Violent response to Peru protesters may be ‘massacre,’ says rights group
Lima, Peru Reuters Peru’s security forces committed alarming human rights violations during anti-government protests last December, a regional human rights body said on Wednesday, adding that the response to demonstrators could be classified as a massacre. More than 60 people died in clashes with police and soldiers in protests that broke out following the ouster […]
Peru’s Toledo returns home to join two other former heads of state in jail
Lima, PeruReuters Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo returned on Sunday to Peru from the United States, becoming the third head of state to be imprisoned as the South American country seeks to shake off years of corruption by its rulers. Toledo, 77, has been ordered to serve a pre-trial detention of 18 months inside a […]
Peruvians march in southern Juliaca to mourn 19 protest dead
Juliaca, PeruReuters Thousands of demonstrators marched through Peru’s southern city of Juliaca on Thursday to commemorate the one-month anniversary of clashes that left 19 people dead in the city, the worst violence in over two months of anti-government protests. Family members and protesters amassed under an overpass for a memorial to the victims after marching […]
Peru’s Congress fails to agree over holding early elections
Lima, PeruReuters Peru’s Congress on Wednesday rejected a proposal to move elections forward to December, 2023, despite nearly two months of protests that have left dozens dead following the ousting of former President Pedro Castillo. Lawmakers will continue debating a different proposal to hold early elections, a key demand of the protesters. But Peru’s Congress […]
“I am Inca blood”: Peru protests fire up a divided nation
Lima/Desaguadero, Peru Reuters In the Peruvian southern border town of Desaguadero, Indigenous protester Adela Perez is defiant after almost eight weeks of deadly clashes that have roiled the Andean nation, hit its huge copper mines and strained the country’s democratic institutions. The country of some 34 million people has been in the throes of its worst […]
Protester dies in Lima as Peru’s political crisis continues
Reuters A man in Peru’s capital Lima died on Saturday and others were hospitalized as nationwide clashes between protesters and police continued in the eighth week of the South American country’s political crisis. The death of Victor Santisteban Yacsavilca, 55, brings to 58 the nationwide toll in the protests that began in early December after […]
Pope calls for end to violence in Peru, respect for human rights
Vatican City/Lima, PeruReuters Pope Francis on Sunday called for an end to violence in Peru, where nearly 50 people have been killed during anti-government demonstrations in the past few weeks. “No to violence, regardless of where it originates. No more deaths,” the Argentine Pope said in Spanish at his weekly address to thousands of people […]
Peru’s Machu Picchu, Inca trail ordered closed as protests flare
Reuters Peruvian authorities ordered the closure of the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu and the Inca trail which leads to the world-renowned archeological site as of Saturday amid anti-government demonstrations that have spread nationwide and left a mounting death toll. Dozens of Peruvians were injured after tensions flared again on Friday as police clashed with […]
Peru grapples with “nationwide chaos” as protests spread
Lima, PeruReuters Peru’s capital Lima awoke on Friday to find one of the city’s most historic buildings burnt to the ground after a night of fresh anti-government protests that extended across the country, as the President vowed to get tougher on “vandals.” A near-century old mansion in central Lima was destroyed after catching fire. Authorities […]
Peru protesters, fired up by deaths, march on Lima demanding change
Lima, Peru Reuters Thousands of Peruvians, many from the country’s southern mining regions, descended on the capital Lima on Thursday for a major planned march against the government and Congress, fired up by over 50 deaths linked to protests since last month. The clashes mark the worst violence Peru has seen in over 20 years […]