Prosecution opens proceedings against President Boluarte, her prime minister and two other senior cabinet officials for the deaths of nearly 50 people in clashes between police and demonstrators
Peru has experienced a new political gibberish. The Peruvian Congress has expressed confidence in the new government led by Prime Minister Alberto Otálora, despite the 47 deaths already recorded during protests in the country, while the Attorney General’s Office announced an investigation into the cabinet and President Dina Boluarte for an alleged crime of genocide. None of this was enough for the executive to go through the process of getting parliamentary approval as required by law, thirty days after its creation as an urgent way out of the imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo’s coup. The increasing harshness with which the security forces are being used against the demonstrators and the institutional attitude, which has today declared a day of national mourning for the deceased, but has not been able to postpone the inauguration as a mark of respect, have even more affected the minds of the population and came up with a broad critique of the international community.
The executive received 73 votes to 43 against and half a dozen abstentions from parliament in a session that was not free of accusations, demands for accountability and verbal debauchery. The ratification of Otálora and his ministers showed the political division of the country: the far right, led by Fuerza Popular, aligned with Fujimorismo, supported the cabinet, while the left did the opposite. Positioning is important. It was the same left that protected Boluarte in her first political moves at the time and placed her next to Pedro Castillo in the last elections. Those were different times, before everything exploded during a complicated legislature plagued by cabinet changes and allegations of nepotism and corruption, the culmination of which was precipitated by Castillo himself with an embarrassing and short-lived coup.
Deputy Guillermo Bermejo, from Peru Democrático, opened the door by denying his support for the investiture because the government is “not right, nor does it have the people” on its side. Former Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez complained that the institutional law had not been suspended in response to the human tragedy the nation is going through. Another lawmaker, Margot Agüero, from Peru Libre, showed a large poster that read ‘cabinet of death’. And many on the left bench cheered him on, greeting the ministers’ entry into the room shouting ‘hired killers’.
The most extreme intervention, however, corresponded to Peru’s Congressman Libre Wilson Quispe. He raised his arm smeared with red paint and asked the prime minister if he wanted to “see more blood” after the nearly 50 deaths already claimed by the repression of the protests. “That blood is the blood that is being soaked in the region of Puno, Ayacucho, Apurímac and Andahuaylas,” he said, referring to the departments where the riots were more tragic.
Alberto Otálora pretended to accept all gestures, all criticism, all complaints with integrity. Criticism of the executive’s apparent indifference before the outrage of violence has already set in and initiatives such as that of the Puno funeral parlors, which sent Tuesday to the doors of the mortuary of the Carlos Monge hospital in Juliaca, are not unnoticed, eighteen coffins for the relatives of the many others who died in this city on Monday to bury their own. The population and humanitarian organizations are already beginning to refer to these events as the “Juliaca massacre”, while the tax investigation is underway to clarify the intervention of the security forces. At least nine of the deaths were from firearms.
Far from Juliaca, the prime minister, who arrived with his cabinet in heavily escorted buses to the parliament headquarters in Lima, assured that the entire government “works for the country” and “unites Peruvians”. Faced with the cries of “murderers”, he affirmed that the police “guarantee the lives of those who protest” and that “the use of force is regulated in established protocols”. He also relied on the open investigation into the deadly altercations and stressed the need to preserve “the right of defense of police officers”.
Curiously, this was said hours before the Attorney General’s Office announced it was considering opening a “file” against President Boluarte and several senior government officials for the Juliaca massacre. The head of the department, prosecutor Patricia Benavides, has assured that “no death will go unpunished” and stressed the importance of investigations against “the senior officials responsible for everything that happens”.
The preliminary investigations concern the president, the prime minister, Alberto Otálora, and their heads of interior and defense, Víctor Rojas and Jorge Chávez, respectively. Proceedings for alleged crimes of “genocide, aggravated manslaughter and serious injury” weigh on them all, which the prosecution links to fifty deaths registered in recent weeks in the protests of Apurímac, La Libertad, Puno, Junín, Arequipa and Ayacucho. .
The outrage is not only growing in the Andean community. Amnesty International has demanded that Boluarte “immediately stop” the “excessive use of force” against civilians. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has denounced the situation in Peru as a “bloodbath against the population”. His Chilean counterpart, Gabriel Boric, reminded Minister Otálora that “the state must always protect and respect human rights”. For its part, the United Nations has expressed “deep concern” and called on the Peruvian security forces to ensure that “force is used only when strictly necessary and, in that case, fully respect the principles of legality, precaution and proportionality. Finally, a delegation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is already on his way to the country to visit the southern regions that are the epicenter of the riots between today and Friday.
Whether the judicial investigations or the international response are of any use remains to be seen in the coming days. But the forecasts are pessimistic. Amid growing uncertainty among the population, which fears an even greater plunging into carnage due to the irreconcilable views, the Prime Minister has begun to fuel fears by making it clear that there will be no room for riots and that he will not let them. the mobilizations occupied Lima. In his speech in parliament, he explained that he will “respond firmly” to what he considers a “coup hangover” and urged that an attempt be made to continue Pedro Castillo’s coup.
Source: La Verdad
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