International
Thousands of protesters expected in Peru’s capital
January 19 | By AFP | Carlos Mandujano / Luis Jaime Cisneros |
Thousands of protesters were expected to descend on Peru’s capital Lima on Thursday, defying a state of emergency to express their anger with President Dina Boluarte after weeks of unrest.
One demonstrator was killed on Wednesday in clashes with police in the country’s south, raising tensions and bringing the death toll from the protests to 43, according to Peru’s human rights ombudsman.
The South American country has been rocked by more than a month of protests, mostly in the southern and eastern areas, since the ouster and arrest of Boluarte’s predecessor Pedro Castillo in December.
On Wednesday, a 35-year-old woman was killed in the southern Puno region, according to a hospital statement. At least one other person, a 30-year-old man, was injured in the demonstrations, the statement said.
Thousands of protesters from rural areas are expected to descend on Lima this week to keep up pressure against the government, defying a state of emergency declared to maintain order.
“We are coming to make our voices heard. We are tremendously forgotten,” villager Edwin Condori, 43, from the Cusco region, told AFP.
Demonstrators in Lima are expected to call for Boluarte’s resignation, the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections.
Although protestors across the country have vowed to meet in the capital, it is difficult to determine how many will arrive.
Counter-protests are already underway in a sign of divisions wracking the country.
One of Peru’s biggest labor unions, the General Confederation of Workers, has called a strike for Thursday.
‘She doesn’t represent us’
On Tuesday, many poor and Indigenous demonstrators made their presence felt in Lima, where police used smoke canisters against marchers who had gathered ahead of larger mobilizations.
Dozens marched through the capital’s streets to Plaza San Martin, the historic epicenter of demonstrations.
Boluarte urged protesters flooding into Lima to gather “peacefully and calmly.”
“We want Dina Boluarte’s resignation. We don’t feel that she represents us,” said Jesus Gomez, an agricultural engineer from Chumbivilcas in the Cusco region.
“We have come in an organized way to take over Lima, to paralyze Lima, to be heard,” he said.
But the president warned protesters that “the rule of law cannot be hostage to the whims” of a single group of people.
“Dina Boluarte should leave because she does not represent the coast, the mountains, or the jungle,” said teacher Edith Calixto, 45 from the Andes.
Residents of the northern city of Cajamarca carried signs that read “National Insurgency.” Some held “rondero” whips of the type used by local patrols in rural areas.
“Dina, please, resign so that this town calms down because the town is not going to give up,” Antonia Riveros, a 55-year-old native of Huancavelica, said.
Rival protests
A rival “march for peace” was also underway in Lima, with dozens of members from community groups and political parties wearing white T-shirts in rejection of the protests against Boluarte.
“We do not want violence in our country. I know that now there is a group that disagrees with the current government, but nevertheless it is not the way to carry out a protest,” 56-year-old merchant Cesar Noa told AFP.
Protesters have maintained almost 100 roadblocks across Peru.
Castillo was removed from office and arrested on December 7 after attempting to dissolve the country’s legislature and rule by decree, amid multiple corruption investigations.
Boluarte, who was Castillo’s vice president, succeeded him. But despite Boluarte belonging to the same left-wing party, Castillo supporters have rejected her, even accusing her of being a “traitor.”
International
Tensions Escalate in Middle East as U.S. Bombs Iran After Maritime Attacks
The United States launched new strikes against Iran on Wednesday, following President Donald Trump’s warning that Washington would “hit hard” against the Islamic Republic. While Trump ordered the retaliation after attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, he also said he hoped the latest wave of bombings would end soon and left the door open for renewed negotiations.
U.S. forces “have begun carrying out additional strikes against Iran to further reduce its ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” the United States Central Command said in a post on X.
Washington blamed Iran for what it described as “recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping.”
Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that explosions were heard in the port cities of Bandar Abbas, Konarak, and Chabahar.
“This is in retaliation for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will be much worse,” Trump wrote on social media alongside an image showing what appeared to be a bombing at an Iranian location.
Before ordering the strikes, the U.S. president said that the ceasefire with Iran had ended. Mediators Pakistan and Qatar called for de-escalation, while the United Nations also urged both sides to reduce tensions.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a critical flashpoint in the Middle East conflict, which began in late February after U.S. and Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran-linked attacks on at least three vessels in recent days triggered a U.S. offensive against Iranian targets on Tuesday. Tehran responded by launching attacks against Gulf countries that are allies of Washington.
International
Deadly Drug Trade Rivalry Suspected After Eight Bodies Discovered in Southern Mexico
Eight bodies were found Wednesday along a highway in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, in an incident authorities believe may be linked to a dispute over local drug sales.
The victims — six men and two women — were found abandoned on a road in a mountainous area of the municipality of El Bosque, according to the state prosecutor’s office in a statement published on Facebook.
Initial investigations indicate that the killings may be connected to “a dispute over retail drug sales between local criminal groups operating in the region,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Local media reports that several criminal incidents have increased in the area since the beginning of the year.
The road where the bodies were discovered is located in a mountainous region largely inhabited by Indigenous communities. Authorities have not released further details about the victims or possible suspects as the investigation continues.
Central America
Regional Naval Operations Strike Drug Cartels, Disrupting Cocaine and Weapons Trafficking Routes
Transnational operations carried out by regional naval forces, including El Salvador’s National Navy, the United States Coast Guard, and Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR), have dealt significant blows to international drug trafficking organizations.
The operations have not only led to the seizure of massive cocaine shipments, such as the 6.68 metric tons of cocaine valued at approximately $167 million presented last Wednesday by El Salvador’s Security Cabinet, but have also resulted in the confiscation of high-powered weapons allegedly intended as payment to criminal organizations, according to Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro.
“Based on the strength of the data, not just the narratives, we can state that our National Navy has documented the only known operation in the Pacific Ocean in which a criminal organization from the south was transporting drugs and exchanging them with a group from the north for firearms,” Villatoro said.
The exchange of weapons for drugs between criminal groups in the Pacific Ocean represents a logistical method in which South American cartels from countries such as Colombia and Ecuador negotiate with Mexican and Central American organizations to trade military-grade weapons for cocaine shipments.
Regional naval authorities have identified that meeting points located farther from the coastline in international waters make it easier for armed groups to receive supplies and carry out exchanges undetected. As a result, El Salvador’s National Navy deploys teams from the Trident Naval Task Force (FTNT) aboard maritime patrol vessels to intercept these operations.
Initially, the patrol units are ordered to travel up to 200 nautical miles offshore, but later receive instructions from the Maritime Operations Center to extend their missions beyond 1,000 nautical miles, reaching coordinates used by drug trafficking vessels operating in the open sea.
“We cannot lose focus on the routes these criminal organizations use to move drugs,” Minister Villatoro said, emphasizing the importance of maintaining surveillance over the various maritime corridors used for narcotics trafficking.
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