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A6 WORLD NEWS
Friday 9 december 2022
Ousted Peru leader appears in court to face rebellion charge

By FRANKLIN BRICEÑO and to remove presidents. The
JOSHUA GOODMAN effort failed, this time with
Associated Press only 55 votes in favor.
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s Each time, Castillo was de-
stunning political crisis fiant, arguing he had done
grinded forward Thursday, nothing wrong.
as former President Pedro “I salute that common
Castillo appeared in court sense, responsibility and
following a failed attempt democracy prevailed,”
to close a hostile congress Castillo tweeted after the
and his successor looked second attempt.
for ways to unite the coun- Then shortly before noon
try behind institutions gut- Wednesday, Castillo went
ted by endemic corruption on state television to an-
and mistrust. nounce the dissolution of
At his initial court appear- Congress. He said elections
ance, Castillo looked would be held to choose
downcast as he gave sim- new lawmakers and a new
ple yes or no answers and constitution would be writ-
his attorney argued that he ten. Various members of
had been arbitrarily ousted his Cabinet resigned imme-
from Peru’s presidency on diately and the Supreme
trumped-up charges of re- Peru’s ousted President Pedro Castillo is escorted by police at the police station where he is being Court and Constitutional
bellion. held in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. Tribunal rejected it as an
The U.S. condemned Cas- Associated Press attempted coup.
tillo’s power grab as ille- ans, seemed eager to turn gress to being replaced enced Cabinet choices, The president can dissolve
gal and even leftist allies the page. In comments to by his vice president. But a number of whom have congress to end a political
have refused to speak journalists Thursday, Dina the threats against his gov- been accused of wrong- standoff but only in limited
out against his overthrow. Boluarte, who served as ernment had been build- doing. circumstances after losing
A major exception was Castillo’s vice president, ing throughout his nearly He also faced a hostile two votes of confidence
Mexican President Andrés appealed for a “truce” 17-month presidency. Congress, which first tried to in Congress, which last oc-
Manuel López Obrador, from the political feuding The political outsider won a impeach him last Decem- curred in 2019, when then
who called Castillo’s re- that has paralyzed Peru for runoff election in June 2021 ber. At the time, a relatively President Martin Vizcarra
moval a “soft coup” fueled years so that she can “re- by just 44,000 votes after small group of opposition dismissed lawmakers.
by deep-seated racism orient” the country. With campaigning on promises lawmakers cited an inves- By nightfall Wednesday,
against the former school polls showing Peruvians to nationalize Peru’s key tigation by prosecutors into Castillo was being held in
teacher from the heavily despising Congress even mining industry and rewrite illicit financing of the gov- the same giant police sta-
indigenous Andean high- more than they do Cas- the constitution, gaining erning party. To remove tion housing reviled former
lands. tillo, she suggested that support in rural Peru. the president requires two- President Alberto Fujimori,
“It is no longer military inter- she would consider holding However, once in office, thirds of the 130 lawmak- whose closing of Congress
vention,” said López Obra- early elections something he immediately stepped ers to vote in favor. Only 46 30 years ago with tanks
dor. “It’s done with control that requires approval of onto a no-holds-barred po- voted in favor. and soldiers was a far more
of the media by the oli- a hard-to-muster constitu- litical battlefield in Peru, the Congress tried to impeach robust show of force than
garchs, undermining legal tional amendment. South American country Castillo again in March for Castillo’s enfeebled moves
and legitimately constitut- “I know there are voices now on its sixth president in “permanent moral inca- to temporarily dismiss law-
ed authorities, especially if indicating early elections six years. The last one, Fran- pacity,” a term incorporat- makers and rule by decree.
they want to do something and this is democratically cisco Sagasti, had been ed into Peruvian constitu- Despite the high political
for the benefit of the long- respectable,” she said. appointed by Congress just tional law that experts say drama, only small clashes
suffering people who do In just three tumultuous months before Castillo’s lacks an objective defini- erupted between a hand-
not belong to the elites.” hours Wednesday, Castillo shocking victory. tion and that Congress has ful of Castillo supporters
Meanwhile , Castillo’s suc- went from decreeing the But once in office he cycled used more than a half doz- and riot police on guard
cessor, like many Peruvi- dissolution of Peru’s Con- through dozens of inexperi- en times since 2017 to try outside. q

U.N.: Mines helped to cause 159 casualties in Yemeni city

CAIRO (AP) — The United U.N.’s mine action service, deadly devices left behind between 2016 and 2018. have also been blamed on
Nations said Thursday that said over 50% of the casu- by a conflict. “Due to the difficulty of ob- Saudi-led airstrikes, which
land mines and other unex- alties in the port city of Hu- Land mines have been laid taining accurate estimates, have hit markets, health
ploded ordnance caused daidah were women and across Yemen since the these figures are likely to facilities and weddings
some 159 casualties in a children, and called for the 1960s. However there has make up a fraction of all during Yemen’s eight year
rebel-held city in Yemen in acceleration of de-mining been a surge in the use of mine detonations involving conflict. The war has killed
the past six months. across Yemen. The U.N. did the devices since the civil civilians in Yemen,” ACLED over 150,000 since 2014,
Yemen is in the grips of a not disclose how many of war began in 2014. Houthi said in a 2018 report. including over 14,500 civil-
bloody civil war that has the 159 incidents were fa- rebels have widely used Saudi backed forces with- ians.
pitted Iranian-allied Houthi tal. land mines. drew from the port of Hu- On Tuesday, a U.N. convoy
rebels against a Saudi-led The figure refers to casual- According to the U.S.- daidah in 2021. The Houthi- Cohn was traveling in was
coalition that backs the ties caused by landmines based Armed Conflict controlled strategic city struck by landmines on the
internationally recognized and “explosive remnants of Location & Event Data is one of the most heavily northern outskirts of Hudai-
Yemeni government. war,” a term that includes Project, Houthi land mines mined in Yemen. dah. No one was hurt in the
Ilene Cohn, director of the shells, grenades and other killed at least 122 people Thousands of civilian deaths incident.q