Peru: 17 dead during clashes between protesters and police

At least 17 people died on Monday in Juliaca, in the south of Peru, during clashes between the forces of order and demonstrators demanding the departure of the president Dina Boluarte, according to the Defender of the People (local mediator).

 

We confirmed 17 deaths today in Puno during clashes with the forces of order in the vicinity of the airport of Juliaca", in the Aymara region (Amerindian people) of Puno, said to the AFP a source of the office of the ombudsman, making also report of more than thirty wounded. The victims have bullet wounds, said an official of the Carlos Monge hospital of Juliaca where they were taken.

 

The clashes broke out while the demonstrators tried to invade the airport of Juliaca, located at approximately 1.300 km in the south of Lima, in the region of Puno. This airport had already been the object of an attempt of assault on Saturday. "Today, more than 9.000 persons approached the airport of Juliaca and about 2.000 of them launched an attack without mercy against the police and the installations, using improvised weapons", declared to the press the president of the Peruvian Council of Ministers Alberto Otarola, evoking an "extreme situation ».

 

These new deaths bring to 39 the number of people who died during the anti-government demonstrations in nearly a month of protests in Peru, a country plunged in a serious institutional and political crisis. The demonstrators demand the resignation of Dina Boluarte, arrived at the head of the country after the removal in December of the socialist Pedro Castillo. They also demand a new Parliament and the immediate holding of elections, already advanced from 2026 to April 2024.