“Slaughter on the streets of Juliaca as government receives a vote of confidence in Congress”, January 13, 2023

It has been a week of contrasts in which the gulf between Lima and the provinces, especially in the south, has seldom seemed starker. While in Puno they buried the dead following the killing of 18 protesters on 9 January, in Lima Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, seeking a vote of confidence from the far-right dominated Congress, condoned police methods and vowed to continue ‘pacifying’ the country.

The week began with widespread demonstrations in Juliaca against the Boluarte government, calling for her to resign and for immediate elections both for president and Congress. These were met with fierce repression from police detachments flown in to Juliaca to quell the demonstrations. No less than 17 people were shot dead with live ammunition on Monday 9 January. A 15-year-old subsequently died in hospital from his wounds on 12 January. A policeman also lost his life when his car was torched by angry demonstrators. Many more people were wounded… Dan Collyns in The Guardian, quotes Javier Torres, an expert on regional politics in Peru: “Our security forces are accustomed to shooting people but I think that here they have crossed a line that has not been crossed before (…) It was a massacre; I can’t find any other term to describe it.”… Peasant communities from across the Altiplano marched towards the region’s two main urban centers, Juliaca and the city of Puno further south, in anger. Quechua-speaking communities from the north marched on Juliaca, Aymara communities from the south on Puno. Their fury at the ouster of Pedro Castillo as president was palpable. People in Puno had voted massively – by over 85% – for him in preference to Keiko Fujimori in the second round of presidential elections in 2021. They took seriously his promises to offer a new deal for the rural poor. Puno, where indigeneity underscores social divides, is at once one of Peru’s more rural regions as well as one of its poorest… However, protests were not confined to Puno. In Cusco, too, rural communities began to mobilise and to descend on Cuzco city to register their voices against the government. One of their number was shot dead on 11 January. Street battles took place, particularly in the vicinity of the city’s airport. Impromptu roadblocks were reported on many of the region’s main highways, once again blocking the free flow of passengers and goods… Similar disturbances were reported elsewhere in the south of the country, in Arequipa, Ayacucho and Apurímac. There were also renewed demonstrations in some other parts of the country. In several places, property was deliberately vandalised by small groups, taking advantage of the disarray. The situation made it easy for old scores to be settled; in Espinar, Cusco, there was a violent attack on Glencore’s Antapaccay mine, long a source of local discord… The Defensoría del Pueblo reported on 12 January that a total of 49 people had lost their lives since the beginning of December and that, according to Health Ministry figures, 668 people had been wounded, nearly half since 4 January…