The human rights office of Peru reported on Monday that at least 17 people had died in skirmishes with police in the country's south, making it the worst day so far of demonstrations calling for early elections and the release of imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo.
According to Henry Rebaza of the Puno health ministry, 68 people were hurt in the conflicts that took place in Juliaca, a city located close to the shores of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru's Puno province. According to the government, there were at least two teenagers among the deceased.
Ismael Cornejo, the regional health director for Puno, informed the local radio station RPP that some of the bodies had bullet wounds.
Since the protests started in early December as a result of Castillo's removal and arrest shortly after he attempted to illegally dissolve Congress, the latest casualties bring the total number of deaths from anti-government clashes with security forces to 39.
Castillo is in pre-trial detention for 18 months due to rebellion-related charges, which he vigorously contests.
The 28 hurt police officers cannot be transported from Juliaca's airport, according to Rebaza, who also spoke to Peru TV. The airport and a police station have both been targeted by thousands of protesters, according to Alberto Otarola, the prime minister of Peru.
GUNSHOTS, SMOKE
A Reuters witness captured gunfire and smoke on camera in Juliaca during the day as demonstrators hid behind massive metal plates and street signs and hurled rocks at police officers using homemade slingshots.
Other video showed people performing CPR on a man who was lifeless on the ground wearing a sweatshirt that was covered in blood, as well as patients with serious wounds gathered in a congested hospital waiting area.
According to an unnamed woman who spoke to Reuters, their relative was shot while out on a stroll with a neighbouring friend.
"How can we have so many dead?" I want to ask the federal authorities. the director of the intensive care unit of a hospital in Juliaca, Jorge Sotomayor Perales.
The Ombudsman Office, Peru's human rights watchdog, demanded that police conduct investigations into the deaths and use force in accordance with international norms. It also urged demonstrators to stop from damaging property or obstructing the transit of ambulances.
The Ombudsman reported earlier on Monday that a newborn had passed away while being transported from the town of Yunguyo, southeast of Juliaca, to a neighbourhood hospital in an ambulance that had been delayed by a traffic jam.
After a holiday break, protests demanding early elections and Castillo's release began last week. Along with changing the constitution, the demonstrators are calling for the resignation of newly elected President Dina Boluarte.
Boluarte said she could not answer some of the demonstrators' main demands during a "national accord" meeting earlier on Monday with leaders from the nation's regions and other political organisations. She urged people to "reflect."
The only thing she could control was shifting the elections—which we had already suggested—forward. "What you are requesting is a pretext to keep causing turmoil in the cities," said the man.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said it would conduct a visit to Peru from Wednesday to Friday, visiting Lima and other cities to evaluate the situation.
