One dead, dozens injured in Peru anti-crime protests

At least one man was killed in violence at a rally in Peru’s capital on Wednesday, said President Jose Jeri, whose accession days ago has failed to stamp out angry protests against the country’s political class.

The Ombudsman’s Office said 102 people were injured, including 24 civilians and 78 police, updating earlier tolls.

Youth-led demonstrations brought thousands of Peruvians, frustrated by the authorities’ failure to resolve a worsening crime crisis, onto the streets in Lima and several other cities.

Some protesters tried to breach the security barrier around Congress as night fell, an AFP correspondent said. Others in the crowd also hurled stones and lit fireworks.

Police in riot gear responded with tear gas.

“I regret the death of 32-year-old citizen Eduardo Ruiz Sanz,” Jeri said on social media platform X, without elaborating on the circumstances.

The National Human Rights Coordinator, an NGO, said the man may have been shot by a plainclothes police officer.

AFP images showed the blood-covered face of a police officer who had been hit by a stone.

Jeri also said the “peaceful demonstration” had been infiltrated by criminals seeking to “cause chaos.”

The South American country has been rocked by protests for weeks, and lawmakers voted on Friday to impeach then-president Dina Boluarte, who critics blamed for a surge in crime and accused of corruption.

“I think there is general discontent because nothing has been done,” 49-year-old freelancer Amanda Meza told AFP while marching toward Congress.

“There’s no security from the state,” she said, adding that cases of extortion and contract killings “have grown massively in Peru.”

Jeri, a right-wing politician who had served as leader of Congress, became interim president until elections in April.

Wednesday’s protests were called by a youth-led collective, artists’ groups and labor unions.

Feminist groups also joined the calls to rally against the new president over sexual assault accusations.

A complaint was lodged against Jeri last year, but prosecutors closed the case in August due to a lack of evidence.

Boluarte’s impeachment last week followed protests by bus companies, merchants and students over shakedowns by criminal gangs and attacks on those who refuse to pay protection money.

Extortion and contract killings have been a feature of daily life across Peru.

Gangs such as Los Pulpos and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, which operates across Latin America, hold people from all walks of life for ransom.

Jeri has vowed to “declare war” on organized crime in an attempt to take the heat out of the protests.

Source: Punch