Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/LIMA: At least 12 people were killed on Monday in Peru as protesters trying to storm an airport clashed with armed forces in the latest violent spasm of month-old political issues.
An official in the local ombudsman’s office said this new bloodshed chapter took place in the southeastern city of Juliaca, in the Puno region.
The protesters demanded the departure of President Dina Boluarte, who took over after the ouster and arrest of then-president Castillo on December 7.
12 killed in Peru
Pedro’s removal after he tried to dissolve the congress and start ruling by decree he faced many corruption probes has triggered weeks of clashes nationwide in a country beset by years of political crisis.
Protesters were angry over the removal of the leftist Pedro want Boluarte to resign and the new elections right away. They have already been moved up from 2026 to April 2024.
An official at Carlos Monge Hospital said the people killed on Monday in Juliaca had gunshot wounds.
The clashes sparked by Castillo’s ouster have now left 34 people dead around the country.
What is happening is Peruvians are slaughtering each other. I ask for calm; Juliaca’s Mayor Osca said that in a desperate plea for peace.
Demonstrators had tried Saturday to overrun the Juliaca airport, which the soldiers and police are protecting.
Juliaca, located in the Puno region on the border with Bolivia, has home to several people from the Aymara indigenous group. Puno has hotbed anti-government protests since this issue broke out, and an open-ended strike was declared there on January 4.
Protests against the Boluarte government took a break over a new year’s holiday but resumed that day.
On Monday, protesters blocked roads in six of the country’s 25 departments, including places popular with tourists.
Boluarte was Castillo’s vice president and had a leftist like him. But many Indigenous citizens call her a traitor who does not defend their cause.
In another development Monday, the government said it was barring entry to Evo Morales, the former president of Bolivia, accusing him of trying to interfere in Peru’s affairs.
