Lima Peru.- Thousands of Peruvians marched to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, and members of Congress a month after a bloody clash with police that left 19 dead, including a policeman burned to death inside a patrol car. The protests add up to a total of 58 deaths, mostly protesters.
Hundreds of people were dispersed with tear gas and pellets by the Police while protesting in the streets of Lima. But later they met again, carrying banners with phrases such as “Dina stop killing” or “No more Dina murders”, in reference to the Peruvian President, whose resignation they have been demanding for two months.
“I am dancing with joy, but also with sadness, because my brothers from Juliaca have been massacred by this murderous President,” exclaimed Isabel Bazán, a woman dancing a dance from the Andes.
Another protester, Rodrigo Apaico, a musician who came from the Ayacucho region, was driving a supermarket trolley where he installed a sound system to broadcast a song called “La flor de la retama,” whose lyrics recount a massacre of Peruvian schoolchildren at the hands of the Police, occurred more than half a century ago precisely in Ayacucho.
The protests are reactivated and continue for two months after the Boluarte government began, on December 7 when the then vice president assumed power to replace the dismissed Pedro Castillo. The former President was removed by Congress, after an attempt by Castillo to dissolve him to avoid his removal, and later imprisoned on charges of rebellion.
In the historic center of Lima, the protesters came from various parts of the capital. Since the end of January, thousands of those who protest have come from the Andes, especially from the south, to continue the demonstrations. Many of them live off the support of their family, friends or neighborhood networks who have contributed money for their modest maintenance in Lima.
Boluarte has indicated that he will not resign until there are early elections in which his successor is chosen. The Peruvian Congress has not been able to agree on a project to advance elections for this year. Four initiatives, including one sent by the Executive, have been rejected and archived. The last two proposals set the call to the polls in October and December of this year.
In more than two months of the Boluarte government, the victims of demonstrations add up to 58. Of that total, 57 are civilians and one is a policeman who died in unexplained circumstances inside a patrol car on a street in Juliaca, the most important commercial city in the Puno region and the border with Bolivia.
On January 9, the deadliest episode of clashes between protesters and police took place there. That day, 19 died, almost all of them from gunshots, including a doctor who was helping the wounded.
