One dead and 15 injured left a clash between police and protesters who blocked a route in southern Peru on Wednesday, while Lima returned to normal after a curfew decreed by President Pedro Castillo to contain protests over price hikes. .
An agricultural worker who participated in the blockade of the Pan-American highway in the Ica region, 300 km south of the capital, died in the morning during a confrontation with police.
“15 wounded have been admitted, we have one seriously wounded. There is a civilian who has been admitted deceased as a result of the conflict,” said the director of the hospital in the city of Ica, Carlos Navea, in a video posted on the Facebook page of the clinic.
The doctor specified that the injured who arrived at the hospital are 12 police officers and three protesters.
The clashes broke out when a police picket tried to evict dozens of agricultural workers who were blocking the Panamericana in Ica, a region famous for its crops and where many agro-industrial companies operate.
daytime curfew
Tension has been growing in Peru since Monday, when residents upset over rising fuel and food prices sparked protests in Lima, Ica and other regions, the first that Castillo, a 52-year-old rural teacher, has faced since he took office. power eight months ago.
In response, the president unexpectedly decreed a daytime curfew on Tuesday in Lima and the neighboring port of Callao, which together are home to 10 million people, almost a third of Peru’s population.
The curfew was repudiated by broad sectors of the population and stimulated new protests in Lima.
The president lifted the restrictions in advance in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday, after a meeting with the opposition leaders who dominate Congress, and when there were clashes between protesters and police, and attacks on public buildings and businesses in the center of Lima.
Groups of protesters stoned the national headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office and entered the Palace of Justice, where they stole computers and other equipment, authorities said. They also caused damage to various shops and an office of a private pension fund manager.
In these disturbances 18 demonstrators were arrested. “The subjects will be denounced for the crime against public tranquility,” the police said.
The early end of the curfew was greeted with cheers by hundreds of protesters gathered near Congress and other parts of Lima, who felt they had shaken the leftist president’s hand.
25 year old worker
The police identified the protester killed on the Pan-American highway as Jhony Quinto Contreras.
The leader of the agricultural workers Julio Carbajal told RPP radio that the deceased is a 25-year-old worker from Huancavelica who worked in an agricultural company in Ica.
Police said in a statement that they are waiting for the prosecution to determine the cause of death.
He added that one of his agents had been held by protesters on the road, but was later released unharmed.
For its part, the Ministry of the Interior announced that its head, Alfonso Chávarry, “will supervise and reinforce the work of the Police agents in Ica in order to restore public order.”
Difficult weeks for Castillo
The tensions in the streets occur a week after Castillo was saved from being impeached by Congress, where radical opponents accuse him of “lack of direction” and allowing corruption in his environment.
But “presidential vacancy” motions are not something new in Peru.
In the last four years, Peruvian parliamentarians have presented six vacancy motions, which led to the fall of presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2018 and Martín Vizcarra in 2020.
The clashes between the Legislative and Executive began in 2016 and led Peru to have three presidents in five days, in November 2020.