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Thousands of people marched through the streets of Lima, the Peruvian capital, and other cities in the country on Thursday evening to protest the removal of President Martín Vizcarra with a dimension not seen for two decades. The police responded with tear gas and lead ammunition, causing 11 injuries, two of them with bullets, one of whom was hospitalized in critical condition in intensive care.
For the fourth consecutive night, protesters revolted against the political class that forced Vizcarra to leave less than six months before the April 2021 general election and against the appointment of Manuel Merino, the leader of Congress, as interim president.
With placards and slogans against Merino, the protesters clashed with the police who responded in force to stop the protests. There are reports of tear gas grenades from helicopters, which the Interior Minister Gastón Rodríguez has denied, in the statements on the RPP radio: “It’s false”.
“All of Peru is on fire, we are all very angry about what happened in our country,” José Veja, a protester in Lima, told Reuters. Protesters burned objects and used sticks and stones to confront the police: “We want to express indignation against the political class that is doing what it wants in the country,” said another protester, quoted by the Infobae news agency.
Called by civil society organizations, the demonstrators filled the Plaza San Martín and the park in the Miraflores district, a privileged area of Lima. One of the groups tried to reach Congress, but was stopped by riot police: “A dozen protesters were arrested,” said Mar Peréz, a lawyer for the human rights coordinator.
The office of the Peruvian Ombudsman (Defensoria del Pueblo) demanded this Friday “the immediate end of the use of tear gas and lead ammunition against citizens / persons exercising the right to speak”.
In statements to the Commerce, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, presidential candidate in 1990, accused Congress of “violating the Constitution”, in an attitude that ended up “having the disapproval of the bulk of the Peruvian population”. Interestingly, it was the prime minister now appointed by Merino, General Antero Flores Aráoz, who 30 years ago promoted the candidacy of the writer who ended up defeated by Alberto Fujimori. The same Fujimorists who have now conspired to overthrow Vizcarra.
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