to be repeated.
Speaking to Page 12Jennie Dador, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Coordinator of Peru (CNDDHH), pointed out that “this IACHR report reinforces what the different national and international human rights organizations have said, that there were extrajudicial executions and massacres here.” . She indicated that the IACHR report has “a different weight” than previous ones from “well-respected civil society organizations” because it is an organization that is part of an international treaty that the country has signed.
“It is a fairly complete report because it addresses a set of contextual elements that help to understand the social mobilizations and explain very well what is happening in the country. This report allows us to have a very strong impact in the international arena regarding the responsibility of the Peruvian State. It is different for us to go to different countries or international organizations with our reports from civil society, than for us to do so with a report from the IACHR. For the victims, this report is a very important reference element to present in open cases. It is the IACHR’s first report on Peru since the year 2000, which indicates the seriousness of the current situation,” said Dador.
The executive secretary of the CNDDHH pointed out that the recommendations on access to justice “must be given in a timely manner, we cannot wait more than thirty years for a sentence, as has happened in a series of cases.” In her opinion, the criminal responsibility of the government leadership, beginning with Boluarte and his chief of staff Alberto Otárola, hinders the progress of the judicial investigations.
The IACHR cannot apply sanctions if its recommendations are not met, sentences that can be imposed by the Inter-American Court. In order for the case to reach the Court, the domestic judicial route must first be exhausted or it must be demonstrated that the conditions in the country do not allow a real exercise of justice. “If what the IACHR demands is not met, it would be an element to argue that the conditions in the country make it impossible to advance in a judicial process and request the intervention of the Court,” Dador opined.
Right-wing and far-right legislators reacted with the hysteria they display when it comes to responding to complaints of human rights violations. They jumped to attack the IACHR and demand that Peru withdraw from the inter-American human rights system.
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