Two youths were killed and four injured during protests against the ousting of former President Pedro Castillo in Peru on Sunday, police and local authorities said. During protests across the country, demonstrators demanded the resignation of his successor Dina Boluarte, new elections and the release of Castillo, who has been in custody since Thursday. An airport was paralyzed and partly set on fire.
Clashes erupted in the city of Andahuaylas in southern Peru. There, demonstrators attacked police officers with stones. The forces then fired tear gas. The head of the Peruvian ombudsman’s office, Eliana Revollar, told local radio station RPP that a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old died in the clashes with police in Andahuaylas, “possibly as a result of gunshot wounds.”
According to a statement from the airport and airline company CORPAC, quoted by the Peruvian media, the airport in the city of Andahuaylas was surrounded on Sunday. There were 50 police and CORPAC employees on the site who were held hostage.
As reported by the operator, the fuel depot and the communications room at the airport were set on fire. The runway and important equipment were also badly affected by violence and vandalism, it said. Because of the attacks, which began on Saturday, the city’s airport, which has around 50,000 residents, had to close. According to the police, he was secured by an elite unit.
For the second day in a row, there have been clashes between protesters and police in the area. On Saturday, 16 civilians and four police officers were injured in protests in Andahuaylas.
fisticuffs in Congress
In other parts of the country, according to media reports, demonstrators blocked highways. There were demonstrations in several cities, including the capital Lima. Fighting broke out at a session of Congress on Sunday. A deputy from ex-President Pedro Castillo’s former left-wing party, Perú Libre, slapped a colleague in the face, videos showed.
They also called for a nationwide strike.
The previous Vice President Boluarte replaced Pedro Castillo as head of state and government on Wednesday. Shortly before a vote of no confidence against himself, he had announced the dissolution of the congress. Parliament then removed him from office, and on Thursday the former left-wing village school teacher was taken into custody on charges of rebellion.
Her anger is also directed at Dina Boluarte, the first woman to head the state.
– © reuters / Sebastian Castaneda
On Thursday, the country’s Supreme Court said it had ordered Castillo into seven days’ pre-trial detention. On Saturday, Boluarte, the first woman to hold the highest office in the South American country, sworn in her cabinet and made the ministers swear they were not corrupt.
Castillo was elected head of state in July 2021 as a political outsider. Since then, the 53-year-old has been in a constant power struggle with the conservative-dominated Congress. He had already tried twice in vain to remove him from office because of “moral incompetence”. (apa/dpa/afp/reuters)