Hundreds of demonstrators against the new Peruvian government have surrounded the airport of Andahuaylas, in the south of the country, to demand the immediate convocation of elections after the dismissal of former president Pedro Castillo, investigated for carrying out a coup d’état, and are reportedly preventing the departure of about fifty people inside the facilities.
The Peruvian Corporation of Airports and Commercial Aviation (CORPAC) informed that it has proceeded with the closure of the airport due to the protests, which are being responded by a deployment of more than 150 agents of the Peruvian Police.
Protesters have blocked the entrances to the airport with burning tires and responded with stones to the tear gas fired by the police.
CORPAC, in turn, has denounced serious damage to «the runway and equipment that are indispensable to provide air navigation services».
«Likewise, they have set fire to the transmitter room, fuel room, surrounding with acts of violence the air terminal where there are 50 police personnel and collaborators of our company», states a communiqué of the institution.
CORPAC has requested «support and reinforcement from the competent authorities to the National Police, in order to protect the lives of the people who are being held hostage». In the city of Andahuaylas, the protests have left at least 21 injured, among them two policemen.
Other groups of demonstrators have threatened this Sunday to paralyze the copper mines of Las Bambas and Antapaccay if the Congress is not dissolved and elections are not immediately called to elect a new president in view of their rejection of the new president, Dina Boluarte.
The president of the peasant communities of the district of Haquira, Valentín Roque, informed the newspaper ‘La Republica’ that they intend to «block the way to Las Bambas mining company in protest against the vacancy of Pedro Castillo».
«We will march to Las Bambas, because we are against the Congress, because they do not represent us and neither does Mrs. Boluarte», he added.
Unions and social organizations in Arequipa, the country’s second most populated city, have announced that the protests will continue. The Federation of Education Workers and the Departmental Federation of Workers of Cuzco, also in southern Peru, have said they will join a 24-hour national strike on December 15, according to the same media.
