Peru: first death confirmed in Lima for protests against Dina Boluarte

Lima recorded the first death this Saturday in the context of protests that are taking place throughout the country, demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte. The victim was a 55-year-old man who lived in the province of Yauyos and was in Abancay Avenue when a bullet hit him in the head, as part of a violent clashes with the police.

“We regret the death of Víctor Santisteban Yacsavilca in today’s (Saturday) violent demonstrations,” the ombudsman’s office said on its Twitter account. Thus, the number of deaths in the framework of the conflict in the Inca country already exceeds 50.

According to information officially provided by the Social Security of Health (EsSalud) of Peru, Santisteban Yacsavilca Died of severe head injury (TBI). “Our staff did everything possible to save his life, our deepest condolences to the family,” the agency wrote in a statement.

There he specified, in parallel, that at the Grau Emergency hospital, where a group of demonstrators held a vigil this morning, at least 13 others injured, including 11 discharged.

In another message from the ombudsman’s office, it was indicated that it is monitoring the health situation of a citizen identified as Taine Isidoro Bedon Maguiña, who would arrive “badly injured” at the Guillermo Almenara hospital after being admitted to the Grau Emergency Hospital, also due to a brain injury that had left him with “reserved prognosis”.

The local media also report it at least 20 injured policemen and nearly a dozen detainees for the riots.

At the Government House on Tuesday, Boluarte said in a recount to the foreign press that the groups behind the violent protests “They’re looking for a dead man in Lima.” “They say that one dead in Lima is worth a hundred in the province“, complained the president on that occasion.

The Ombudsman has 47 civilians killed in the clashes and a policeman burned alive, plus 10 civilians, including two children– who lost their lives in blockade-related events.

So far the victims have been recorded mainly in Puno and other regions in the south of the country, where historically neglected Quechua and Aymara communities live.

Since the removal of leftist former president Pedro Castillo, the Andean south has remained on a war footing demanding Boluarte’s resignation and election.

In Congress, he refused to rush the election

The Congress of Peru on Saturday he early rejected the advancement of the general election to 2023 that President Dina Boluarte had asked for, as a way out of the serious social and political crisis that the country has been going through for seven weeks.

The proposal presented on Friday evening provided for an advance of the general elections to October 2023, instead of April 2024 as they had been set in December. The text reached 45 votes in favour, 65 against and two abstentions, and was rejected in the plenary session of the Parliament.

At the end of the vote, the president of Congress, José Williams, received a request for “reconsideration of the vote”, which could be discussed in a new session on Monday, although it is very unlikely that this result can be reversed.

“With this vote, the constitutional reform proposal for the advancement of the elections is rejected,” concluded Williams.

Boluarte on Friday morning urged Congress to advance elections scheduled for April 2024 through 2023 to get Peru “out of the quagmire”.

With information from agencies.

IS