Peruvian government imposes curfew in Lima after protests

The leftist Peruvian government peter castle decreed a curfew for much of Tuesday in Lima and the neighboring port of Callao, after a partial strike of carriers that caused roadblocks and disturbances on Monday.

“Faced with the acts of violence that some groups have wanted to create (…) and in order to restore peace and internal order (…), the Council of Ministers has approved declaring the citizen’s immobility (curfew) from 2:00 in the morning until 11:59 at night on Tuesday, April 5, to protect citizen security,” Castillo said in a message to the country on television around midnight on Monday.

The measure, which immediately provoked expressions of rejection in the social mediaimplies leaving the 10 million inhabitants of Lima and Callao locked up in their homes on Tuesday.

Various acts of violence, including the burning of toll booths on routes, looting of some shops and clashes between protesters and the police, occurred this Monday in various areas of Peru in the first stoppage faced by the Castillo government, in power. for eight months.

The protests, triggered by rising fuel and food prices, took place in Lima and the regions of Piura, Chiclayo, La Libertad, Junín, Ica, Arequipa, San Martín, Amazonas and Ucayali, among others, and led to suspend classes in schools due to the restriction of public transport.

“I call for calm, serenity, social protest is a constitutional right, but it must be done within the law,” Castillo said in his brief message.

The Union of Multimodal Transport Guilds of Peru claims against the rise in fuel prices and tolls and the strike of its members would last until Tuesday.

In the regions of Ica to the south and Junín to the east there was looting of businesses, according to images broadcast by local television stations. In Ica, 300 km south of Lima, some toll booths on the Pan-American highway, one of the country’s main highways, were burned.

Repudiation

Castillo, a 52-year-old rural teacher, announced the curfew a week after saving himself from being dismissed by Congress, where opponents accuse him of his government’s “lack of direction” and allowing corruption in his environment.

The measure will take effect this Tuesday while the Peruvian economy seeks to leave behind the damage caused by the covid-19 pandemic and in coincidence with the 30th anniversary of the self-coup of the now imprisoned former president. Alberto Fujimorion April 5, 1992.

The restriction of movement, under the protection of a state of emergency in the Peruvian capital, immediately received expressions of repudiation.

“A curfew to restore order, an authoritarian measure by the Pedro Castillo government that shows ineptitude, an inability to govern. It’s like putting an end to traffic accidents by prohibiting the circulation of vehicles,” political analyst Luis Benavente told AFP.

“The measure dictated by President Pedro Castillo is openly unconstitutional, disproportionate and violates people’s right to individual liberty,” tweeted lawyer Carlos Rivera, one of the defenders of the victims of the Fujimori government.

For her part, the influential journalist Rosa María Palacios wrote on Twitter: “At the stroke of midnight there is no way to inform and be informed. Such a radical measure, in violation of all rights and disproportionate, only reveals that the government has lost all control of the public order”.

high disapproval

In an attempt to appease the claims, the government had eliminated the fuel tax over the weekend.

In addition, Castillo decreed a 10% increase in the minimum wage, which will rise to 1,025 soles (about 277 dollars) as of May 1.

The General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP), the main trade union center in the country, rejected the salary increase percentage indicating that it is insufficient and called on its affiliates to march on Thursday.

These protests are the first in scope against Castillo, whose disapproval reaches 66%, according to a March Ipsos poll.