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Peru’s interim president Manuel Merino resigned amid national fury over the killing of two protesters in a brutally harsh police crackdown on large pro-democracy demonstrations on Saturday.
In a televised address to the nation, Merino announced his resignation and insisted he acted within the law when he took office as head of state on Tuesday, after Congress removed the president-elect in an impeachment vote.
The news of the resignation was immediately followed by the sound of car horns, pot knocks and cheers in the neighborhoods of the Peruvian capital.
The deaths of two men in their 20s from gunshot wounds on Saturday increased public outcry for Merino’s resignation.
The victims – identified such as Jack Brian Pintado Sánchez, 22, and Jordan Inti Sotelo Camargo, 24 – were the first deaths in almost a week of unrest due to the controversial removal of Martín Vizcarra as president and his replacement by a de facto government, considered by many Peruvians as a knock.
“They say he was wounded by a bullet in the heart, died like that and was brought back as a corpse,” Sotelo Camargo’s father told local journalists at the entrance to the Lima hospital where his son’s body had been taken, asking Merino to assume the responsibility.
Peru’s human rights coordinator reported that more than 40 people were missing after Saturday’s march amid multiple reports of heavy-handed police repression against largely peaceful protesters. The Ministry of Health reported that more than 90 people were receiving treatment for injuries.
Footage from Saturday’s protests showed hundreds of riot police using batons and shields against largely peaceful protesters, tear gas and pellets fired directly at crowds or individuals and tanks using water cannons. There were even reports of tear gas fired from helicopters flying overhead in central Lima, from where protesters reported that street lights had been turned off and mobile phones blocked during the march.
Daily protests increased during the week, culminating in nationwide demonstrations demanding the resignation of Merino, the former president of Congress, with tens of thousands of people filling the streets of Lima and dozens of towns and cities.
“There was an irrational and abusive use of force in Lima. I demand that the president of the republic show his face and give explanations to the country, ”said the ombudsman of Peru, Walter Gutiérrez.
Erika Guevara, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said: “We demand impartial investigations into the human rights violations in the protests in Peru, including the deaths of two young students. Those who committed these crimes and their senior officials must be investigated at the highest level. “
“Two young men have been sacrificed in an absurd, stupid and unjust manner by the police,” said Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian author and Nobel Prize winner, in a video message. I think it is imperative that the repression stops, which is against all of Peru, because it is all of Peru that is protesting.
The abrupt replacement of the popular president by Merino, a little-known politician of dubious track record, caused a stir in the Peruvian capital, sparking some of the largest demonstrations in more than a decade.
George Forsyth, the politician leading the polls as the presidential candidate for next year’s election, had demanded Merino’s immediate resignation, saying in a tweet that his “The hands were stained with blood”. He said Congress should choose a new president from the 19 lawmakers who voted against Vizcarra’s impeachment on unsubstantiated bribery allegations. Of the 130 members of Congress, 105 voted to remove the centrist leader on Monday.
The former president expressed his sadness over the deaths. “I deeply regret the deaths caused by the repression of this illegal and illegitimate government,” Vizcarra wrote. “My deepest condolences to the families of these civil heroes who, exercising their right, came out in defense of democracy and in search of a better country. The country will not allow the death of these brave young men to go unpunished ”.
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