Peru: 15 from January. Chronicle of another day of struggle
By Sofia Martinez – LIS Peru
The protests in Peru continue and in an unprecedented event the mobilizations reached the exclusive Lima district of Miraflores. Saturday, January 14, Kennedy Park was guarded by armed soldiers due to the call for a sit-in in tribute to the 49 Peruvians killed during protests. The activity brought together various artists, activists and citizens who joined to participate, At the entrance to the park, a blanket with white flowers was placed as an offering., candles and the names of the fallen.
In this way, it is about making visible the identity of the Peruvians murdered during the protests., because the media does not provide spaces for complaints from the victims' families. The majority were peasants, commoners, young people and the painful list includes 7 teenagers. Citizens in situations of poverty and extreme poverty, humble workers whose faces and stories deserve to be spread and remembered. Alternative press journalists have begun to publish memorials on social networks in the face of the indifference of the mainstream media..
The injured also require support, because in the regions the health services of the hospitals lack equipment, medicines and adequate personnel. One of the most serious cases is that of Rosalino Flores Valverde, a young man from Cusco 21 years he received 36 pellet impacts in the stomach, from which they have only extracted 9. He is admitted to the Antonio Lorena Hospital, where you debate between life and death.
Dina Boluarte appeared in a message to the nation to inform her refusal to resign from the Presidency and the tightening of repressive measures; in a cruel act of mockery of the Peruvian people, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers led by Alberto Otárola declared the year 2023 as the “Year of Unity”, peace and development”. Immediately afterwards, the Department of Lima and the Constitutional Province of Callao were declared in “Emergency”., as well as some regions where protests continue.
This has further inflamed the population who continues to carry out various protest measures at the national level.. In Lima, A massive mobilization left the Historic Center to later join the Plantón in Miraflores. There were almost five thousand protesters, who traveled through various Miraflores streets until they reached Larcomar, an emblematic shopping center. At the door of the Marriott Hotel a group of activists raised songs, The huge Peruvian flag of mourning was displayed around the pool., shouting at the top of her voice the responsibility of Dina Boluarte for the murder of her compatriots and demanding her resignation.
That the protest has reached Miraflores has marked a milestone in the struggle, because here the protesters were not received with shovels and bombs, as the police usually do. It should also be noted that the organization has improved and now the activists are very alert to possible infiltration by the police..
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights provided its final report at a press conference, observed a climate of extreme polarization and strong ethnic and regional stigmatization. Investigations into police and military abuses will also continue.. And while the IACHR gave its report, The government has continued with the arbitrary arrests of regional and student leaders from the south, accusing them without evidence of terrorism. Currently they are 7 lso leaders who were transferred to Lima and are detained in the Counter-Terrorism Directorate (DIRCOTE).
The government has earned popular rejection and is going through a historic crisis of legitimacy, the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) published today the results of the national survey where the 88% of Peruvians disapprove of Congress and the 71% disapproves of Dina Boluarte's management.
The Traffic Superintendency (TOMORROW) reports to date 33 road blockades in provinces with 100 blocking points. Likewise, the mobilizations in Lima and regions have continued. The Awajun nation and the peasant patrol of Amazonas have taken the North Peruvian Pipeline with control of the supply valve. Let us remember that CUNARC La Libertad begins to comply with a radical strike, so the closure of markets will be total.
Various delegations from Puno, Apurimac, Cusco, Cajamarca, Moquegua, Tacna and Arequipa have begun their journey to Lima, It is estimated that they should be arriving on Monday 16 from January. In Lima, Various organizations are circulating the call for a national civic and popular strike for Thursday 19 from January. While you finish typing this note, Protesters are again protesting in Miraflores.
That is why it is extremely important to continue strengthening the popular organization so that the 4 Yours arrive in Lima and in the streets, the definitive defeat of the Boluarte government is achieved.
The request for justice permeates throughout Peru, a cry that comes from the Andes and that the winds have carried to wake up the towns of the coast and the jungle. This fight means the unity of the neglected, the invisibles that the Constitution of the dictatorship represses and murders. A fight that has awakened the solidarity of Aymaras, quechuas, bangs, Amazonian towns, Afro-Peruvian communities. We are fed up with so much humiliation.
The revolutionary socialists once again put our souls to the front line, contribute to popular victory.
As long as someone suffers,
the rose cannot be beautiful;
as long as someone looks at the bread with envy,
the wheat will not be able to sleep;
while it rains on the chests of beggars,
my heart will not smile.
Manuel Scorza: Poetic
