2023-05-31 03:41:46
From Lima
Se they resumed protests in the streets against the government of In Boluarte. This Tuesday there was a strike in the altiplano region of Puno demanding the resignation of the president, the closure of the Congress that controls the right and the advancement of the elections. Added to these demands is the demand for justice for the deaths caused by the repression of the previous months. The protests that broke out in December, when Boluarte took office to replace the ousted and imprisoned Pedro Castillo, lost steam after three months of brutal repression. But the widespread rejection of the government has not subsided. A survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP), published last Sunday, reveals that 79 percent reject Boluarte’s management and only 15 percent support it. Congress is repudiated by 90 percent and accepted by a meager 6 percent. With the return to the streets of that rejection, in Puno they sang again “This democracy is no longer a democracy, Dina is a murderer, the people repudiate you, how many deaths do you want for you to resign…”.
four thousand policemen
the national government sent four thousand policemen to Puno to join the region’s security forces. At the close of this note, no confrontations had been reported. Puno has been the scene in recent months of the largest protests anti-government and the harshest repression. On January 9, a massacre took place in Juliaca, Puno’s most populous city, when security forces fired on the population, killing 18 people and injuring dozens of others. There are 22 deaths from the repression in this Andean region. Across the country, 67 people have died in the protests, of which 49 were killed by police and military shots.
The 24-hour strike in Puno, called the “dry strike”, has been called by various social and peasant organizations in the region and by the relatives of the victims of the repression in this region, grouped in the “Association of Martyrs and Victims of January 9 – Juliaca”. Another regional strike is announced in June. From different regions is calling for the month of July to a march from the provinces to Lima to demand the resignation of the government in the capital.
In a region hard hit by repression and by the economic impact of the massive protests of the previous months on a mostly poor population that was already badly affected by the crisis, the strike on Tuesday was partially complied with. Highways and roads were blocked, including the international bridge that connects Puno with Bolivia. In Juliaca public transport units operated, public institutions attended with restrictions, there was a partial closure of private economic activities, schools suspended classes. In other provinces of the region, the strike was more forceful. There were mobilizations and protests in front of the prosecutor’s office in Juliaca demanding justice for the deaths.
The victims
“The strike has been complied with by 50 percent. The previous protests and strikes hit the population hard. In the sit-in before the prosecutor’s office, we demand that the prosecutor’s investigations into the deaths in the protests that have been transferred to Lima return to Juliaca, because this transfer affects their progress. We do not see the will to investigate, ”he pointed out to Page 12, Raul Samillánpresident of the Association of Martyrs and Victims of January 9 – Juliaca. his brother, Marco Antonio, a recently graduated doctor, died from a shot by the police when he was treating one of the wounded in the street during the protests on January 9.
Regarding the questioning of this transfer to the capital of the fiscal investigation for the Juliaca massacre, Page 12 spoke with one of the victims’ lawyers, wilmer quiroz. “This transfer violates due process because the rule demands that an investigation be carried out where the events occur, it creates an inequality of arms because the victims do not have the resources to travel to the capital. The consequence is that it is not investigated, that is the will of the prosecution. Almost five months have passed, there is evidence that the police caused the deaths, but so far there is not a single accused”. In the evaluation of this regional strike, Quiroz, who lives in Juliaca, agrees that he has been complied with by 50 percent.
Complaints of violations to the DD.HH.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and international and national human rights organizations, such as International Amnesty, Human Rights Watchthe National Human Rights Coordinator and others, have denounced a excessive and abusive use of force against popular mobilizations, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, mistreatment of the wounded and the families of the victims, and a racist bias against the Andean populations in the repression. The government, its right-wing allies in Congress and the mainstream media have supported and even congratulated the security forces accused of shooting into the population, and have stigmatized and criminalized the protesters. Faced with the strike in Puno and the announcement of the resumption of the protests, they returned with their threatening speech.
In the next few days, Boluarte will have to testify before the prosecution for the repression. But the National Prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, who is in charge of the investigation into the president, is close to the authoritarian coalition that governs, and her actions aim at a cover-up rather than an investigation. In that scenario, Boluarte’s attendance at the prosecution is announced as a staging thinking about appearances
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