New gov’t declares police state amid protests

LIMA (AP):

Peru’s new government imposed a police state Wednesday in response to violent protests following the ouster of President Pedro Castillo. The 30-day national emergency declaration suspends the rights of “personal security and freedom” across the Andean nation.

Acts of vandalism, violence and highway blockades “require a forceful and authoritative response from the government”, Defence Minister Luis Otarola Peñaranda announced.

The declaration suspends the rights of assembly and freedom of movement and empowers the police, supported by Peru’s military, to search people’s homes without permission or judicial order. Otarola said it has not determined whether a curfew will be imposed. He estimated the total number of people “causing this disturbance” at no more than 8,000 nationwide.

The defence minister said the declaration was agreed to by the council of ministers. It didn’t mention Peru’s new president, Dina Boluarte, who was sworn in by Congress hours after lawmakers ousted Castillo.

Boluarte pleaded for calm as demonstrations continue against her and the Congress that ousted her predecessor.

“Peru cannot overflow with blood,” she said earlier Wednesday. Answering demands for immediate elections, she suggested they could be held a year from now, four months before her earlier proposal, which placated no one.

Boluarte floated the possibility of scheduling general elections for December 2023 to reporters, just before a hearing to determine whether Castillo will remain jailed for 18 months while authorities build a rebellion case against him. The judge then postponed the hearing after Castillo refused to participate.

“The only thing I can tell you sisters and brothers (is) to keep calm,” Boluarte said. “We have already lived through this experience in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and I believe that we do not want to return to that painful history.”

The remarks of Castillo’s running mate, installed by Congress just a week ago to replace him, recalled the ruinous years when the Shining Path insurgency presided over numerous car bombings and assassinations. The group was blamed for more than half of the nearly 70,000 estimated deaths and disappearances, caused by various rebel groups and a brutal government counterinsurgency response.