CNN —
Protests in Peru on Thursday saw thousands of police deployed in the capital Lima as hundreds of protesters marched into the city center as violent clashes erupted in the southern city of Arequipa.
Outrage, initially sparked by the country’s political instability, only grew as the death toll mounted. At least 53 people have died in the unrest since the protest movement began in Peru in December and another 772 have been injured, the national ombudsman’s office said on Thursday.
Smoke was seen rising from the fields around Arequipa’s international airport, which grounded flights on Thursday as several people tried to tear down fences, according to live footage from the city. Protesters shouted “murderers” at the advancing police and threw stones.
The country is witnessing its worst violence in decades, which erupted after the December ouster of former President Pedro Castillo, as protesters opposed to the current government call for political change.
Protesters in Lima on Thursday demanded the resignation of President Dina Bolwarte and called for general elections as soon as possible – while defying a state of emergency imposed by the government on Sunday.
General Victor Sanabria, head of Peru’s National Police for the Lima region, told local media that 11,800 police officers were deployed in Lima, with key locations such as parliament, the prosecutor’s office, selected television stations, the Supreme Court and army headquarters receiving additional Protection.
Authorities have been accused of using excessive force against protesters, including firearms, in recent weeks. Autopsies on 17 dead civilians killed during protests in the city of Juliaca found wounds caused by gunshots, the city’s head of forensic medicine told CNN en Español.
A fact-finding mission to Peru by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) found that gunshot wounds were found in the heads and upper bodies of the victims, Edgar Stuardo Rallon, the commission’s vice president, said on Wednesday.
Police denied using disproportionate force, saying their tactics met international standards.
Ralon also described a “deterioration of the public debate” about the demonstrations in Peru, with protesters being labeled “terrorists” and indigenous people called in derogatory terms, which he and other experts warned could create a “climate of more violence”.
“When the press uses this, when the political elite uses this, I mean it’s easier for the police and other security forces to use this kind of repression, right?” Omar Coronel, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru who specializes in Latin American protest movements, told CNN.
The IACHR’s Rallon said the investigation in Peru should “focus on human rights and a racial-ethnic focus, since the clashes took place in the southern region and that among the victims, both dead and wounded, there are Quechua and Aymara peoples.”
Peruvian authorities have not released public details of those killed in the unrest. But experts say local protesters are suffering the most bloodshed.
“The victims are overwhelmingly indigenous from rural Peru,” Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow at the Washington Office for Latin America, told CNN.
“The protests were concentrated in central and southern Peru, highly indigenous parts of the country, regions that have historically been marginalized and excluded from the political, economic and social life of the nation.”
The protesters want new elections, the resignation of Boluarte, a change to the constitution and the release of Castillo, who is currently in pretrial detention.
At the root of the crisis are the demands for better living conditions, which have not been fulfilled in the two decades since the restoration of democratic governance in the country.
Although Peru’s economy has boomed over the past decade, many have not reaped the gains, with experts noting chronic deficiencies in the country’s security, justice, education and other basic services.
Castillo, a former teacher and union leader who had never held elected office before becoming president, is from rural Peru and positions himself as a man of the people. Many of his supporters hailed from poorer regions and hoped Castillo would bring better prospects for the country’s rural and indigenous population.
Although protests have taken place across the country, the worst violence has been in the rural and indigenous south, which has long been at odds with the country’s coastal white and mixed-race elites.
Peru’s legislature is also viewed with public skepticism. The president and members of Congress are not allowed to serve consecutive terms under Peruvian law, and critics note their lack of political experience.
A poll published in September 2022 by the IEP showed that 84% of Peruvians disapproved of the performance of Congress. Lawmakers are not only perceived as pursuing their own interests in Congress, but are also associated with corrupt practices.
The country’s frustration is reflected in its long-running rotating presidency. The current president, Bolwarte, is the sixth head of state in less than five years.
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