The centrist congresswoman and former Minister of Education Flor Pablo formally requested the appearance of the Prime Minister, Alberto Otárola, and the Minister of the Interior, Vicente Romero, in Congress for yesterday’s assault on the National University of San Marcos (Unmsm)as well as that of the rector of the house of studies, Jeri Ramón.
In addition, the non-governmental organization National Human Rights Coordinator (Cnddhh) sued Minister Romero and the head of the Peruvian National Police (PNP), Raúl Alfaro Alvarado, filed a writ of habeas corpus for the detainees and denounced an “abuse of power” by the Government and the Police for entering the university campus .
“What happened in San Marcos is unacceptable. Without the presence of the Prosecutor’s Office, treating students, citizens and human rights defenders as criminals, lying on the floor and beaten is an abuse. Minister of the Interior and rector of the Unmsm must give explanations” Pablo wrote in a message posted on Twitter.
The congresswoman said that she presented a parliamentary motion for Otárola to “report to Congress” and a letter requesting the Education Commission to summon the rector of the UNMSM in the next regular session.
More than 200 people arrested during a police raid on the university
Some 400 riot policemen supported by special forces stormed yesterday with tanks, knocking down one of the access gates to the University of San Marcos and detained more than 200 people.
There were shots fired and tear gas was fired despite meeting no resistance, according to testimonies collected by the Peruvian press.
Delegations of protesters who had come from different parts of Peru to participate in a so-called “Taking of Lima” in the framework of the protests to demand the resignation of Boluarte.
Among those arrested yesterday there were at least three journalists of media from the southern department of Puno who arrived in the capital to cover the demonstrations, reported the National Association of Journalists (ANP), which demanded their “immediate freedom”.
The Ombudsman reported this afternoon that agency officials were verifying the “legal condition, integrity and conditions of detention” of the people delayed at the headquarters of the Directorate Against Terrorism (Dircote) and the National Directorate of Criminal Investigation (Dirincri) of the PNP.
Luis Alvarado, spokesman for the Ombudsman’s Social Conflict Prevention area, stated that yesterday there were 109 roadblocks in 35 of the 195 provinces into which the country’s 24 regional departments are divided, according to RPP radio. In the last few hours the blockades affected 80 routes throughout the country.
It explained that the most serious events occurred in the Puno region, where “there has been the burning of the police station and the headquarters of the Public Ministry in (the city of) Ilave,” as well as the burning of at least four bank branches in the Puno city.
“I want to know where my brother is,” said Domitila Quispe on Sunday in front of the Directorate against Terrorism (Dircote) in Limawhere he went to find out where his relative is, one of those arrested the day before at the University of San Marcos.
Families have had no news about their loved ones since police stormed the university on Saturday, breaking down the gate with an armored vehicle. After knocking dozens of protesters to the ground and carrying out a search, the uniformed officers left with 193 people.
“I haven’t slept. I want to know where my brother is. He sent me a WhatsApp message that he was detained,” Domitila Quispe (47), who arrived with her brother Silverio (40) from the southern region of Huancavelica to participate, told AFP. in the demonstrations in Lima demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte.
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At least 55 dead since the start of the protests
The demonstrations began in December after the removal and arrest of the then left-wing president Pedro Castillo, who was succeeded by Boluarte as vice president.
At least 55 people (54 protesters and one police officer) have been killed and more than 1,200 injured since the protests broke out.which demand the resignation of Boluarte and the release of Castillo, according to the latest balance of the Ombudsman’s Office.
In an attempt to appease the demands, in December the Parliament brought forward the elections from 2026 to April 2024, but the demonstrations persist and the demand is for the immediate departure of Boluarte and the members of Congress.
The Ministry of the Interior said in a statement that the operation was in response to a complaint filed by a university representative about the presence of a group of 300 people who entered the campus illegally and violently and attacked the workers of the university. security and expelled them.
Peruvian legislation establishes that in this type of operation the presence of officials from the Prosecutor’s Office is mandatory to avoid abuses against the detainees, but the suspects were violently subdued, handcuffed on the ground and taken to police stations.
The Prosecutor’s Office reported the dispatch of prosecutors to these offices to legalize the arrests and announced the arrest of at least three people for terrorist crimes.
The NGO Cnddhh said in a statement that its lawsuit and its writ of habeas corpus were received by a court in Lima, the Europa Press news agency reported.
As in the latest demonstrations that have taken place in Peru, The authorities have restricted access to Plaza San Martín, located in the historic center of Lima, in the face of student protests.
At the end of the operation at the university, various civil rights leaders and organizations have shown their solidarity with the anti-government protesters.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Peruvian authorities to guarantee the “legality and proportionality” of the intervention.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) expressed its “concern” over the “police incursion, eviction and mass arrests” at the university and urged the authorities to “render accounts of the facts and guarantee the integrity and due process of all people”.
The former president of Bolivia Evo Morales, very critical of the new government of Dina Boluarte, condemned the police operation.
“We stand in solidarity with the authorities, teachers, students of the San Marcos University and the people of Peru. In the style of the worst dictatorships of the 70s and 80s, they stormed this superior house of studies with tanks and weapons, without respecting the autonomy university”, has published through Twitter.
Source: Ambito
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