Crisis in Peru: Dina Boluarte sends more soldiers but fails to stop the protests

Peru woke up this Sunday with more road blockades and mobilizations calling for the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, despite the fact that at midnight on Saturday

 in a new attempt to stop the severe political and social crisis that it is experiencing. the country.

The Executive

to stop the protests.

Thus, the military is authorized to intervene together with the police to safeguard public order, after more than a month of marches throughout the country that were firmly repressed and already left nearly 50 dead.

Through a supreme decree published on Saturday night in the official newspaper

, the Executive branch extended, in the areas where the largest protests were reported in the last week, the state of emergency that came into force on December 15 in the entire national territory.

"During the States of Emergency ... the constitutional rights related to the inviolability of the home, freedom of transit through the national territory, freedom of assembly and personal freedom and security are suspended," the decree reads.

The norm also specifies that the National Police of Peru maintains internal order, with the support of the Armed Forces.

The government

in recent weeks.

The measure will be in force from Sunday for the next ten days, from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m.

The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, assures that she will not resign, while trying to stop the protests.

Photo: EFE

Marches to Lima

The government decision comes at a time when various associations

an action that the authorities describe as a "riot" to destabilize Boluarte.

This Sunday, more than 100 sections of highways were blocked by protesters in 11 of the 25 Peruvian regions that are calling for the resignation of the president, who assumed the presidency on December 7 after Congress dismissed Pedro Castillo after his coup. Failed state.

Until then, Boluarte was vice president, and when she took office, she said in principle that she would serve the mandate until July 2026, which was when it should end.

But then, due to pressure from the street and from Congress, with a majority of the right-wing opposition, she forced her to advance the elections to April 2024.

The protests, which left at least 42 dead in five weeks, according to the Ombudsman's Office -other sources already speak of 49-, resumed on January 4 after a truce for the year-end holidays.

More than 20 people died in the last week alone.

Among the regions with blocked roads were Puno, Arequipa and Cusco (south), reported the Superintendence of Land Transport, adding that

.

In Arequipa, dozens of residents blocked the Panamericana Sur highway that reaches the Tacna region, on the border with Chile.

Clashes between protesters and police in Peru have already left more than 40 dead in a month.

Photo: AFP

On Saturday night, dozens of protesters arrived in the Miraflores district, in Lima, after leaving from the central Plaza San Martín.

In Cuzco, train service to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu resumed on Sunday after two days of paralysis due to protests.

mass for the dead

With photographs placed in the atrium of the cathedral of Lima, a mass was held on Sunday morning to remember the people who died during the protests.

"We want to dedicate this mass to our deceased by human hand in these days. All of them are our deceased, there is no death of another. We are all Peruvians," said the Archbishop of Lima, Carlos Castillo.

The priest named each of the civilian victims and the policeman who was burned alive this week in the city of Juliaca, on the border with Bolivia.

Dozens of people attended the mass officiated in Spanish and Quechua (original language of the Peruvian Andes) in the Basilica Cathedral of Lima.

The president asked for forgiveness on Friday for the deaths caused by the crisis and urged Congress to speed up the procedures to hold early elections in April 2024 and

The Archbishop of Lima, Carlos Castillo, led this Sunday a tribute to those killed during the protests in Peru.

Photo: AFP

According to a poll published on Sunday by the Ipsos company, Boluarte has a 71% disapproval rate.

The poll, with a sample of 1,199 people carried out on January 13, indicates that 63% of those surveyed believe that violent actions in the regions are "organized by political movements."

The Deputy Minister of Territorial Governance, José Muro, pointed out that the government's commitment is to establish this week spaces for dialogue in the regions in conflict in order to meet the postponed social demands.

"Tell our brothers that this week we intend to establish spaces for dialogue to begin to meet the demands. We transmit this as a commitment from the Executive's social management and dialogue team, articulating efforts with regional and local governments," Muro told the channel. of state television TV Peru.

Source: AFP 

BC

look too

Crisis in Peru: Dina Boluarte renews her cabinet after a week with 21 deaths in protests

Seven days after the coup attack in Brasilia, the longest and most tense week in Brazilian history