The president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has just annulled the curfew that had started this Tuesday and would last until 11:59, declared in the midst of protests against the rise in fuel and food prices.
“I must announce that from this moment on we are going to annul the immobility, it is up to us to call for the tranquility of the Peruvian people,” the Peruvian president declared at a press conference.
????#URGENT Pedro Castillo announces that he leaves the curfew in Lima and Callao without effect from this moment #LoUltimo #Now #Castillo #Peru #Congress #5deAbril pic.twitter.com/kNufbvCZRx
– Peru News (@PerNoticias6) April 5, 2022
The curfew allowed the operation of essential services, including food markets, pharmacies, hospitals and garbage collection. However, in several hospitals there were problems in the care of patients with appointments scheduled in advance because the doctors were slow to arrive.
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According to the Decree, it was possible to mobilize under some exceptions. “Moving with a private vehicle or pedestrian is allowed” of people who require urgent or emergency medical attention because they are at risk, as well as for the acquisition of medicines and others.
Bus stops in remote areas surrounding the capital showed similar scenes, according to local television channels, while the large wholesale markets where fish, poultry, vegetables and fruit arrive appeared almost empty in in the midst of the economic crisis that is hitting the pockets of millions of Peruvians.
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The last week of protests by truckers and carriers over rising fuel and food prices left four dead and several injured. In response, the government suspended a tax on some types of gasoline and diesel on Sunday that raised the final price by up to 30%. Thus, the most used diesel fell by 0.47 dollars a gallon, but several protesters said that on Monday fuel was still high at gas stations.
The main public transport lines did not work, so private cars called taxi-colectivos offered services at prices that tripled the normal one. Many street vendors who offer $1.50 breakfasts on the streets, which number in the thousands in Lima, did not come out to work, Associated Press journalists found.
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On this unusual day, several main avenues near the historic center of the capital looked empty, with almost no cars and no people. The soldiers with their rifles came out in support of the police and stationed themselves at strategic points in the most populous districts of the outskirts, but also near the airport, some gas stations and shopping malls. The agents detained several passengers from a bus who were going to a demonstration in the Cerro Azul district, south of Lima.
Inhabitants of several more affluent areas of Lima hit their pans with ladles and recorded themselves on social networks, while more than a hundred walked with Peruvian flags through the streets of San Isidro —the richest neighborhood in Peru— and San Borja, a neighboring district. The police watched them without touching them. A protester who identified himself as Oscar, 76, told local television station Latina that he was marching “against the communist government of Castillo.”
In Huaura, north of Lima, groups of protesters took over a toll office and a woman walked a donkey wearing a hat that she called “Pedro Castillo.”
Castillo is criticized by experts for his carelessness in naming key officials and has three investigations frozen for alleged corruption. In eight months of management he has changed his cabinet four times and his unpopularity rose to 68% in March, according to a survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies published in the newspaper La República.
The Parliament -which has tried to dismiss him- surpasses him in disrepute and his disapproval reaches 79%.
With AP data