International
Lima’s streets tense as Peru leader hints at early elections
| By AFP | Luis Jaime Cisneros and Ernesto Tovar |
Peru’s new president Dina Boluarte has said she will form a new government Saturday, even as demonstrators pressed on Lima streets for ex-president Pedro Castillo to be freed after an alleged failed coup bid.
Boluarte told journalists that if the situation “warrants it,” the government will consult with Congress on holding an early presidential vote.
She urged those “who are coming out in protest … to calm down.”
Demonstrations continued on Friday, with protesters blocking roads with rocks, logs, and burning tires as they called for early elections.
The roadblocks interrupted traffic along the southern Pan-American Highway that links Peru and Chile.
Two days after the failure of his coup attempt, Castillo is sharing a detention center with former president Alberto Fujimori at a police base in Lima.
The prosecution accuses this left-wing rural teacher of rebellion and conspiracy, and a high court ordered him into seven days in preliminary detention.
On the streets, meanwhile, the demonstrations continue for the second day and fuel uncertainty about the possibility that Boluarte can conclude her term in 2026, as she herself announced upon taking office.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the colonial center of the capital, demanding Castillo’s release.
“I voted for Castillo, this Congress does not represent us, we want Castillo freed,” Maribel Quispe told AFP, in the march that left the central Plaza San Martin, and included the Prosecutor’s Office on its route to Congress.
“We want them to close this corrupt Congress and free Castillo. He made the decision to close Congress because they wouldn’t let him work,” marcher Sara Medina said.
Several dozen riot police officers closed the avenues that lead to the legislature to prevent the protest from passing through.
The demonstrators burned banners with the image of President Boluarte, shouting “coup leader!”
Earlier Friday, Castillo’s former chief of staff said that the Peruvian ex-president “could have been induced” by drugs to dissolve Congress and does not remember delivering the national address that led to his downfall.
Congress was supposed to debate Castillo’s impeachment on Wednesday on corruption charges, but the president preempted them by announcing in a televised speech that he was dissolving the assembly and would rule by decree.
“There are indications that the president was forced to read the message of dissolution, and whoever wrote the text did so in order to provide an argument for his removal,” ex-aide Guido Bellido said on Twitter.
Bellido, who visited his former boss at the Lima police base where he is held while under investigation for rebellion and conspiracy, also questioned Castillo’s mental condition.
“The psychological state of P. Castillo when reading the message to the nation shows that he was not in control of his faculties. This suggests that he could have been induced. A toxicological test is urgently needed,” he said.
The former rural school teacher won a shock electoral victory over Peru’s traditional elites in June 2021.
The charges against him carry a jail term of between 10 and 20 years.
Boluarte, who served as vice president under Castillo, was hastily sworn in as Peru’s first woman president just hours after the impeachment.
However, doubt is mounting over her ability to hold onto the job until the end of her mandate in 2026 in a country prone to political instability that is now on its sixth president in six years.
International
U.S. and Mexico Reach Deal to Address Water Deficit Under 1944 Treaty
The United States and Mexico have reached an agreement to comply with current water obligations affecting U.S. farmers and ranchers and for Mexico to cover its water deficit to Texas under the 1944 Water Treaty, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement.
The department уточified that the agreement applies to both the current cycle and the water deficit from the previous cycle.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Mexico of failing to comply with the water-sharing treaty between the two countries, which requires the United States to deliver 1.85 billion cubic meters of water from the Colorado River, while Mexico must supply 432 million cubic meters from the Rio Grande.
Mexico is behind on its commitments. According to Washington, the country has accumulated a deficit of more than one billion cubic meters of water over the past five years.
“This violation is severely harming our beautiful crops and our livestock in Texas,” Trump wrote on Monday.
The Department of Agriculture said on Friday that Mexico had agreed to supply 250 million cubic meters of water starting next week and to work toward closing the shortfall.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, quoted in the statement, said Mexico delivered more water in a single year than it had over the previous four years combined.
Trump has said that if Mexico continues to fall short of its obligations, the United States reserves the right to impose 5% tariffs on imported Mexican products.
Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Minister for North America, Roberto Velasco, said that a severe drought in 2022 and 2023prevented the country from meeting its commitments.
International
Several people shot in attack on Brown University campus
Several people were shot on Saturday in an attack on the campus of Brown University, in the northeastern United States, local police reported.
“Shelter in place and avoid the area until further notice,” the Providence Police Department urged in a post on X. Brown University is located in Providence, the capital of the state of Rhode Island.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that he had been briefed on the situation and that the FBI was on the scene.
At 5:52 p.m. local time (11:52 p.m. GMT), Brown University said the situation was still “ongoing” and instructed students to remain sheltered until further notice.
After initially stating that the suspect had been taken into custody, Trump later posted a second message clarifying that local police had walked back that information. “The suspect has NOT been apprehended,” the U.S. president said.
International
Colombia says it would not reject Maduro asylum request as regional tensions escalate
The Colombian government stated on Thursday that it would have no reason to reject a potential asylum request from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro should he leave office, as regional tensions persist over the deployment of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean since August.
“In the current climate of tension, negotiations are necessary, and if the United States demands a transition or political change, that is something to be assessed. If such a transition results in him (Maduro) needing to live elsewhere or seek protection, Colombia would have no reason to deny it,” said Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio in an interview with Caracol Radio.
However, Villavicencio noted that it is unlikely Maduro would choose Colombia as a refuge. “I believe he would opt for someplace more distant and calmer,” she added.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also commented on Venezuela’s situation on Wednesday, arguing that the country needs a “democratic revolution” rather than “inefficient repression.” His remarks followed the recent detention and passport cancellation of Cardinal Baltazar Porras at the Caracas airport.
“The Maduro government must understand that responding to external aggression requires more than military preparations; it requires a democratic revolution. A country is defended with more democracy, not more inefficient repression,” Petro wrote on X (formerly Twitter), in a rare public criticism of the Venezuelan leader.
Petro also called for a general amnesty for political opponents and reiterated his call for forming a broad transitional government to address Venezuela’s prolonged crisis.
Since September, U.S. military forces have destroyed more than 20 vessels allegedly carrying drugs in Caribbean and Pacific waters near Venezuela and Colombia, resulting in over 80 deaths.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that attacks “inside Venezuela” will begin “soon,” while Maduro has urged Venezuelans to prepare for what he describes as an impending external aggression.
U.S. and Mexico Reach Deal to Address Water Deficit Under 1944 Treaty
Several people shot in attack on Brown University campus
Colombia says it would not reject Maduro asylum request as regional tensions escalate
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