President Dina Boluarte remains in power, supported by several of her ministers. Pope Francis called on Sunday December 18 at the end of violence.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
The authorities claim to have the situation in hand in Peru, where demonstrations and clashes have left at least nineteen dead and 569 injured, since the dismissal and arrest of President Pedro Castillo, December 7.
“The information we have is that the measures we have taken work (…) the violence of people who have demonstrated on the streets decreases,” said Prime Minister Pedro Angulo on Sunday, December 18 on television.
The Minister of the Economy Alex Contreras had declared earlier on Sunday on a Peruvian radio that the country was in “good track” to mitigate the crisis triggered after the dismissal of President Pedro Castillo.
” We will stay here, firm “
President Dina Boluarte refuses to resign. “What would my resignation resolve? We will stay here, firm, until the congress decides to advance the elections (…),” she said on Saturday in a television message. The former vice-president called to reconsider the vote of the Parliament, which spoke on Friday against the progress of the general elections from 2026 to 2023.
From the same Radical Left Radical Party as Pedro Castillo, the new president explained that if the armed forces went down the street, “it was to protect” citizens “because the situation became uncontrollable”. She denounced the presence of “violent groups” organized.
Prayer of Pope Francis
Pope Francis prayed Sunday during his angelus Place Saint-Pierre in the Vatican “so that violence ceases in the country ceases and that we take the path of dialogue in order to overcome the political and social crisis which strikes the population” .
The demonstrators require the release of Pedro Castillo, the resignation of Dina Boluarte, the dissolution of the Parliament and the immediate general elections.
The most intense protests took place in the Andean region of southern Peru, struck by poverty, where social demands have not been satisfied for a long time.
200 tourists evacuated
Some 200 tourists blocked in the famous Machu Picchu region due to the demonstrations could be evacuated on Saturday, noted the France-Presse agency (AFP).
On board a train, they reached the city of Piscacucho, in the Cuzco region, where a huge rock blocked the passage. From there, tourists, including North Americans and Europeans, walked approximately two kilometers to board buses towards the city of Cuzco, which has an international airport.
The mayor of the village near Machu Picchu, Darwin Baca, told AFP that “5,000 tourists” were blocked in Cuzco. City airport reopened Friday afternoon.