Seventeen people have been killed and dozens more injured in Peru amid anti-government protesters’ renewed clashes with security forces in the city of Juliaca.
Castillo, a socialist, had also attempted to impose a nationwide curfew. He was subsequently impeached by Congress and replaced by his deputy, Dina Boluarte, who will remain in the position until July 2026, when Castillo’s term was originally set to expire.
The former president is serving 18 months in pretrial detention on charges of rebellion and conspiracy, which he denies, and insists he is still the legitimate president of Peru.
However, supporters of Castillo have taken to the streets to demand early elections and his release from jail, arguing that Boluarte was not elected by the people. Many of the protests have turned violent.
The latest clashes in Juliaca, a city near the banks of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru’s Puno region, left 68 people injured, Henry Rebaza, a Puno health ministry official, told the state-run television channel TV Peru. At least two of the 17 killed were teenagers, according to the ministry.
Some of the victims had bullet wounds, Puno’s regional health director, Ismael Cornejo, told local radio station RPP.
Monday’s deaths from the violent clashes—the deadliest since they began—bring the total casualties from anti-government protests to 39 since December.
Peru’s Prime Minister Defends Government Actions
In a televised address late on Monday, Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola defended his government’s actions in attempting to bring “peace and tranquility of 33 million Peruvians,” adding that members of the police force had been attacked with homemade weapons during the protests, some of which took place at the airport as well as a police station.The prime minister also claimed that violent groups financed by “foreign interests and the dark money of drug trafficking” were attempting to “destroy the country.”
At a “national agreement” meeting earlier on Monday with representatives from the country’s regions, Boluarte accused protesters of not understanding what they were asking for when they issued key demands that she ultimately said she was unable to grant.
“What you are asking for is a pretext to continue generating chaos,” she said.
Peru’s human rights office, known as the Ombudsman Office, confirmed on Twitter that multiple deaths had taken place in the vicinity of the Inca Manco Cápac International Airport in Juliaca.
Earlier in the day, the Ombudsman Office said a newborn baby was among the victims of the clashes, stating that the child had died in an ambulance that had been delayed due to a road blockade. The baby was being transferred from the town of Yunguyo, southeast of Juliaca, to a local hospital.
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