The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, confirmed today, Friday, the death of a citizen during protests in the southern region of Apurímac on Thursday, bringing to 70 the number of people who have died during the protests.
“I am very sorry for the death, and I offer my condolences from here to the family,” the president said during a press conference at the Government Palace in central Lima, where she assessed her two months in office.
According to local media, Denilson Huaraca Vílchez, 22, from the community of Huancabamba, died in Thursday’s clashes between demonstrators and the national police in the Siete Vueltas sector of the Apurimac province of Aymaraes.
The private radio station “Radio Programas del Perú” reported that officials at the morgue in the province of Abancay reported that the young man “arrived dead” at the facility.
The authorities are carrying out the procedures to determine the “exact causes” of this new death in the context of the anti-government demonstrations.
According to a statement issued today by the Guillermo Díaz de la Vega Regional Hospital in Abancay, three serious patients were admitted on Thursday night with “gunshot wounds” and are being constantly attended to by health personnel.
During Thursday’s violence in Apurímac, protesters set fire to an interprovincial bus at the Pampachiri-Quillcaccasa detour, forcing passengers to get off and continue on their way by their means, state news agency Andina reported.
In addition, they burned a checkpoint at La Balanza, in Aymaraes, and attacked heavy goods vehicles that were stranded because of the blockade of the Interoceanic Highway.
Since last December, following the ousting of former president Pedro Castillo and the subsequent inauguration of Boluarte, Peru has been experiencing a wave of demonstrations that have left 70 people dead, including 48 demonstrators and a policeman who was burned to death.