Thousands of protesters poured into Lima on Thursday, clashing with police amid tear gas and smoke, and demanding the ouster of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte as they say the country is at a “breaking point.”
Many came from remote Andean regions, where 55 people have died amid unrest since Peru’s first president from a rural Andean background was removed from office last month.
The protests have seen Peru’s worst political violence in more than two decades and highlighted deep divisions between the country’s urban elite, largely concentrated in Lima, and poor rural areas. Former Peruvian president Eduardo Castillo has been in detention and expected to be tried for rebellion since he was impeached after a failed attempt to dissolve the Peruvian Congress.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The day was mostly quiet, punctuated by clashes and tear gas.
The Peruvian government called on everyone who could to work from home.
At night, clashes escalated and a major fire broke out at a building near the historic Plaza San Martin, although no connection to the protests was immediately clear.
Anger at Boluarte was the common thread as protesters chanted calls for her resignation and street sellers hawked T-shirts saying: “Out, Dina Boluarte,” “Dina murderer, Peru repudiates you” and “New elections, let them all leave.”
Peruvian Acting Ombudsman Eliana Revollar said at least 13 civilians and four police officers were injured in the Lima protests during the day.
A total of 22 police officers and 16 civilians were injured throughout the country, Peruvian Minister of the Interior Vicente Romero Fernandez said.
Protesters blamed Boluarte for the violence.
“Our God says thou shalt not kill your neighbor. Dina Boluarte is killing, she’s making brothers fight,” Paulina Consac said as she carried a large Bible while marching in downtown Lima with more than 2,000 protesters from Cusco.
Many Lima residents also joined the protests, with strong presences from students and union members.
“We’re at a breaking point between dictatorship and democracy,” said Pedro Mamani, a student at the National University of San Marcos, where demonstrators who traveled for the protest were being housed.
The university was surrounded by police officers, who also deployed at key points of Lima’s historic downtown district — 11,800 officers in all, according to Lima Police Force Chief Victor Zanabria.
Boluarte was defiant on Thursday night in a televised speech alongside key government officials in which she thanked police for controlling the “violent protests” and vowed to prosecute those responsible for violence.
Boluarte has said she supports a plan to hold presidential and legislative elections next year, two years before originally scheduled.
The president also criticized the protesters for “not having any kind of social agenda that the country needs,” accused them of “wanting to break the rule of law” and raised questions about their financing.
For much of the day, the protests played out as a cat-and-mouse game, with demonstrators, some of whom threw rocks at law enforcement, trying to get through police lines and officers responding with volleys of tear gas that sent protesters fleeing, using rags dipped in vinegar to alleviate the sting to their eyes and skin.
“We’re surrounded,” Sofia Lopez, 42, said as she sat on a bench outside the Peruvian Supreme Court. “We’ve tried going through numerous places and we end up going around in circles.”
Lopez traveled to Lima from Carabayllo, about 35km north of the capital.
By early afternoon, protests had turned key roads into large pedestrian areas in downtown Lima.
There was visible frustration among the protesters, who had hoped to march to Miraflores District, an emblematic neighborhood of the economic elite 8km from downtown.
In a Miraflores park, a large police presence separated anti-government protesters from a small group of demonstrators expressing support for law enforcement. Police fired tear gas there as well to disperse demonstrators.
By bringing the protest to Lima, demonstrators hoped to give fresh weight to the movement that began when Boluarte was sworn into office on Dec. 7 to replace Castillo.
“When there are tragedies, bloodbaths outside the capital it doesn’t have the same political relevance in the public agenda than if it took place in the capital,” said Alonso Cardenas, a public policy professor at Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University in Lima.
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