Alvaro Meneses Gutiérrez
After nine weeks of protests and repression by the forces of law and order in Peru, the International Solidarity Mission for Human Rights arrived this Tuesday, February 7, in the capital city of Lima to collect testimonies and information regarding the violation of human rights in that country. With the evidence collected, say the mission’s spokespersons, a report on the situation in Peru will be prepared and presented to international organizations.
Last December 7, it should be recalled, former president Pedro Castillo attempted a coup d’état by announcing the unconstitutional closing of the Congress of the Republic. However, without political and military backing, the Congress dismissed him, the police arrested him and the Public Prosecutor’s Office charged him for the alleged crimes of rebellion and conspiracy against the State. Castillo is currently serving 18 months in pre-trial detention.
After Castillo’s fall, Vice President Dina Boluarte assumed the presidency of the Republic with the support of ultra-right political groups, which provoked nationwide protests demanding his resignation, the closing of Congress, the calling of new general elections and the consultation for a Constituent Assembly. To date, 60 citizens have been killed and more than 1,500 injured in the framework of the protests against Dina Boluarte.
“We are pained by the grave violations of human rights that are being suffered in Peru,” said Marianela Navarro, a militant of the Frente de Organizaciones en Lucha de Argentina and member of the International Solidarity Mission of Human Rights that traveled to Peru, in a press conference.
On the repression by the forces of law and order, Navarro said: “We can mention not only the murder of peacefully mobilized citizens, but also massive arbitrary detentions, the use of weapons by the police forces and the Army that are habitually used for dispersal, with shots directly aimed at close range. There is a citizen in Lima killed by a tear gas bomb fired at close range”.
Regarding the work of the international mission in the country, the Argentine lawyer and social leader Juan Grabois Gismondi informed that they will dedicate themselves to interviewing the victims of the repression by the forces of law and order, as well as to dialogue with the social, political and institutional actors involved. “We are going to go to survey the complaints of the victims. And from those denunciations, we will elaborate a report that we will present to different instances such as the United Nations, the OAS and The Holy See,” he said in a press conference.
“There is a systematic disregard for the guidelines of the rule of law and the most elementary standards of human rights. There is a situation of absolute crisis. The state response to a series of demands is murder, repression and violation of their human rights, in addition to promoting a campaign of stigmatization, discrimination and defamation that deepens this situation,” Grabois said of Peru.
With the information gathered, explains lawyer Pablo Garciarena of the Xumek organization and member of the international mission in Peru, a final report will be drawn up which “will also have minimum standards that will make it possible to base petitions before the inter-American or universal systems of protection”.
For his part, the Argentine deputy Juan Marino, specified that the international mission has not come to intervene in internal political matters. “We are here to watch over the respect for human rights, which are universal,” he said. “The right to life, to protest, to due process and to legal defense”, he added. With these actions, says Marino, they hope to “stop the massacre and that human rights are respected.”