Another day of political upheaval has gripped Peru, as protests continue to spread throughout the country following the impeachment and arrest of former President Pedro Castillo. Violent clashes with riot police have left at least seven dead and more wounded.
Castillo, a former school teacher from Peru’s highlands, struck a defiant note in a legal hearing on Tuesday, saying he was “unjustly and arbitrarily detained”. He faces a charge of rebellion, following his attempt to dissolve Congress and forge an emergency government last week.
“I will never renounce or abandon this popular cause that has brought me here,” Castillo said. He also called on police to “lay down their arms and stop killing” protesters, whom he described as “thirsty for justice”. The governments of Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia on Monday issued a joint communique in support of the ex-president.
Following Castillo’s impeachment last week, Dina Boluarte was hastily sworn in as Peru’s first female president. In a live television address early Monday, Boluarte announced a state of emergency in “high conflict” regions in the country’s south.
Backing away from her intention to hold office until 2026, Boluarte also pledged to submit legislation to Congress for early general elections, to be held in April 2024.
But the president’s promise to push forward elections has done little to pacify protesters, who are demanding Boluarte’s resignation, the shutdown of the nation’s deeply unpopular Congress and Castillo’s release. He is being detained in a police prison in the capital of Lima.
Supporters of the former president have converged on police precincts, news media headquarters and an international airport in the southern city of Arequipa. Major airline carriers, including LATAM, cancelled domestic flights to the city as well as to Cusco, a major tourist destination.
Protesters have continued to block highways in 11 departments, primarily in the country’s south, including stretches of the Pan-American highway, a vital thoroughfare that runs along Peru’s Pacific coast. Meanwhile, in Peru’s Amazon, the nation’s largest Indigenous federation, AIDESEP, announced mass mobilisations to demand immediate general elections.
In Lima on Monday, Al Jazeera spoke to protesters and ordinary citizens about their thoughts on the political crisis.