[ad_1]
Credit, EPA
The South American country experienced the sixth day of demonstrations on Saturday; there was a confrontation between protesters and police, with two dead
Peru is preparing a new day of protests this Sunday (11/15), amid growing pressure for the current president of the country to resign.
On Saturday (11/14), thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Lima and other cities in the country to express their dissatisfaction with the impeachment of President Martín Vizcarra.
He was replaced by Manuel Merino, then president of Congress, in what many described as a “blow to democracy.”
The protesters now want Merino to resign.
It was the sixth consecutive day of protests. For the first time there were deaths. Almost 100 people were injured, of which more than half remain hospitalized.
The first dead is a man of about 22 years old who was injured by a firearm and was admitted to the Guillermo Almenara hospital in Lima, according to Peruvian authorities on Twitter.
The second victim is a 24-year-old man, who suffered gunshot wounds to the chest at heart level and was admitted to the Grau de Lima hospital without vital signs.
Widespread protests followed the second organized national demonstration after Vizcarra’s removal.
Amid news of the protesters’ deaths, thirteen of the country’s 18 ministers announced that they would be leaving their posts.
In an interview with RPP radio, the president of the Council of Ministers and Prime Minister, Ántero Flores-Aráoz, stated that he tried to speak with Merino, but could not contact him.
“I have no idea (if Merino will resign). I don’t know what he will do,” he said.
The vice president of Congress and current interim president of the Peruvian Congress, Luis Valdez, announced the call for a meeting this Sunday at 8 a.m. local time (10 a.m. Brasilia time), to evaluate Merino’s request for resignation in the face of the conflictive situation of the country.
He personally defended the president’s resignation: “I ask Mr. Merino to evaluate his immediate resignation,” Valdez said in a statement to television channel N.
Mesías Guevara, president of the Ação Popular -Merino’s party- also publicly supported the request for the president’s resignation and guaranteed that the acronyms do not support it.
Regional governors also joined the list and, in a note, blamed Merino for the acts of violence and reiterated that the removal of Vizcarra was not the correct political decision.
Credit, EPA
Thousands of Peruvians took to the streets to protest Vizcarra’s dismissal
The first national protest took place last Thursday and was considered one of the largest in the last 20 years in the South American country, according to local press.
The demonstrations began after the Peruvian Congress removed Vizcarra for “permanent moral incapacity” amid accusations of corruption against him, replacing him with the president of Congress, Manuel Merino.
The controversial decision – which takes place a few months before the presidential elections, scheduled for April 2021 – generated great discontent.
Violent conflicts between security forces and protesters were reported on Thursday and Saturday.
Peruvian police said on Friday that 11 policemen and 16 civilians were injured during Thursday’s demonstrations.
Credit, Reuters
Protesters protest against impeachment, although they do not defend Vizcarra
The National Coordination of Human Rights (CNDDHH), an organization that groups 82 Peruvian organizations, reported that security forces used rubber bullets and tear gas indiscriminately on Thursday against a group of protesters who tried to approach the Congress headquarters in Lima . .
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) have expressed concern about the conduct of the police.
Credit, EPA
International organizations have expressed concern about the conduct of the Peruvian police
Organizations such as the CNDDHH and the Legal Defense Institute (IDL) denounce that the parliamentarians who supported the removal of Vizcarra last Monday had committed a legislative “coup”.
However, the parliamentarians who voted in favor of the removal of the former president (105 out of 130), and Manuel Merino himself, defend the constitutionality of the measure and ask the population to calm down.
Many of the protesters who came out to protest carried signs with words like “Merino Out” and “Merino does not represent us” and, although not all support Vizcarra, the majority oppose what Congress has taken against him.
Credit, EPA
The police repression added another element to the discontent that fuels the protests
Credit, EPA
Protesters say they were attacked by police with rubber bullets
Hugo Velasco, a young man who participated in the protests, told BBC News Mundo, the BBC’s Spanish-language news service, that although he “does not defend” Vizcarra and is “in favor of investigating the charges” against him, he considers that “it was reckless because it brings more crises than those that already existed.”
However, he said that he believes that the impeachment “was the result of a constitutional process”, but that “the discontent of the people makes us call it a coup.”
On Tuesday, the CNDDHH issued a statement entitled “No to the coup.”
“We reject the coup d’état and this presidential vacancy that distorts article 113 of the Constitution (…) and leaves the country in a situation of uncertainty, when we face the greatest health, economic and social crisis,” the statement said.
The IDL also issued a statement condemning “the congressional coup against the constitutional order.”
Credit, Reuters
Many citizens believe that Congress carried out a “coup”
Carlos Rivera, IDL lawyer, explained to BBC News Mundo that he wonders “why Congress arbitrarily interprets the content of the ‘moral incapacity’ cause” for which Vizcarra was dismissed and who approved the impeachment “despite of the pending lawsuit in the Constitutional Court (equivalent to the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil) “.
Article 113 of the Peruvian Constitution, promulgated in 1993, establishes the impeachment of a president for “permanent physical or moral incapacity (of the president), declared by Congress.”
But, according to Rivera and other experts, the meaning of “moral incapacity” is not clear in the law.
Precisely because of this lack of clarity, after a first prosecution attempt in September, the Vizcarra government filed a legal action in the TC to clarify the meaning of “moral incapacity.”
The TC called a public hearing for November 18 to hear the arguments of the parties involved.
‘Transparent and constitutional’
For its part, Congress issued a statement on Tuesday in which it assured that “the fight against corruption, within the framework of what the Constitution determines, is what led to the impeachment of Martín Vizcarra.”
Credit, Reuters
Thousands of people take to the streets to protest against the wave
Merino himself said this Thursday in an interview with journalists that “a character who does not resist any trust cannot continue to exercise power” and that “serious irregularities and complaints have been exposed” against Vizcarra, who denies all the charges against him. .
Merino added that the succession in command was carried out “in the most transparent and constitutional manner.”
Credit, EPA
Protesters call for Merino to stand down
“What Peru did is an act of absolute responsibility, without political commitments, which was carried out with nine seats of different political positions (…) I believe that Parliament’s decision should be respected,” he added.
However, according to the Ipsos-El Comercio survey at the end of October, 78% of the population believes that Vizcarra should remain in office.
- Have you seen our new videos on Youtube? Subscribe to our channel!
