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A6 WORLD NEWS
Friday 20 January 2023

Peru’s Andes ‘descended’ on capital to demand leader resign

By DANIEL POLITI and March, a reference to the
FRANKLIN BRICEÑO four cardinal points of the
Associated Press Inca empire. It’s also the
LIMA, Peru (AP) — People same name that was given
poured into Peru’s coastal to another massive mobi-
capital, many from remote lization that took place in
Andean regions, for a pro- 2000, when thousands of
test Thursday against Presi- Peruvians took to the streets
dent Dina Boluarte and in against the autocratic gov-
support of her predecessor, ernment of Alberto Fujimori,
whose ouster last month who resigned months later.
launched deadly unrest There are several key dif-
and cast the nation into ferences between those
political chaos. demonstrations and this
There was a tense calm in week’s protests.
the streets of Lima Thursday “In 2000, the people pro-
morning ahead of the pro- tested against a regime
test that supporters of for- that was already consoli-
mer president Pedro Cas- dated in power,” Cardenas
tillo hope will open a new said. “In this case, they’re
chapter in the weeks-long standing up to a govern-
movement to demand ment that has only been in
Boluarte’s resignation, the power for a month and is
dissolution of Congress, Police officers pick up a tear gas canister that was thrown back at them by anti-government incredibly fragile.”
immediate elections and protesters who traveled to the capital from across the country to march against Peruvian President Another distinction is that
structural change in the Dina Boluarte in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. the 2000 protests had a
country. Castillo, Peru’s Associated Press centralized leadership and
first leader from a rural An- officers will be deployed bloodbaths outside the ful. were led by political par-
dean background, was im- throughout Lima, Victor capital it doesn’t have the “We know they want to take ties. “Now what we have
peached after a failed at- Zanabria, the head of the same political relevance over Lima,” Boluarte said is something much more
tempt to dissolve Congress. police force there told lo- in the public agenda than this week. “I call on them fragmented,” Coronel said.
“We have delinquent min- cal media. He played if it took place in the capi- to take over Lima, yes, but The protests that have en-
isters, presidents that mur- down the size of the pro- tal,” said Alonso Cárdenas, in peace” and added that gulfed much of Peru in the
der and we live like animals tests, saying he expected a professor of public poli- she would “wait for them in past month have largely
in the middle of so much around 2,000 people to cies at the Antonio Ruiz de the Government House to been grassroots efforts
wealth that they steal from participate. Montoya University in Lima. be able to talk about their without a clear leadership.
us every day,” Samuel Ace- The demonstrations that “The leaders have under- social agendas.” “We have never seen a mo-
ro, a farmer who heads up erupted last month and stood that and say, they Boluarte has said she sup- bilization of this magnitude,
the regional committee subsequent clashes with se- can massacre us in Cusco, ports a plan to push up to there’s already a thought
of protests for the south- curity forces amount to the in Puno, and nothing hap- 2024 elections for president installed in the peripheries
eastern city Cusco, said as worst political violence Peru pens, we need to take the and congress originally that it is necessary, urgent
he walked in downtown has experienced in more protest to Lima,” Cárdenas scheduled for 2026. to transform everything,”
Lima Thursday morning. than two decades and has added, citing two cities Many protesters say that no said Gustavo Montoya, a
“We want Dina Boluarte to shined a spotlight on the that have seen protest vio- dialogue is possible with a historian at the National
leave, she lied to us.” deep divisions that exist in lence. government that they say University of San Marcos. “I
The protests have so far the country between the The concentration of pro- has unleashed so much have the feeling that we’re
been held mainly in Peru’s urban elite largely concen- testers in Lima also reflects violence against its citizens. witnessing a historic shift.”
southern Andes, with 53 trated in Lima and the poor how the capital has started As protesters gathered in The protests have grown to
people dying amid the rural areas, where citizens to see more antigovern- Lima, more violence erupt- such a degree that dem-
unrest, the large majority have often feel relegated. ment demonstrations in re- ed in southern Peru. onstrators are unlikely to be
killed in clashes with secu- “In my own country, the cent days. In the town of Macusani satisfied with Boluarte’s res-
rity forces. voices of the Andes, the “Lima, which hadn’t joined Wednesday, protesters set ignation and they are now
“We’re at a breaking point voices of the majority have the protests at all in the first fire to the police station demanding a more funda-
between dictatorship and been silenced,” Florencia phase in December, decid- and judicial office after two mental structural reform.
democracy,” said Pedro Fernández, a lawyer who ed to join after the Juliaca people were killed and an- The protests have emerged
Mamani, a student at the lives in Cusco, said Wednes- massacre,” Omar Coronel, other seriously injured by “in regions that have been
National University of San day ahead of the protest. a political science profes- gunfire amid antigovern- systematically treated as
Marcos. “We’ve had to travel to this sor at the Catholic Univer- ment protests. second-class citizens,”
Students there are housing aggressive city, this central- sity of Peru, said, referring to The officers had to escape Montoya said.
demonstrators who trav- ist city, and we say, the An- the 18 people killed in that the police station that the “I think this will only keep
eled to Peru’s capital for des have descended.” southern city on Jan. 9. crowd burned in a helicop- growing.”
the protest that is being By bringing the protest to The protesters on Thursday ter, police said. Macusani, Analysts warn that a failure
popularly referred to as the Lima, demonstrators hope are planning to march about 160 kilometers from to listen to demands from
“takeover of Lima.” to give fresh weight to the from downtown Lima to the city of Juliaca near protesters could have trag-
The university was surround- movement that began the Miraflores district, one Lake Titicaca, is the capital ic consequences.
ed by police officers, who when Boluarte, who was of the emblematic neigh- of the province of Caraba- “We have to start to think
also congregated at sev- the vice president, was borhoods of the country’s ya, what we want to do with
eral key points of Lima’s his- sworn into office on Dec. 7 economic elite. Activists have dubbed Peru, otherwise this could
toric downtown district. to replace Castillo. The government has called Thursday’s demonstration all blow up,” Cardenas
A total of 11,800 police “When there are tragedies, on protesters to be peace- in Lima as the Cuatro Suyos said.q