The prosecution fears a “risk of flight” of the ex-head of state dismissed on December 7 after a failed attempt to dissolve the Parliament. He faces ten years in prison.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
They are thousands in the street to claim his release, but the deprived of Peruvian deputy Pedro Castillo was maintained, Thursday, December 15, in pre-trial detention for eighteen months by the Supreme Court of Peru. The ex-radical left-wing president has been incarcerated since his dismissal on December 7, after his failed attempt to dissolve the Parliament that his opponents qualified as a missed coup.
The prosecution, recalling that Mr. Castillo had tried to take refuge in the Embassy of Mexico after his dismissal, demanded his continued detention until June 2024 by invoking a “risk of flight”. Continued for “rebellion” and “conspiracy”, the ex-president faces ten years in prison, according to the prosecutor alcides Diaz.
“We felt him coming (…) We did not go to the hearing, because we refuse to take part in this masquerade,” denounced Mr. Castillo’s lawyer, Ronald Atencio, announcing that he was going to call on.
Two new people dead Thursday during support demonstrations
In the streets, the mobilization of supporters of Pedro Castillo does not weaken despite the state of emergency decreed on Wednesday for thirty days throughout Peru. This measure allows the army to participate in order maintenance operations.
At least ten people were killed during these demonstrations, two of them on Thursday during a confrontation at Ayacucho airport (southern country), according to the defender of the people, a public entity responsible for ensuring compliance Human rights in Peru, which also counted 340 injured. Police said almost half of these injured came from their ranks. “We demand from the armed forces the immediate judgment of the use of firearms and tear gas bombs launched by helicopter,” said the defender’s defender’s office in a press release.
The most virulent demonstrations took place in the south of the country, where five airports remain closed (Andahuaylas, Arequipa, Puno, Cuzco and Ayacucho). More than a hundred roads are blocked by protesters across the country, and the train to the famous Machu Picchu site has stopped working, preventing tourists from accessing it.
Daily rallies since the dismissal of Mr. Castillo by deputies are held near the parliament in Lima. Many police officers and members of the armed forces were visible Thursday evening in the center of the capital.
“We need an energetic, authoritarian response” in the face of violence, had launched the Minister of Defense Alberto Otarola, stressing that the state of emergency included “the suspension of the freedom to circulate and meeting” with “possibility of fire cover “.
” There is no justice “
In front of the police barracks where Mr. Castillo, in Até (East Lima) is detained, many of his supporters camp and claim his release. His niece, Vilma Vasquez, 42, denounced before the press the absence of “justice”. “From the first day of his taking office and even more during the campaign, we were already terrorists. The day the Castillo president took office, they did not let him govern, we were thieves, we were Corrupted. There is no justice, “she said.
test your general culture with the writing of the” world “Discover section> The opponents of the Castillo camp affirm that part of its support comes from the Movadef, the political wing of the luminous path, the Maoist guerrillas which left thousands of deaths in Peru in the 1980s and 1990. They call them “terrorists”.
Power tries to enforce the order by force but also to appease dissatisfaction by accessing some of the demands of the demonstrators. The new president Dina Boluarte, former vice-president of Mr. Castillo who came to power after the dismissal of the latter, announced that he wanted to advance the electoral calendar again “in December 2023”.
M me boluarte, who crystallizes part of the discontent on his person, had already committed himself on Sunday to advance them from 2026 to April 2024, without stopping protests. It is itself concerned by the measure: its mandate runs theoretically until 2026, Mr. Castillo having been elected in 2021 for five years.