Two youths were killed and four injured during protests against the impeachment of former President Pedro Castillo in Peru on Sunday, police and local authorities said. During protests across the country, protesters demanded the resignation of his successor Dina Boluarte, new elections and the release of Castillo, who has been detained since Thursday. An airport was paralyzed and partially set on fire.
Clashes broke out in the southern Peruvian city of Andahuaylas. There, protesters attacked police officers with stones. The armed 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 due to gunshot wounds”.
Fire at the airport
According to a statement from the airport and airline CORPAC, the airport of the city of Andahuaylas was surrounded on Sunday. There were 50 police and CORPAC employees on the property who were taken hostage. According to the operator, the fuel depot and communication room at the airport have been set on fire. The runway and key equipment were also hit hard by violence and vandalism, it said. The attacks, which began on Saturday, forced the city’s airport, which has a population of about 50,000, to close. According to the police, he was protected 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. According to media reports, protesters blocked highways in other parts of the country. There were demonstrations in several cities, including the capital Lima. They also called for a nationwide strike.
quarrel in parliament
Fighting broke out during a session of Congress on Sunday. An MP from ex-President Pedro Castillo’s former left-wing party, Perú Libre, punched a colleague in the face (see Twitter video below). There is a “crisis on the streets and in the institutions,” sociologist and journalist Marco Teruggi said of the events.
Former Vice President Boluarte succeeded 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 Congress. Parliament subsequently removed him from office and on Thursday the former teacher at a left-wing village school was taken into custody on charges of rebellion.
Deposed president in custody
On Thursday, the country’s Supreme Court said it had remanded Castillo for seven days. On Saturday, Boluarte, the first woman to hold the highest office in the South American country, sworn into her cabinet and made 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 embroiled in an ongoing power struggle with the conservative-dominated Congress. He had already twice unsuccessfully tried to remove him from office for “moral incompetence”.
Source: Krone
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