Political change is accelerating in Peru. New President Dina Boluarte announced her government on Saturday as discontent grows in the streets, where supporters of former President Pedro Castillo are calling for his release and new elections.
The new executive has 19 ministers, including eight women. The former prosecutor specializing in the fight against corruption, Pedro Angulo, also a lawyer, was appointed Prime Minister. Earlier in the day, Congress President José Williams called on the new president to take swift action, including the appointment of a government, to “generate confidence and tranquility”.
Injured in clashes with police
Many protests and roadblocks have been taking place since Thursday in Lima and several cities across the country, including the Andean regions where Pedro Castillo, a former rural schoolteacher, enjoys the greatest support. Dina Boluarte, vice-president until her inauguration on Wednesday after the dismissal of Pedro Castillo by Parliament, did not rule out the organization of early elections. “I appeal to the sisters and brothers who come out to demonstrate to ask them to calm down,” she also said.
Hundreds of people marched through the streets of the Peruvian capital on Friday to demand the release of Pedro Castillo. To cries of “putschist”, the protesters burned banners bearing the image of Dina Boluarte. In Andahuaylas, in the Apurimac region where Dina Boluarte is from, clashes between demonstrators and police left 20 injured, including four among the police, according to the Peruvian Defender of Rights.
The Office of the Ombudsman calls for calm
The police had used tear gas on Thursday to disperse the demonstrators who were already heading towards Parliament, displaying signs “Freedom for Castillo”, “Boluarte does not represent me” or “Dissolution of Parliament”. The Office of the Ombudsman called on “all citizens to be calm and responsible”, recalling that “the use of violent means during demonstrations (was) prohibited”.
After his failed attempt on Wednesday to dissolve Parliament and establish a state of emergency, a maneuver described as a “coup d’etat”, Pedro Castillo was placed in pre-trial detention on Thursday for seven days at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office which prosecutes him for “rebellion” and “conspiracy”. He is being held in a police barracks, the same where another ex-president, Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), is serving a 25-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity and corruption. His former chief of staff Guidio Bellido as well as Me Guillermo Olivera, one of his lawyers, suggested on Friday that Pedro Castillo had “may have been incited” to dissolve Parliament under the effect of psychotropic drugs.