In her blue blouse, looking exhausted, a nurse has been receiving the wounded for several hours in the health center. “We are being shot at, she lets go, exhausted. What does Boluarte want? What more do they want? They have already killed so many people…” In the streets of Juliaca, in the Puno region (south), this Monday, January 9, calls for help are increasing. A man, haggard, asks in front of a camera for help for the funeral of his son, who has just died in the hospital.
More than 1,000 kilometers away, in Lima, the capital, President Dina Boluarte remains impassive, deaf to the disarray and the demands of the demonstrators. The latter have been protesting in the streets since the dismissal of President Pedro Castillo on December 7, following his coup attempt, and are demanding the resignation of the head of state and the immediate organization of new elections. “I don’t understand, what do they want? » wonders M.me Boluarte in front of the cameras, while the news of a first fatal victim in Juliaca reaches him. The president is then in the middle of a dialogue meeting with different political forces, supposed to find a way out of the crisis. ” What they [les protestataires] ask is a pretext to generate chaos”, she decides.
In the following hours, it is a bloodbath that will occur in Juliaca, epicenter of the demonstrations since their resumption after the Christmas truce: at least 17 dead and 70 injured, this January 9. In videos widely shared on social media, helicopters fly over the city and drop tear gas canisters. On the ground, the police forces shoot at the demonstrators. According to medical reports, they would have targeted the head or the body. Some victims are hit in the back. Among those who died was a 31-year-old medical student who was helping the injured. A teenager too, aged 17.
In Lima, the government justifies its repressive line and denies any abuse. Prime Minister Alberto Otarola calls protesters a “hordes of delinquents”. Measures will be taken, he announced, to counter the social mobilization presented as an attempt to ” Rebellion “ who would be “funded by drug trafficking” or by “external interests”. Former Bolivian President Evo Morales is banned from entering the territory, accused of carrying out proselytizing activities against the Peruvian government.
Mme Boluarte, who only owes her coming to power to the dismissal of Mr. Castillo, of whom she was vice-president, appears overwhelmed, disconnected from the population, sometimes incoherent. A lawyer by training unknown to the general public before a career in the public service, she had no political experience before the election of Mr. Castillo in June 2021. Analysts point to the improvisation that reigns in his government.
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