State of emergency for 60 days in seven regions of Peru while “marches of all bloods” continue

The government of Peru declared the state of emergency for 60 days to seven regions of the country amid incessant protests that demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and that they have left 48 dead, The official newspaper reported this Sunday.

The departments where the measure is imposed are the Amazon Madre de Dios (east), and Cusco, Puno, Apurímac, Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacnaall in the south-southeast region of the country.

The state of exception, which is also in force until mid-February in the regions of Lima, where the capital is located, and El Callao, home to the country’s main maritime and air terminals, grants “control of internal order” to the police and the armed forces.

The measure restricts or suspends “constitutional rights related to the inviolability of the home, freedom of transit through the national territory, freedom of assembly and personal freedom and security,” the official gazette detailed.

The decree also declares the “mandatory social immobilization” of people from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. for 10 days in the department of Punowith the exception of those who do so to perform productive or work activities or who require urgent medical attention.

In said altiplano region, the epicenter of anti-government demonstrations, the decree provides that the Joint Command of the armed forces assume unified command of soldiers and police.

Bloody clashes on January 9 in Juliaca, one of the main cities of Puno, left 19 people dead, including a policeman, while roadblocks on the border with Bolivia keep life in that region paralyzed and tense. .

March on Lima

In Lima, a massive march of peasants, civilians and students against the Boluarte government and calling for the closure of Congress culminated on Saturday in clashes in the center of the city.

At nightfall, the police dispersed the demonstrators with tear gas as they advanced towards the headquarters of the Peruvian Congress and the vicinity of the Government Palace. The demonstrators confronted the security forces launching fireworks, and protected themselves with helmets and homemade shields.

“Today all the bloods come out,” said the call of the University Block for another day of demonstrations, full of indigenous demands and reproaches of discrimination of the people of the areas of the country richest in gas, mining and agricultural land that, however, They live in poverty with the minimum of social rights, especially in education and health.

“We are not going to give up this fight, the one who has to give up is the usurping lady and the Congress that fix everything so that we do not have to improve anything. They only steal from us and give our wealth to companies that are not Peruvian,” Romina Cuno, a 37-year-old peasant woman from Puno, told AFP.

Large groups from the poorest districts in the north of Lima arrived running and chanting “yes we can” while waving Peruvian flags and the wiphala, the colorful quadrangular flag representative of the Andean ethnic groups, AFP reporters verified.

Another simultaneous mobilization took place in the streets of downtown Lima, with some 50 people who identified themselves as the “Patriotic Legion” and who claimed to defend the Peruvian Police “because of their actions with subversive terrorists.”

The protest took place a day after Parliament blocked until August any debate to advance the general elections.

With this decision, based on procedural technicalities, Congress slammed the possibility of renewing the Presidency and Congress in 2023, as protesters have been clamoring since December in protests.

Boluarte replaced leftist former president Pedro Castillo, who was ousted and arrested on December 7 after a failed attempt to dissolve Congress and rule by decree. (YO)