Five soldiers drowned in a river and one disappeared while trying to flee protesters who attacked them with stones in the Peruvian region of Puno, the epicenter of protests against the government that replaced then-president Pedro Castillo in December.
The Ministry of Defense reported, this Monday (6), the discovery of the five members of the patrol that disappeared last Sunday (5) in the icy and torrential waters of the Ilave River, a tributary of Lake Titicaca (at 3,800 m of altitude), on the border with Bolivia.
We have already found Corporals Elvis Pari, Franz Canazas and Alex Quispe Serrano, and soldiers Elías Lupaca and Percy Castillo,” General Jhony León, commander of the Southern Military Region, told TV channel N, adding that the men were attacked “by the population” while crossing the river. Navy and Army brigades were looking for a sixth soldier.
A video released by the Ministry of Defense shows 15 soldiers sitting in a circle and covered with blankets informing an officer about what happened in Puno.
“We crossed the river […] because we had no other way out anywhere. There were between 800 and 900 people, who surrounded us and started throwing stones at us. […] People called us corrupt and murderers,” said soldier Vilca.
According to the soldier, the soldiers tried to make a human chain when they entered the river, but they were swept away by the water. “That’s when the current took us and some of the troops began to drown,” he reported.
As part of the political crisis that resulted in the fall of Castillo on December 7, 53 people, including the five soldiers in Puno, died in protests and clashes with law enforcement. According to the Ombudsman’s Office, 1,300 people were injured, almost half of them in uniform.