The President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, met this Monday with the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association of the United Nations (UN), Clément Voule, to inform him about the respect for the right to peaceful protest in the country.
During the meeting held at the Government Palace in Lima, the head of state assured Voule that the Peruvian State “guarantees the right to peaceful protest and respect for human rights”, explained the Presidency through its Twitter social network account.
In the framework of this meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Alberto Otárola and Foreign Minister Ana Cecilia Gervasi, Boluarte offered the UN official “all the facilities for the development of his work” in the country.
The presidential office emphasized that the visit of Clément Voule responds to an invitation made by the Peruvian Government months ago to know what happened during the protests that started last December 7 after the dismissal of the then president Pedro Castillo and the immediate assumption of command by Boluarte.
It should be remembered that between December and last March, Peru was hit by days of anti-government protests, many of them violent, which left the country with several deaths and injuries.
In recent days, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a report in which it pointed out that these days of demonstrations were characterized “by the disproportionate, indiscriminate and lethal use of force”, as well as “serious human rights violations”.
In the case of the southern Andean city of Ayacucho, he added that “the deaths could constitute extrajudicial executions”, which could “qualify as a massacre”.
The terms “extrajudicial executions” and “massacre” were immediately rejected by the Government, which quickly initiated a process of evaluation of the report to “propose guidelines” for the follow-up of the document.
It also ratified its “firm commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights”, considering these elements as “the most fundamental basis of democracy and the rule of law”.