An agricultural worker who participated in blocking a route was killed and at least 15 people were injured Wednesday in clashes with police, in a new day of protests in Peru due to price increases, hospital sources reported.

“15 wounded have been admitted, we have one seriously injured. There is a civilian who has been admitted deceased as a result of the conflict,” said the director of Ica hospital (300 km south of Lima), Carlos Navea, in a video posted on the health center’s Facebook page.

Navea specified that the injured who came to the hospital were 12 policemen and three protesters.

The crashes happened in the morning when a police checkpoint tried to evict dozens of agricultural workers blocking the Pan-American highway about 290 km south of Lima in the fertile Ica region, where many agribusiness companies operate.

In Ica, a coastal region south of Lima, hundreds of protesters marched on Wednesday for the third day the main route connected to the Pacific that allows reaching the capital from the south of the country. Hundreds of travelers were stranded while the police, in small numbers, were unable to clean up the area.

Rising tension

Tensions in Peru have been mounting since Monday, when there were protests in Lima, Ica and various regions of the country against rising fuel and food prices, prompting leftist President Pedro Castillo to surprise a curfew. day on Tuesday, which was rejected by the broad sector of the population.

The president finally lifted the curfew in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday, after a meeting with the leaders of the opposition that dominates Congress, while in the center of Lima there was clashes between protesters and police and attacks on public buildings and businesses.

Agricultural workers leader Julio Carbajal told RPP radio that the death toll on the Pan-American highway was a 25 -year -old worker native of Huancavelica who worked in an agricultural company in Ica.

These are the first protests against the Castillo government, which have eight months in power.

Tuesday was a day of intense anger in Peru, where a total of 25 agents were injured, after being beaten with rocks and wood thrown by protesters.

Police chased them away with tear gas.

The protesters tried burn the basement of the Superior Court, where judiciary files were kept, they stole office equipment, stoned the prosecutor’s office, the Electoral Court, broke into ATMs and robbed a retail store where they stole alcohol, softdrinks and cigarettes.

Protesters on Tuesday did not comply with an unfulfilled curfew order ordered by the government at midnight on Monday to try to calm down. a week of protest in other parts of the country triggered by rising prices of fuel, food and fertilizers that killed four.

The first since Fujimori

The curfew was criticized by experts and this is the first since the end of Alberto Fujimori’s handsless government (1990-2000), imprisoned for being the intellectual author of 25 murders during his administration.

The government justified the social immobilization mandate. Defense Minister José Gavidia told reporters that the curfew was prompted by intelligence information indicating that “acts of violence will be general, especially in the middle of Limaso extreme measures need to be taken.

The media called for Castillo’s resignation

Two important Peruvian newspapers – El Comercio and La República – agreed on their editorials on Wednesday that Castillo must leave power.

“At this point his incompetence seems irreversiblehis unconfirmed presidency and his resignationthe best exit in the situation of wrong government where we find ourselves, ” El Comercio said. The Republic wrote “this is the exact time for Castillo to resign, Vice President Dina Boluarte is in office and the general election has been called. It’s time for everyone to leave.”

The president admitted last week to Parliament that Peru is experiencing an economic crisis and explained that the rise in prices was driven by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and fueled by the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which lead the country to an “economic war”.

On Friday, the National Institute of Statistics reported that monthly inflation for March was 1.48%, the highest in 26 years. In February 1996 it was 1.53%.

After eight months in office, Castillo has a negative image of 68%, according to a survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies. The president has changed his ministerial cabinet four timeswas criticized for his carelessness in appointing key officials and there were three investigations for alleged corruption that froze until the end of his government.

Congress – that tried to drive him away twice– He passed it in disapproval and his disapproval reached 79%.

Since Thursday the country has no health minister after Congress denounced Hernán Condori, a controversial doctor who promotes products without scientific endorsement and management reduced vaccination against COVID-19.

AFP and AP

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