The anti-government demonstrations that are taking place this Friday in Lima led to new clashes with security forces and “severe damage” in the infrastructure in the historic center of the capital of Peru, official sources reported.
The protests brought together thousands of people for the second day in a row, many of them coming from the southern regions of Peru and, after a peaceful start, led to clashes with police officers, who fired tear gas in various streets.
The security cameras of the Municipality of Lima showed that pickets of protesters were trying to enter through parallel streets towards the central Abancay avenue, where the headquarters of the Congress and the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office are located.
The images, widely disseminated by local media, showed that another group damaged the infrastructure of the Colmena station of the Metropolitan public transport service.
The bulk of the demonstrators were detained by a large police cordon near the Parque Universitario, without serious confrontations taking place in that area at the moment, except for a few skirmishes.
In the nearby avenue Nicolás de Piérola, there was a stampede of protesters chased by police on motorcycles and at the nearby intersection of the shreds Miro Quesada and Lampa, the firing of tear gas was reported.
Groups of agents also urgently blocked the streets near the Central Market and Lima’s Chinatown, where it was reported that pickets of people were going to try to break through the police siege.
Tanks and multipurpose armored vehicles from the National Police arrived in the area, as well as vehicles and troop trucks from the Navy, although they did not intervene directly in the confrontations.
Police report in Peru
In this regard, General Víctor Zanabria, head of the Lima Police Region, told Channel N that in Lima “there are some 2,500 people carrying out violent acts that the Police control using chemical means.”
“Let’s hope that calm returns, but we already have four detainees for riots and property damage, the operations are underway,” he remarked.
Zanabria said that in the historic center “there has been serious damage to public and private property, bars and benches have been destroyed in the parks,” and that the arrests are made for crimes such as disturbance of public order, riots and resistance to authority. .
He explained that since the massive demonstrations in Lima began this Thursday, 38 people have been detained, and that 29 police officers and 24 injured civilians have also been reported.
The protesters toured this Friday afternoon in groups to the streets of the center of the Peruvian capital, a day after participating in the mobilization called “taking of Lima”, which led to violent clashes with the National Police.
Referring to the mobilizations on Thursday, the ombudsman, Eliana Revollar, stressed this Friday that the massive protest in Lima did not have “a social cost” of deaths in the capital, despite the fact that there were two deaths in other points from the country.
The collective protest actions, which call for the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress and the call for early elections and a constituent assembly, occurred in 38% of the provinces of Peru, the defender explained.
The protests have left 44 demonstrators and a police officer dead since last December, while another 14 people, including an unborn baby and four Haitians, have died of various causes caused by the roadblocks.