Global Courant 2023-05-04 00:11:26
A new report says the killing of protesters amid widespread unrest could be “extrajudicial killings.”
A human rights commission has declared the Peruvian government guilty of abuses in quelling widespread unrest following the December arrest of former President Pedro Castillo.
In a report published Wednesday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said the state’s response to nationwide protests could be classified as a “massacre”.
“There were serious human rights violations that need to be investigated with due diligence and an ethno-racial approach,” IACHR President Margarette May Macaulay said in a report. “The deaths may be extrajudicial killings.”
Peru is still grappling with a political crisis, which began on Dec. 7 when Castillo attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree while facing a third indictment. Those actions led to his arrest and subsequent protests, which called for his release, new elections and a revised constitution.
Reuters reported that more than 60 people have been killed in clashes between police and demonstrators since December, the vast majority of them demonstrators.
But the government of Castillo’s successor, President Dina Boluarte, has dismissed the violence as the product of “terrorists” and agitators, calling for a national “truce”. Peruvian authorities have denied abuses, despite criticism of the government’s response.
IACHR said a large number of those killed and injured in the protests were targeted by firearms. It also found that many of the harshest responses occurred in rural Andean regions such as Ayacucho and Puno, both of which have large indigenous populations.
An earlier report by the human rights group Amnesty International called the government’s crackdown “systemically racist” because it disproportionately targets indigenous populations who already endured a history of neglect, disenfranchisement and state violence.
In a statement on Wednesday, Amnesty called on the Canadian government to halt arms exports to the Peruvian government.
“The state’s callous disregard for human life and human rights should raise the alarm for any country that has sold or intends to sell arms to Peru,” said Marina Navarro, executive director of Amnesty International Peru, in the statement. .
The IACHR report was written after the commission visited Peru for two days in January to meet victims’ relatives, government officials and members of civil society. It follows a recent Human Rights Watch report that concluded government forces had killed protesters.
In January, Peru’s attorney general launched a series of investigations into deaths from protests. Protesters continue to push for Boluarte’s resignation and early elections.
However, such calls have yet to translate into accountability or a way out of the country’s political crisis. Boluarte himself has urged the legislature to fast-track a new round of elections, but Congress has rejected attempts to do so.
