The Peruvian government has announced an extension of the state of emergency for 30 days in the capital, Lima, and other parts of the country in view of the protests that have been going on for more than two months against the president, Dina Boluarte, and to demand the calling of new elections.
The presidential decree, published in the official newspaper ‘El Peruano’, indicates that it has been determined «to extend the state of emergency for a term of thirty (30) calendar days, as of February 14, 2023, declared in the department of Lima, in the constitutional province of Callao, and in the following highways of the national road network: Pan-American Highway South, Pan-American Highway North, Central Highway, Southern Road Corridor Apurimac-Cusco-Arequipa and Southern Inter-Oceanic Road Corridor».
«The Peruvian National Police maintains control of internal order, with the support of the Armed Forces,» it states, before highlighting that during this period constitutional rights «relating to the inviolability of the home, freedom of transit through the national territory, freedom of assembly and personal freedom and security» are limited or suspended, in line with the terms established in several articles of the Peruvian Constitution.
On the other hand, it has specified that the intervention of the Police and the Armed Forces «is carried out in accordance» with the provisions of separate decrees that «regulate the use of force» and «establish the rules of employment and use of force» by both agencies.
«The implementation of the actions foreseen in the present supreme decree is financed from the institutional budget assigned to the involved folds, and from the additional resource allocations authorized by the Ministry of Economy and Finance,» it has been concluded.
The decree has been published hours after the Peruvian Minister of Economy, Álex Contreras, assured that «the worst is over» of the protests. «The worst is over, what we are observing is a recovery of the economy,» he said in an interview for Latina Televisión. «One sees the data of conflicts, the data of blocked roads and that is the evidence», he stressed.
Since the arrest of former president Pedro Castillo at the beginning of December after trying to close the Congress, numerous protests have been registered throughout the country, leaving a balance of almost fifty dead due to the repression of the demonstrations. Amidst unfounded accusations of terrorism, the demonstrators demand the departure of Boluarte, the closing of Congress, early elections, a constituent process to reform the Magna Carta and the release of Castillo.
For the moment, Congress has been unable to agree on a date for early elections. Boluarte, who would welcome going to the polls during the second semester of 2023, has insistently ruled out resigning, as in his words it would not help to solve the crisis.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
