Pulse between the UN and Peru: the high commissioner asks Boluarte for explanations for the repression of the protests

Protest in Lima on January 31. Antonio Melgarejo (EFE)

The Government of Dina Boluarte owes a response to the UN since last Friday.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights sent a letter to the representative of the Permanent Mission of Peru to the UN, Ambassador Luis Juan Chuquihuara, asking him to send it to the minister as soon as possible of Foreign Relations, Ana Gervasi.

In the document, the institution expresses its deep concern about the social upheaval that has afflicted Peru for almost three months, but above all it requests accountability from the authorities.

“We have received information regarding the alleged excessive use of force, causing a high number of unlawful deaths, the alleged abusive use of the criminal offenses of terrorism against protesters and dissidents, allegedly arbitrary arrests, a case of forced disappearance , stigmatization and violations of due process against the protesters”, says the official letter that is signed by eight special rapporteurs headed by Clement Nyaletsossi from Togo, Mary Lawlor from Ireland, and Pedro Arrojo Agudo from Spain.

The letter emphasizes the "excessive use of tear gas, excessive presence of police and military personnel, and attacks," as well as agents infiltrating the marches.

"Civil society alleges that it is common for elements of the public force dressed as civilians to attend protests who would seek to incite violence and justify military and police actions to respond by repressing them."

It also includes a count of those who died from the clashes and road blockades in the different regions of the country, mainly in the southern highlands such as Ayacucho and Puno.

The document includes journalistic investigations where it is claimed to have detected remains of AKM rifle ammunition in the bodies of some of the deceased, as well as metal pellets, a prohibited ammunition, especially if it is fired at close range.

According to the latest report from the Ombudsman's Office, 60 dead, 1,301 injured civilians and 580 police officers with some type of injury.

Likewise, it reports on the raid on the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos last January, where almost 200 people were arrested, including students and protesters;

of the physical and verbal attacks on 60 media professionals, of a case of forced disappearance, and of an "official discourse that indicates that they are at war and that describes those who protest as enemies or terrorists, which has served to justify an offensive act on the part of the armed forces”.

"We underscore the obligation of the State to carry out thorough, prompt, effective, impartial and independent investigations of all alleged human rights violations committed by police authorities," the letter notes.

In this sense, the special rapporteurs request that they be provided with detailed information on each of these investigations within a maximum period of 60 days.

So far the Executive has not ruled.

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