Police in Peru attack anti-coup protestors in 2023 -- image via X
By Global News Service
On July 18, Amnesty International published an 86-page document about the human rights violations committed by the Peruvian state during the protests that took place between December 2022 and March 2023. During this period, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the coup carried out against then-President Pedro Castillo leading to more than 50 dead and thousands injured.
The report alleges that Dina Boluarte, the de facto president of Peru following the coup, as well as other senior state officials, either planned the police and military operations that led to human rights violations against thousands of people protesting the coup, or they deliberately failed to stop the publicly known crimes.
For example, in Andahuaylas city in Apurímac, special forces used tactics that repeatedly violated human rights for several months without any order to cease such actions. The same special forces were deployed in Juliaca, where on January 9, at least 17 people were killed and 68 were wounded. According to the Amnesty International report, Boluarte may be implicated in calling for this kind of repression or for not having done anything to prevent it.
The report details that several commanders of the National Police of Peru signed documents stating that the protesters were “terrorists,” thus justifying the special forces’ lethal use of force during the protests.
from the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service
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