CNN —
Thousands of police officers were deployed to the capital Lima in protests across Peru on Thursday as hundreds of protesters marched towards downtown, while violent clashes erupted in the southern city of Arequipa.
Initial outrage sparked by the country’s political instability has only grown as the death toll mounts. At least 53 people have been killed and another 772 injured in the unrest since the protest movement began in Peru in December, the office of the national ombudsman said on Thursday.
Smoke billowed from fields around Arequipa’s international airport, which grounded flights on Thursday as several people attempted to knock down fences, according to live footage from the city. Demonstrators shouted “murderers” at the advancing police and threw stones.
The country experienced its worst violence in decades, which erupted after the ouster of former President Pedro Castillo in December, when protesters opposing the current government called for political change.
Protesters marching in Lima on Thursday demanded the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and called for general elections as soon as possible – while defying a state of emergency declared by the government on Sunday.
General Victor Sanabria, head of Peru’s national police for the Lima region, told local media that 11,800 police officers were deployed in Lima, receiving key locations such as Parliament, the Prosecutor’s Office, selected television stations, the Supreme Court and Army Headquarters, and additional Protection.
Authorities have been accused of using excessive force, including firearms, against protesters in recent weeks. Autopsies of 17 dead civilians killed during protests in the city of Juliaca found wounds caused by firearm bullets, the city’s head of forensic medicine told CNN en Español.
A fact-finding mission to Peru by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) found gunshot wounds on the heads and torsos of the victims, Edgar Stuardo Ralón, the commission’s vice-president, said on Wednesday.
Police have denied using excessive force and said their tactics conformed to international standards.
Ralon also described “a deterioration in public debate” over the demonstrations in Peru, with protesters being labeled “terrorists” and derogatory terms used to refer to indigenous peoples, which he and other experts warn could create “a climate of violence.” .
“If the press uses that, if the political elite uses that, I think it’s easier for the police and other security forces to use that kind of repression, right?” Omar Coronel, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, said specializes in Latin American protest movements, told CNN.
IACHR’s Ralón said the investigation in Peru should “focus on human rights and a racial-ethnic focus given that the clashes took place in the southern region and that among the casualties, both dead and injured, are Quechuas and Aymaras.”
Peruvian officials have not released details of those killed in the riots. But experts say indigenous protesters are suffering the heaviest bloodshed.
“The victims are predominantly indigenous people from rural Peru,” Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow at the Washington Office for Latin America, told CNN.
“The protests took place in central and southern Peru, heavily indigenous parts of the country, regions that have historically been marginalized and excluded from the nation’s political, economic and social life.”
The demonstrators are demanding new elections, the resignation of Boluarte, a constitutional amendment and the release of Castillo, who is currently in custody.
At the heart of the crisis are demands for better living conditions, which have not been met in the two decades since democratic rule was restored in the country.
While Peru’s economy has boomed over the past decade, many have not reaped its gains, with experts noting chronic deficiencies in security, justice, education and other basic services in the country.
A former teacher and union leader who had never held elected office before becoming president, Castillo hails from rural Peru and positioned himself as a man of the people. Many of his supporters come from poorer regions and Castillo hoped for better prospects for the country’s rural and indigenous population.
While protests have erupted across the country, the worst violence has been in the rural and indigenous south, which has long been at odds with the mixed-race white and mixed-race elites of the country’s coast.
The Peruvian legislature is also viewed with skepticism by the public. The president and members of Congress are not allowed to serve consecutive terms under Peruvian law, and critics have noted their lack of political experience.
A poll released by the IEP in September 2022 found that 84% of Peruvians disapproved of the Congress’ performance. Legislators are not only perceived in Congress as self-interest, but also associated with corrupt practices.
The country’s frustrations are reflected in its years of revolving door presidency. Current President Boluarte is the sixth head of state in less than five years.