Prosecutor of Peru opens preliminary investigation into the Minister of the Interior for events at the University of Lima

The Peruvian National Prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, opened an investigation Tuesday against the Peruvian Minister of the Interior, Vicente Romero, for the alleged crime of “omission of functional acts” after the events on last weekend at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM).

“The National Prosecutor opens a preliminary investigation against Vicente Romero, Minister of the Interior, as the alleged perpetrator of the crime of omission of functional acts to the detriment of the State, due to the events that occurred at the UNMSM facilities on January 21,” reported the Prosecutor’s Office via Twitter.

That day, elements of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) forcibly broke into the vicinity of the study house, where they arrested 193 people, mostly protesters, who had been staying there since January 18 after arriving from different parts of the country to participate in the great mobilization called “Toma de Lima“.

It was learned that the police officers with a tank demolished the entrance of the university, whose authorities had denounced the day before that the protesters and a “reduced” group of students “violently reduced” the institution’s security personnel and seized all its doors.

Although the Government maintains that the Police intervened in the study house at the request of its own authorities, the UNMSM clarified on Sunday through a statement that it had requested, “only, the release of the seized doors.”

The institution questioned that, however, the police entered the university campus without the presence of the Ombudsman’s Office or the representative of the Public Ministry, and “abuse of authority” was recorded towards the students “arbitrarily intervened.”

Likewise, it rejected the intervention of the PNP’s Directorate Against Terrorism (Dircote), “which had as its detriment the material damage to the infrastructure and the physical and psychological harm to the community of San Marcos residents.”

As reported in recent days by the Prosecutor’s Office, of the 193 people who were arrested during the eviction of the university, 192 were released and one person was detained for having a prior requisition.

During a press conference this Tuesday with international media, the president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, apologized to the UNMSM students after considering that “perhaps” the way in which the police intervention occurred on January 21 was not appropriate.

“At the request of the university authorities of San Marcos, in flagrante delicto and in accordance with the Police protocol, they entered the university. Perhaps the form was not adequate, and for this I apologize to the students of San Marcos and the students who were inside,” she said.

The president defended that the Police intervened to protect the lives of the students who were inside the university campus, “because it was not known who had entered and we could not guarantee what could happen inside the university.”

Peru has been registering days of protests since last December, mainly in southern regions, with the main demand for the resignation of the head of state, the closure of Congress, the advancement of the elections for this 2023 and a Constituent Assembly.

Within the framework of these days, 62 deaths have been registered, 46 of them protesters, a policeman who died in the midst of the social conflict and another 15 civilians who died due to events related to the blockade of the roads.

With information from Xinhua