Judges in Peru have ruled that former president Pedro Castillo be held in preventive detention for 18 months pending trial on charges of rebellion and conspiracy for his attempt to shutter congress and rule by decree, as the death toll from a week of violent protests sparked by his ousting rose to at least 15.
A judicial panel in the supreme court ordered the extended period of pre-trial detention for Castillo as prosecutors continued an investigation into criminal charges against him. The decision did not touch on the merits of accusations faced by Castillo but the panel cited the risk of flight by the deposed president.
Protesters gathered outside the jail where he was detained, holding up banners criticising new president Dina Boluarte and calling for congress to be shuttered.
The Mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Peru said in a statement: “We express our serious concern about the increase in violence in Peru and we deeply regret the death of 15 people.” It urged the application of UN standards for controlling peaceful protests to prevent further violence.
The local health authority in Ayacucho, in Peru’s southern Andes, confirmed seven people were killed and 52 injured in the area on Thursday as protesters clashed with soldiers who were filmed on social media firing live rounds.
The country’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office issued a statement demanding the armed forces “immediately cease the use of firearms and teargas bombs”.
“Shooting broke out accompanied by helicopters that began to drop teargas bombs,” the human rights ombudswoman Eliana Revollar told national radio, in reference to the armed forces’ response when protesters invaded the airport.
Social media videos from the scene of the protests in Ayacucho showed soldiers using firearms on the streets of the city as protesters threw stones and stormed the airport.
Ayacucho’s regional government demanded the “immediate cessation of the use of firearms ... against our people”, in a statement, and blamed new president Dina Boluarte and the defence and interior ministers for the deaths.
“We need peace in Ayacucho. We have had a lot of pain in the 80s and 90s, and we cannot allow our people to continue dying”, Carlos Rua, the region’s governor told national radio. The Andean region was at the epicentre of the state’s brutal conflict with the Shining Path rebel group in which nearly 70,000 people were killed.
The country’s new government declared a 30-day nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday, deploying the army on the streets and suspending the right to gather and move freely.
“We have to be very careful with the issuance of this type of decrees that, in the end, will generate more deaths,” Rua said, referring to the state of emergency.
The spike in violence comes on the seventh day of protests against Boluarte, with demonstrators calling for the replacement of all lawmakers and the reinstatement of Castillo, who was forced out after he attempted to dissolve congress and rule by decree in an effort to avoid impeachment over corruption allegations.
Boluarte scrambled to dispatch 16 ministers to different regions of the country in an effort to open dialogue and calm the violent demonstrations that have shaken the country. A night-time curfew was ordered in 15 of the country’s 24 regions.
“Neither violence nor radicalism will put an end to a legal and legitimate government,” Boluarte said earlier on Thursday. “There is no room for fear, but for courage, unity and the hope of a country that deserves more from its politicians.”
She urged lawmakers to “make the best decisions to shorten the deadlines and make the necessary reforms” as they met in a plenary session to debate her bill to bring forward elections by two years to April 2024.
A newborn baby, who was being transported by ambulance to Lima for surgery, died due to roadblocks south of the capital, the director of the national children’s hospital, Zulema Tomás, told national radio. Another child was in serious condition due to a bullet wound received during the protests in Ayacucho.
Six people had died due to traffic accidents and other events linked to dozens of roadblocks across the country, reported the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office. More than 200 civilians and 200 police officers had been injured in the past week of unrest, it added.
Clouds of teargas hung over downtown Lima as violent clashes broke out between thousands of protesters and police on Thursday night. Many had travelled from different corners of Peru to the capital to join a march against congress, among them Berta Chuculla, who came from Puno, on Peru’s southern border with Bolivia to support Castillo.
“He has been unjustly removed and we will not allow it,” she told the Guardian.
The protests have united multiple groups, including trade unions, army reservists and Indigenous Amazonians, under the banner of routing deeply unpopular lawmakers from the unicameral chamber.
“In the end, there is no middle ground,” said Omar Coronel, a sociology professor at Peru’s Pontifical Catholic University. “What we have is a polarisation between two blocs of people, some who are not necessarily with Castillo but appear as if they were … because they oppose the congress.”
