The violent acts that Peru witnessed Monday are the worst the country has seen in the last few years; they took place in the southeast region of Puno and the city of Juliaca near the shores of Lake Titicaca and the Bolivian border. They have shaken the nation to its core.
Bringing the number of dead to 45 since demonstrations began demanding the release of imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo, 17 people died on Monday. The demands of protesters have since evolved to seeking the resignation of new President Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress, fresh elections, and changes to the constitution.
Molotov cocktails, home-made weapons, and stones in slingshots flew one way; tear gas, and bullets the other way in confrontations between protesters and law enforcement. The 17 dead include at least one minor. At least 56 people sustained firearm wounds in various degrees of seriousness—two of the injured are in the intensive care unit while two others have sustained grave injuries, according to reports from Hospital Carlos Monge Medrano in Juliaca.
According to government reports, 75 policemen were injured—six of them suffered serious injuries while 23 others were evacuated by plane to Lima.
Disconcerted family members crowded outside the morgue. An inconsolable woman looked for her son, another for her nephew.
“There is a whole lot of death,” Felicia Quispe Teran told THE WEEK in Juliaca.
“We are bleeding,” yelled a man from the crowd as Quispe spoke.
"I want to appeal to the central government. How can we have so many dead," said Jorge Sotomayor Perales, head of the intensive care unit of the hospital in Juliaca. Family members and wounded crowded waiting rooms.
Anger was seething below the surface. Quispe said women inthe area are tired of being labeled as drug traffickers and criminals when the true criminals are those in power; “all of them,” she emphasised, including Castillo and the previous government, in the total rejection of the status quo. “We are hard-working people, working hard every day to take care of our families.”
The outraged residents of Juliaca believe that the current government has attempted to delegitimise their protest by citing various justifications.
Clashes between protesters and security forces began in early December, following the ousting and imprisonment of Castillo after he attempted to dissolve Congress in what was termed as a move of self-coup. Castillo is serving 18 months of preventive detention on charges of rebellion.
But now, blame is focusing increasingly on Boluarte, accusing her of incompetence, usurpation of power, and what protesters are now terming the 'Monday Massacre'.
Puno regional governor Richard Hancco Socco said the people will calm down when Dina Boluarte resigns.
Speaking at a "national agreement" meeting on Monday with representatives from regional areas and several political institutions, Boluarte urged citizens to “reflect” and said she could not meet some of the protesters' main demands.
"The only thing that was in my hands was to advance the elections, which I have already proposed," she said. "What you are asking for is a pretext to continue generating chaos in the cities."
Through its social media handles, the Public Prosecutor's Office announced that the Crime Prevention Prosecutors' Offices of Puno have been working to safeguard the integrity of individuals in order to respect human rights, even sending prosecutors to the hospital in Juliaca to inspect and ensure that proper medical attention is being given to citizens injured during the protests.
"The is an aftereffect from the coup in the country,” said Prime Minister Alberto Otarola at a press conference. “We will not leave the rule of law in our defense, no one is going to run away here, we will not allow this uproar that they are trying to do again against Lima to happen in the next few days as they have announced, and we will restore order in Puno, be fully sure.”
Further south in the region of Tacna bordering Chile, the protests closed the Pan American highway where the passage was restricted due to the placement of stones and banners. The protesters announced that they will continue with the mobilisations on Tuesday in solidarity with the events in Puno and promised to intensify measures during the week.
For its part, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights announced it will visit Peru from Wednesday to Friday to assess the situation.