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Peru protesters mourn their dead as clashes continue

Photo: Juan Carlos Cisneros / AFP

January 12 | By AFP |

Demonstrators in Peru blocked roads and held mass funerals on Wednesday for those killed in violent anti-government protests that have gripped the country for weeks, as the United States called for “restraint” on both sides.

The deadly clashes have spread to the tourist city of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire, where one protester was killed Wednesday and more than 30 people, including 19 police officers, were wounded.

In total, at least 41 people have died in more than a month of demonstrations demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, who took over after the ouster and arrest of her predecessor Pedro Castillo on December 7.

The violence has drawn a rebuke from the United Nations, and a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) arrived in the country Wednesday to investigate the protests and accusations of political repression.

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On Tuesday, Peru’s prosecutor’s office said it was opening a genocide investigation against Boluarte and other top officials as a result of the deaths.

The epicenter of the protests has been in the Aymara region of Puno, on the border with Bolivia, where thousands of residents walked the streets of Juliaca on Wednesday with the coffins of 17 civilians who were killed earlier this week.

Each coffin bore a photograph and was draped in a Peruvian flag. 

“Dina killed me with bullets,” read the white coffin of Edgar Huaranca, carried on the shoulders of six family members.

Dominga Hancco held a portrait of her young daughter — shot dead during a protest.

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“She was walking and only complained that her belly hurt,” she told AFP. “A few minutes passed and she fell, no one noticed how (the bullet) entered.”

The government has imposed a three-day curfew on the Andean region in a bid to calm the tensions, while also declaring a day of mourning on Wednesday for those killed.

In Cusco, demonstrators tried to reach the city’s airport after mobilizing to demand the president’s ouster. 

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, with protesters responding by throwing stones. Some demonstrators held up street signs as shields against projectiles fired by security forces.

The ombudsman’s office said one protester had been killed, identifying him on Twitter as Remo Candia Guevara, the president of a local community group.

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“We demand an immediate investigation to find those responsible for the death and proceed to the respective sanction,” it added.

In Arequipa, Peru’s second city, hundreds also marched against the government, while in Tacna, on the border with Chile, an indefinite strike began, marked by episodes of vandalism.

Rights probe launched

The regional governments of Puno and Cusco are demanding Boluarte step down as a first step to resolving the crisis.

Puno began an indefinite strike a week ago to demand the resignation of Boluarte, immediate presidential and legislative elections and the convening of a Constituent Assembly.

The IACHR commissioners were received by Boluarte at the Government Palace, the seat of the Peruvian executive. 

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“We are going to verify the human rights situation. We regret the loss of human life during the demonstrations,” said head of mission Edgar Stuardo Ralon, whose delegation will remain in Peru until Friday.

They will meet with authorities, victims and their relatives in Lima, Ica and Arequipa.

The United States on Wednesday urged restraint and the minimal use of force, and backed an investigation into the dozens of deaths. 

“We recognize the right for peaceful protest and expressing grievances through democratic channels, and call for calm, dialogue and for all parties to exercise restraint and non-violence,” a State Department spokesperson said. 

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International

The Government of Colombia has received new information about a possible attack against Petro

The Minister of the Interior of Colombia, Armando Benedetti, warned on Monday that the Government has received “quite serious intelligence information” about a possible attack against President Gustavo Petro.

“Rately serious intelligence information has arrived, especially the last week (…) of an attack (…) The information that has arrived is quite serious (…) This time things were quite reliable to believe and fear that something may be in progress,” Benedetti said in an interview with Caracol Radio.

The minister highlighted that “there are some people who have been meeting who would like to hit the president.”

Last week, Petro accused US Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a member of the House of Representatives for the Republican Party, of leading meetings with those seeking to remove him from office.

Petro also accused former Chancellor Álvaro Leyva of contacting the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela, where the Government and that guerrillas were negotiating peace, to see how to get him out of office.

He also said that Leyva, the first foreign minister of his government between August 2022 and February 2024, is part of the “plot” that “is not of Colombians, even if there are Colombians,” and “therefore it is very dangerous because it is an attack on the national sovereignty of Colombia, democracy and the freedom of Colombians.”

On March 10, President Petro said that drug traffickers who seek to control coca crops in the southwest of the country want to assassinate him and that “there are already four attempts.”

“There is a coordination of the South American mafia based in Dubai and the Police still do not investigate, through intelligence, that they even want to kill the president,” Petro said in a televised council of ministers.

Likewise, the president denounced a month earlier that drug traffickers bought two missiles to attack his plane because of the work his government is doing against “the great mafias” of the country.

That was not the first time that Petro denounced this type of action, because last September he assured that the United States drug agency (DEA), through the ambassador of that country in Bogotá, alerted him to an alleged plan to kill him before the end of 2024 in an attack with a truck loaded with dynamite.

Also in 2022, when he was a presidential candidate, the current president denounced that the criminal gang ‘La Cordillera’ intended to commit an attack to kill him.

Petro has fed during his mandate the idea of a coup d’état against him and a plan to assassinate him, without pointing to anyone in particular, through messages published on his social networks and in public interventions.

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International

Trump says he would “fly if he thought it would be useful” to the meeting of Russia and Ukraine in Turkey

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Monday that he would “fly if he thought it would be useful” to the meeting proposed by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, next Thursday in Turkey to pave the way for talks for a future ceasefire.

Trump, who is touring Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week, insisted that both countries must sit down at the table to agree on a cessation of hostilities.

“I don’t know where I’ll be at that particular moment. I will be somewhere in the Middle East, but I would fly there (to Turkey) if I thought it would be useful,” he told journalists before embarking on the trip abroad, the first since he returned to power in January.

Kiev informed its European allies on Monday that “the Russians are completely ignoring the offer of a complete and lasting 30-day ceasefire” that should have begun this Monday, according to information received directly from the Ukrainian Army.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrí Sibiga reported that Zelenski has not received a response to the offer made on Sunday to Putin to meet with him in person in Turkey on Thursday and begin at the highest level the direct negotiations that Russia wants to open without first declaring a ceasefire.

Zelenski responded with this invitation to Putin’s proposal to start direct negotiations between both sides this Thursday in Turkey, which the Ukrainian leader raised to the highest level.

Sibiga also implied that Ukraine’s proposal to engage in dialogue is still standing despite the fact that Putin has not accepted the truce demanded of Kiev and several European countries.

The US president had already urged Ukraine on Sunday to accept “immediately” the invitation made by Russia to meet in Turkey and determine if an agreement is possible.

The Republican leader indicated on his network, Truth Social, that “Russia does not want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOOD BATH.”

The leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland threatened on Saturday from Kiev to approve new sanctions against Russia if the Kremlin did not agree to put down the weapons for 30 days starting this Monday.

According to these leaders from Kiev, Trump supported this ultimatum and was willing to coordinate the sanctions with the Europeans if Putin refused to put down his weapons again.

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International

Israel will send a delegation to Doha on Tuesday to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave instructions to send a negotiating delegation to Doha on Tuesday in view of indirect talks with Hamas in search of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the president’s office reported after he met with the White House envoy in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

“In his meeting with the envoy Witkoff and the (US) ambassador to Israel, Mike) Huckabee, the prime minister discussed the last effort to implement the scheme for the release of hostages presented by Witkoff, before the escalation of the fighting” in Gaza, says the text of the Netanyahu Office.

In the statement, Netanyahu emphasizes that it is the last effort to promote Witkoff’s proposal, which Israel defends from the beginning (to extend the first phase of the ceasefire, instead of moving towards the second, as stipulated in the original agreement), “before the escalation of the fighting”.

The threat comes at the gates of Israel expanding its operations in Gaza, with the intention of occupying more and more land in this Palestinian territory and for which it is mobilizing thousands of reservist soldiers.

“The prime minister clarified that the negotiations will only take place under fire,” the statement added in this regard. Already on Sunday night, Netanyahu’s Office warned that all negotiations for the truce will take place while his Army maintains the fighting in the devastated Gaza Strip.

Witkoff’s proposal promulgated an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire of weeks during which about half of the remaining live hostages in Gaza would be released (24, according to the Israeli authorities, who in recent days acknowledged not to be sure of the state of three of them).

The Israeli president met with Witkoff and Huckabee on the first arrival in Israel on the occasion of the release of the captive soldier with American and Israeli nationality, Edan Alexander, announced last night by Hamas as the result of its indirect conversations with the Donald Trump Administration in the United States.

Alexander, whose release is expected for Monday afternoon, is the only hostage with American nationality left alive in Gaza, the Palestinian militias keeping the bodies of the remaining four.

His exit from Gaza was presented as a gesture by Hamas, without apparent compensation, with the aim of promoting dialogue for the ceasefire in the Strip.

Netanyahu spoke after the meeting with Trump, whom he thanked “for his help in the release of Army soldier Edan Alexander.”

The statement from the Netanyahu Office states that the US president, for his part, reiterated his commitment to Israel and “his desire to continue cooperating closely with the prime minister.”

The call between the United States tycoon and the Israeli leader also occurs at the gates of Trump’s first Middle East tour of this presidency, with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

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