The departments of Puno, Apurimac and Cusco demanded the immediate resignation of Dina Boluarte due to the authoritarianism with which her government has conducted itself to violently repress the protests demanding the release of Castillo.
So far, 48 people have died during the demonstrations.
The pronouncement of the regional governments comes days after the massacre that took place on Jan. 9 in the city of Juliaca, in the Puno region, where 19 people were killed and 73 more were injured in the midst of clashes between the forces of law and order and demonstrators, near the airport of that city.
According to the demand, Boluarte’s resignation will guarantee the immediate call for elections, which was supported by the Regional Council of Cusco, which joined the petition for the “immediate resignation” of the former vice-president during Pedro Castillo’s mandate. It also called for the dissolution of Congress.
#ATENCIÓN | Consejo Regional del #Cusco emite un contundente pronunciamiento donde exige la inmediata declinación de @DinaErcilia, la autodisolución del @congresoperu. Además, condenaron el uso desproporcionado de la fuerza contra civiles y el cese de la violencia, entre otras. pic.twitter.com/lNdpvkGKoW
— 🇵🇪 Wayka (@WaykaPeru) January 10, 2023
Another of the Council’s requests is the call for a referendum on the realization of a constituent process to write a new Constitution.
On January 10, the governor of Puno, Richard Hancco Soncco, of the Regional Council of that department, as well as the mayors of the provincial municipalities, issued a joint communiqué condemning the repression by the security forces and joined the demand for Dina Boluarte to resign from office.
“We demand the immediate resignation of Dina Boluarte as President of the Republic and the prompt convocation of elections at the national level, considering that this is the clamor of the people as a whole”, says the text.
On Jan. 12, the regional governor of Apurimac, Percy Godoy Medina, assured that “the clamor and the platform of the struggle of the mobilized people must be listened to for the tranquility and social peace of the Peruvian people”.
The repression unleashed on Jan. 9 in the city of Juliaca, department of Puno, generated expressions of solidarity in other Peruvian destinations and a frontal accusation against President Boluarte as responsible for the repression.
According to the Ombudsman’s Office, at least 49 people have died in clashes with security forces in several areas of the country. On Jan. 12, the death of a 15-year-old minor was confirmed as a result of a gunshot wound to the head.
After a truce for the end of the year, on Jan. 4, Peruvians began a general protest with the central objective of demanding that President Dina Boluarte resign from office and take responsibility for the people killed in repressive acts during the mobilizations of the last weeks, as well as dissolving the current Congress and calling for a constituent assembly.
On Dec. 11, the first fatalities of the clashes were registered.
Young David Arequipa, Beckham Quispe, and Cristian Rojas, students aged 15, 18, and 19, respectively, died in the Andean city of Andahuaylas (department of Apurimac), where altercations took place at the airport.