CIDH condemns violent demonstrations in Peru and calls for “serious investigation”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemned on Wednesday the violence caused by both security forces and demonstrators in anti-government protests in Peru, in which at least 50 people have died in the last month.

The vice president of the CIDH and rapporteur of the agency for Peru, Edgar Stuardo Ralón, delivered his report on his visit to the Andean country from 11 to 13 January before the permanent council of the Organization of American States (OSA).

“We condemn the violence by the police who are investigating and also the violence that has affected a number of public assets,” said the commissioner.

The crisis began on December 7 after the failed self-coup of the then president Pedro Castillo, arrested after trying to dissolve Congress, form an emergency government and open a constituent process.

Since then, protests against Dina Boluarte’s new government have left at least 47 people dead, including seven teenagers – other sources have already confirmed 50 dead – and left more than 700 injured, according to the IACHR.

The CIDH rapporteur asked the Peruvian executive to carry out “serious and impartial investigations” on these deaths, and demanded that the Peruvian security forces intervene in the protests with “legality and proportionality”.

call to dialogue

At the same time, he stressed that “violence is not part of the right to protest” and called for the demonstrations to take place “peacefully”.

Ralón identified in some constitutional precepts the origin of the long political crisis that is going through the country, such as the ability of Congress to remove the president and the president’s power to dissolve Congress, which he asked to reform with “clear parameters. “

He asked to avoid the “stigmatization” of citizens of Aymara origin who participate in the protests and who have been branded as “terrorists” or “Indians”.

And finally, he called for a “broad dialogue” in the country regarding human rights and in which “all voices are heard”.

The CIDH’s request comes just a day before a national strike and an expected massive march from all over the country to the capital, Lima, to reject the president and call for early elections.

The military and police have been patrolling the paths and roads since Monday and the president – who was Castillo’s vice president and took office as soon as he was sacked – also asked that the processions be peaceful.

Paul Fernando Duclos, representative of the Peruvian government, intervened in the session to clarify it deaths in the protests are being investigated by the authorities and affirm that Peru has “a permanent commitment to the protection of human rights”.

Duclos admitted that the country has “a historic debt to sectors of the population that have been marginalized for years” in indigenous areas, but at the same time denounced that within the protests there are people associated with organized crime with a “deliberate aim of destruction”.

“The Boluarte government is fully aware of the situation,” said the official, who promised to “clarify the truth” with “transparency”.

Source: EFE

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