The Peruvian president, Dina Boluarte, will go to the Prosecutor’s Office on June 6 to testify about the deaths that occurred during the protests. In this sense, she expressed her desire to know the truth of what happened.
According to reports by the weekly Hildebrandt, the General Command of the Peruvian National Police issued operation orders to repress the protests against Boluarte under the denomination of “combat bands.” Classified documents reveal that the National Police leadership planned actions against “opposing forces” infiltrated by “terrorist criminals.”
The Boluarte administration has claimed on several occasions that the mobilizations were terrorism-driven but has not presented evidence to that effect, as Chancellor Ana Cecilia Gervasi admitted in an interview with The New York Times in February.
This revelation about the repressive acts in Peru exposes the preparation and execution of the operations, especially in the city of Juliaca, in the department of Puno, where one of the most violent deployments of the National Police took place. On January 9, 18 civilians were killed in Juliaca by gunshots, which caused impacts in the heads, eyes, face, thorax, and abdomen of the demonstrators.
These events could be qualified as a “massacre,” according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in its report. In addition, the non-governmental organization Amnesty International denounced the illegitimate use of lethal force and the excessive use of less lethal force by the police in Juliaca.
Boluarte has denied any responsibility for these events, which have left at least 67 people dead, most of them in confrontations with security forces. However, the Attorney General’s Office summoned her on June 6 to answer for the alleged crimes of genocide, aggravated homicide, and serious injuries.
The president has affirmed that she will attend the Public Prosecutor’s Office, answer all questions, and not exercise her right to remain silent, as she considers that she is the first person interested in knowing the truth about what happened during those violent protests.