In the context of intense anti-government protests in Peru, five soldiers tried to cross a river to avoid a confrontation with protesters and drowned while they tried. another of the military remains missing in Punoat South of that country.
The Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces explained that the officers They were heading in a patrol to a city in Puno to reinforce security since the demonstrators had burned a police station and had confronted the security forces.
The soldiers they were surrounded and attacked by hundreds of protestersand, to avoid further confrontation, they decided to jump into the river and the icy flow dragged six of them away.
Four of the bodies were found today by patrols and Navy Divers found this afternoon the body of one of the two who remained missing.. They continue to search for the sixth soldier.
Seven other soldiers were treated at a local hospital for presenting symptoms of hypothermia, informed the director of the Health Network of the El Collao province of Puno, Fredy Cabana. Six of them are hospitalized and the rest was discharged by his will despite being recommended that he remain hospitalized for observation.
“Today we place our flag at half mast as a sign of mourning and respect in memory of our brave Army corporals Franz Canazas, Alex Quispe Serrano, Elvis Pari and soldier Elías Lupaca“, they expressed on Twitter from the Ministry of Defense.
“We crossed the river because we had no other escape anywherethere were between 800 and 900 people who surrounded us and they started throwing stones at uspeople called us corrupt and murderers,” said Vilca, one of the surviving soldiers.
As he recounted, the military tried to make a human chain, but they were dragged by the waters. “That’s when the current took us and some of the troops began to drown there,” he explained.
Source: Ambito
