Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Friday said she would not step down, after another day of protests and roadblocks throughout the country saw calls for her resignation and the arrest of a trade union leader with supposed links to Maoist rebels.
Supporters of ousted Peruvian president Pedro Castillo have marched and barricaded streets around the South American country since last month, demanding new elections and the removal of Boluarte, his successor and former vice president.
“Some voices that have come from the violent and radical factions are asking for my resignation, provoking the population into chaos, disorder and destruction,” Boluarte said in a televised address on Friday night.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I will not resign. My commitment is with Peru,” she said.
Boluarte lamented that the protests have at times turned violent, as at least 42 people have been killed in clashes with security forces, including a police officer burned alive in a vehicle, while hundreds more have been injured.
“I cannot stop reiterating my regret for the deaths of Peruvians in these protests,” she said. “I apologize for this situation.”
However, she rejected the possibility of calling a constitutional assembly as demanded by protesters, pointing to the difficulties Peru’s neighbor, Chile, has had in drafting and approving a new constitution.
“That cannot happen overnight,” Boluarte added.
Police on Friday arrested Rocio Leandro, a union leader with supposed links to Maoist rebels, who is accused of financing protests and recruiting demonstrators.
Police spokesman Oscar Arriola his arrest proved that remnants of the Shining Path Maoist rebels were involved in the protests, alleging that Leandro was a former Shining Path member known as “Comrade Cusi.”
Protests and roadblocks have been registered in Lima and several southern and Andean regions.
Authorities say there are roadblocks in 10 of the country’s 25 official regions.
A protest in the border city of Tacna, 1,200km southeast of Lima, led Chile to temporarily close a border crossing between the two countries.
The city of Arequipa in the south — Peru’s second-largest and a tourist hotspot — had been practically blocked off from all transport links with the neighboring regions of Cusco and Puno.
Authorities on Thursday closed air and rail links to Peru’s famed Machu Picchu tourist site for the second time, as protests flared up that led to clashes with police.
Several regional governors and professional associations, including lawyers and teachers, joined the calls for Boluarte to resign.
“How many more deaths will Dina Boluarte’s presence in the presidency cost?” asked Puno Governor Richard Hancco, whose southern region has become the epicenter of clashes between protesters and security forces.
Puno, close to the border with Bolivia, was where 18 people died following violent clashes on Monday night.
“No position can be above human life,” Hancco said.
Peruvian Minister of Labor Eduardo Garcia resigned on Thursday, and two other ministers resigned on Friday, signs that opposition members have said further destabilize Boluarte’s presidency.
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