The organization pointed out that they were used especially against indigenous people and peasants in the framework of the demonstrations against the Government of Dina Boluarte.
Amnesty International denounced the Government of Peru on Thursday for the “illegitimate use of lethal weapons” in an “indiscriminate, especially against indigenous people and peasantsin the context of the repression” of the protests that have been taking place since December 7 throughout the country.
The organization’s director for the Americas, Erika Guevara-Rosas, stated that a team from Amnesty International collected information from 46 cases of possible human rights violations and documented 12 cases of deaths from use of firearms.
Said report was shared with interim president Dina Boluarte, during a meeting held on Wednesday at the Government Palace in Lima.
“With a balance of 48 people killed by state repression11 in roadblocks and a policeman, as well as hundreds of people injured in a tragic period of state violence, the Peruvian authorities have allowed, for more than two months, the excessive and lethal use of force to be the only response from the Government in the face of the social clamor of thousands of communities that today demand dignity and a political system that guarantees their human rights,” the representative said in a statement.
The organization indicated that it carried out its analysis in Ayacucho, Andahuaylas, Chincheros and Lima between January 29 and February 11, also taking data from the Peruvian Ombudsman’s Office.
“Amnesty International shows that serious human rights violations are actually being committed in Peru in the context of violent state repression against protests,” stated Guevara Rosas at a press conference.
systemic racism
The investigation reveals that the number of possible arbitrary deaths due to state repression is disproportionately concentrated in regions with a majority indigenous population (80%)despite the fact that the level of state violence during the demonstrations was practically the same as that registered in other regions, such as Lima.
According to the organization’s report, this “evidence points to the fact that the authorities have acted with a marked racist bias, merciless against those historically discriminated populations“.
“It is no coincidence that dozens of people told Amnesty International that they felt that the authorities treated them like animals and not like human beings. Systemic racism, rooted in Peruvian society and its authorities for decades, has been the engine of the violence carried out as punishment against the communities that have raised their voices,” added Guevara Rosas.
In January, the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office opened a preliminary investigation against the interim president Dina Boluarte and several ministers of her Cabinet for the death of civilians in the framework of the protests that began on December 7, 2022, after the removal of then-President Pedro Castillo by Congress, and to demand the resignation of the current president and the entire Parliament.
On Tuesday, the Association for Human Rights of Peru filed a criminal complaint against Boluarte, as well as state ministers and National Police officers, for the death of six protesters in the Apurimac region.
Those who attend the protests, which are still taking place in the streets throughout the country, are also calling for early elections, a Constituent Assembly, the release of Castillo and justice for the victims of the repression.
Source: RT
