Flames erupt in Peru’s capital; Fire broke out in the heart of Peru’s capital. Thursday night as police fired tear gas at protesters demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte.
Flames erupt in Peru’s capital; Dramatic images showed flames engulfing. The tallest building in the city’s historic center near San Martin Plaza, Lima’s prominent public square. Where crowds of protesters had gathered for hours. The cause and extent of the fire were not clear.
Thousands of protesters descended on the capital;
Thousands of protesters descended on the capital on Thursday afternoon to vent their anger against the government. After at least 53 people were killed in recent clashes between protesters and police. One of the worst violent incidents in the country in decades. At least 19 of the deaths occurred during a protest in southern Peru last week.
The protests began after the ouster. Arrest in December of former president Pedro Castillo after he tried to dissolve parliament. But they have grown into a much broader movement – a vocal expression of frustration over the deaths of protesters. A government and parliament widely seen as corrupt and indifferent to the country’s poor.
”Discontent, death toll rise as Peru’s poor demand change”
After weeks of rural unrest failed to bring the desired change. Protesters from across the country marched on Peru’s capital to demand a hearing. They arrived in bus caravans, after hours or days of travel. Marched through the streets of Lima to demand a solution to the political turmoil. Among them: the resignation of Boluarte, the dissolution of an extremely unpopular parliament. The possible creation of a constitutional assembly. A group of protesters carried signs with pictures of some of those who had died in recent weeks. Others marched with boxes that looked like coffins.
Carlos Villafuerte, a 42-year-old resident of Cusco
Flames erupt in Peru’s capital; To the people who marginalize us, who think we are ignorant… we are tired,” said Carlos Villafuerte, a 42-year-old resident of Cusco. “Unfortunately, the woman doesn’t listen to us when we’re there. Let’s see if they listen to us here.”
In a televised address Thursday night, Boluarte told Peruvians that his government remained “solid” and that “the situation is under control.” He criticized the protesters as “inciting acts of violence that destroy private and public property” and vowed to prosecute the crimes. In connection with the country’s internal affairs, he said, the protesters tried to take over three airports. He called for a dialogue with the protesters traveling to the capital, while condemning their actions and questioning their intentions.
”Protesters in Peru refuse to back down as political crisis deepens”
– For those who walk daily, who finances you? asked Boluarte. “You don’t work… what kind of money do you bring home? Why leave your family to go to the streets to protest?
You want to create chaos and disorder… to control the nation,” he added. “You are wrong.”
Boluarte has repeatedly refused calls for his resignation and rejected demands by protesters to form a new Constituent Assembly. His Government Extended the state of emergency in the country’s capital and three other regions.
Thousands of security personnel on Thursday diverted protesters from their planned route in Lima’s historic center and fired tear gas into the crowd at dusk and as the city darkened.
Earlier in the evening, a group of people carried an injured person out of the protest and told a journalist that he had been hit directly in the leg with tear gas. Another group of volunteers carried an injured man on a makeshift stretcher and helped him into the taxi.
Meanwhile, many protesters have stuck to their goal: they will remain on the streets of Lima until Boluarte’s retirement.
We want the killer to resign,” said Elva Fernandez Quisped, 47, who was traveling by bus from Ayacucho, the scene of last month’s deadliest protests. “We want justice”
Fiorella Callañaupa Manottupa, a 24-year-old political science student, joined a group of university students who traveled by bus from Cusco for more than 24 hours before arriving in the capital, where they slept on campus. On the way, strangers offered to give them water and food.
Callañaupa said she voted for — and once believed in — former president Castillo. “We saw in him someone who gave us this confidence. But he was disappointed in him and his government, and especially his successor.
“We can no longer negotiate because many people have died,” he said, calling for Boluarte’s immediate resignation.
Another University Student next to him, Gilberto Huaman Laime, 24, said it would be a “failure” to return to Cusco before seeing the change they have long demanded.
“There,” he said, “they are waiting for us to return victorious.”
