Peru assembles army of 12,000 police officers to guard capital against new protests
Brady Knox
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The Peruvian government has assembled an army of nearly 12,000 police officers to protect the capital against a new wave of protests.
Protesters from every corner of the country descended on Lima on Thursday, with many coming from rural and remote Andean areas — former President Pedro Castillo’s stronghold.
The demonstrators primarily called for President Dima Boluarte to resign. Despite formerly being Castillo’s vice president, Boluarte has become the focus of their fury; many pin the deaths of over 50 civilians in the past month’s political chaos on her.
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“We have delinquent ministers, presidents that murder, and we live like animals in the middle of so much wealth that they steal from us every day,” Samuel Acero, a farmer and head of the regional protest committee for the Andean city of Cusco, told the Associated Press. “We want Dina Boluarte to leave. She lied to us.”
“Our God says thou shalt not kill your neighbor. Dina Boluarte is killing; she’s making brothers fight,” protester and Cusco resident Paulina Consac said while brandishing a large Bible.
Participants in the protests are referring to the movement as the “takeover of Lima.” Previously, most of the protests had been confined to the southern Andes, where Castillo’s indigenous, impoverished base resides.
Lima Police Chief Victor Zanabria told local media that 11,800 officers were gathered in the capital. He claimed authorities were only suspecting that around 2,000 people were going to participate in the protest, NBC News reported.
The takeover of Lima protest aimed to bring the political fight to the capital, where protesters hope to garner support from the upper political class. Demonstrators speaking with the media said that atrocities against them could be dismissed if they occurred in the impoverished south but not if they occurred within the capital itself.
“When there are tragedies, bloodbaths outside the capital, it doesn’t have the same political relevance in the public agenda than if it took place in the capital,” Alonso Cardenas, a professor of public policies at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University in Lima, told the outlet. “The leaders have understood that and say they can massacre us in Cusco, in Puno, and nothing happens. We need to take the protest to Lima,”
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Castillo, a leftist, attempted to dissolve Congress last month ahead of an impeachment vote in what has been widely described as an attempted coup. He was instead ousted and arrested hours after his proclamation. The military refused to back him. His supporters have since violently clashed with police, demanding that he be released and more political reforms be held.