Lima Peru.- The protests promoted by radical sectors and peasant unions asking for the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and immediate elections persist this Thursday in the Andean regions of Peru, with blockades and marches on a day that mobilizations are also announced in Lima.
The protests are concentrated in the cities of Cusco, Arequipa, Tacna, among others, while in the Puno region, the epicenter of the movement, the burial of 17 of the fatalities who lost their lives after clashes with law enforcement are expected.
In Lima, a conglomerate of social groups, unions, and left-wing parties called for a march in the afternoon with the slogan “Not one more death, down with the civic-military, racist, and classist dictatorship.”
The demands are political and include the closure of Congress and the calling of a Constituent Assembly to replace former President Alberto Fujimori’s 1993 Magna Carta, which canonizes the market economy as the axis of the country’s socioeconomic development.
In Cusco, one of the world tourism meccas for the Machu Picchu citadel, the Marriot hotel was attacked with stones by vandals who damaged glass and huge flowerpots on the façade during a march through the streets of that city on Wednesday night.
The death of a peasant leader during a confrontation with the Police inflamed the protesters on Wednesday.
The Ombudsman’s Office reported more than 50 injuries, 19 police officers among them.
Also in Cusco, the residents burned a booth at the regional land transport terminal, attacked commercial premises and placed stones on the railway line.
According to the police in Cusco, 11 people were arrested, including a Colombian citizen.
The violent protests have so far left 41 dead for a month, including a policeman who was burned alive by a mob, according to the institution.
The blockades extended to 10 of the 25 regions of the country, affecting Tacna, Moquegua, Puno, Cusco, Abancay, Apurímac, Arequipa, Madre de Dios, Huancavelica and San Martín, according to the Superintendence of Land Transport.
Dina Boluarte, 60, served as vice president until December 7, when Congress ousted then-leftist president Pedro Castillo after he tried to shut down parliament, intervene in the judicial system and rule by decree.
Castillo, who was being investigated for corruption, is serving 18 months in pretrial detention ordered by a judge on charges of rebellion.
