Days of chaos in Peru protesters call for the presidents

Days of chaos in Peru: protesters call for the president’s resignation

In the southern city of Arequipa, protesters tried to storm the airport, RPP radio reported. Anti-government authorities set fire to a police station in Chucuito province. In the Cusco region, demonstrators set fire to a miners’ camp. The government declared a state of emergency for several regions of the South American country.

The protests are directed against the government of interim president Dina Boluarte. Protesters demand the resignation of the head of state, the dissolution of congress and the release of imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo. The former village school teacher wanted to avoid a no-confidence vote in December and dissolved the congress. Parliament then removed him from office. He was arrested on attempted coup charges and is in custody.

Above all, indigenous people in the poor south of the country saw the dismissal as a coup by the old elites of the capital Lima against one of their own. Although Boluarte was Castillo’s vice president, she was later expelled from her party, Peru Libre, and distanced herself from the left in Congress.