At least three people were killed on Saturday in riots following the ouster of President Martin Vizcarra in Peru. This has been heard from various sources. Thousands of Peruvians had taken to the streets.
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Parliament dismissed Vizcarra on Monday for corruption. Vizcarra denies those allegations. Center-right parliament speaker Manuel Merino became the new president. Young Peruvians in particular do not accept that and take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction. On Saturday, that turned into skirmishes with the police in the capital, Lima, which used, among other things, tear gas against the demonstrators.
The Red Cross took several people to the hospital. One of those four, a 25-year-old man, has died. He would have had gunshot wounds to the head. An employee of the government’s human rights agency reported the man’s death. He had shot injuries to the face and head from a shotgun. According to Alberto Huerta, thirteen protesters were injured. The official denounced the violence of the police.
Photo: EPA-EFE
According to the Peruvian broadcaster RPP, at least two people were killed and sixty injured in the clashes between the police and demonstrators. The Archbishop of Lima, Carlos Castillo, spoke of a third fatality on television when he condemned the violence.
Prime Minister Antero Flores Araoz, meanwhile, ruled out that the new president will withdraw under pressure from the protesters. “Millions of Peruvians support him,” he said. But the new parliament speaker, Luis Valdez, asked for the resignation of the new president on television. The mayor of Lima, Jorge Munoz, also requested the resignation of the new president, albeit a party member. And seven of President Merino’s eighteen ministers announced their resignation on Saturday after the police brutality, according to local media.
Human rights organization Amnesty International and local representatives of the United Nations have raised the violent crackdown by the police in recent days.
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