Demonstrators demanding the resignation of Peruvian President Dilma Boluarte maintain a total of 83 roadblocks in different parts of the country, according to the latest official balance of the Superintendence of Land Transportation of People, Cargo and Goods.
The blockades are present in eight regions of the country: Ucayali, Huánuco, Ica, Apurímac, Cusco, Arequipa, Puno, Madre de Dios, Tacna, according to the Peruvian radio station RPP.
The director of the NGO Luz Ambar, Quispe Candia, explained that these cuts affect some 80,000 cargo trucks which are stranded. On the road to Desaguadero alone, in the Puno region, near the Bolivian border, 300 trucks have been stranded for 16 days.
Meanwhile, the police continue to hold 193 people detained at the University of San Marcos in Lima, all of them detained after some 400 police broke in with tanks and support from special forces without complying with the legal procedures for detentions.
Congresswoman Isabel Cortez has denounced that some of the people detained at the University of San Marcos are in deplorable conditions. «This is the situation in which our brothers who were detained yesterday in San Marcos are crammed. We demand that the police and prosecutors respect the human rights and dignity of the people who have been arbitrarily detained,» she wrote on her Twitter account after posting an image of overcrowded people lying on the floor of a dirty room.
The National Human Rights Coordinator (CNDDHH) has demanded that the Police clarify the legal situation of those detained in the intervention at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. «Nothing justifies that people continue to be detained in police facilities,» it said.
Amnesty International also condemned the «disproportionate use of force» and respect for human rights. «The state of emergency does not suspend due process. Detainees must have access to their defense at all times and be provided with interpreters if needed. The prohibition of incommunicado detention and cruel and inhuman treatment is maintained,» the international organization recalled.
In addition, two people were reported dead in Viru in clashes between police and demonstrators blocking the Panamericana Norte highway. One of the deceased was 23 years old, while the second fatality, 54 years old, died after refusing to accept the demand to pay a bribe in order to cross a picket line.
In response to this situation, the Minister of Housing, Hania Perez de Cuellar, acknowledged that Peruvians «are going through moments of sadness because they have had a relative die in these riots or have a sick or hospitalized relative, not only from civil society, but also from the Police». «We are going through difficult moments, but, as the president and the premier told us, we cannot stop,» he warned.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
