The President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, has urged the Congress of the Republic to speed up the early elections after the Executive itself gave its approval to this maneuver in the wake of the anti-government protests that have plagued the Andean nation since the beginning of December.
«The project was born from the Executive. Now I call on the Congress to prioritize the advance of elections», said Boluarte in a press conference before international media, according to the newspaper ‘La Republica’.
However, although the president has thus acknowledged to comply with one of the demands of the demonstrators, she has rejected the accusations of those who label her as a usurper, since she recalled that she became head of state after the «coup d’état» of former president Pedro Castillo.
In early December, Castillo announced the dissolution of Parliament and decreed a government of exception in a maneuver which, far from being supported, resulted in his dismissal and arrest. After this, supporters of the former president have taken to the streets to demand the departure of Boluarte, until then Castillo’s «number two», who became President after his imprisonment.
In the framework of these protests, which have already claimed the lives of more than 40 people, Boluarte has assured that he has asked the Prosecutor’s Office for an exhaustive investigation of the episodes of violence registered throughout the country, since these «must not go unpunished».
In fact, the president has appealed once again to dialogue with the main social leaders who are driving the protests and has asked for a «truce» to «open the dialogue tables». «I will not tire of calling them to dialogue, peace and unity», she stressed.
Apologies for the operation in San Marcos On the other hand, the Andean president apologized for the police operation that over the weekend forcibly evicted the University of San Marcos, in the capital, Lima, where hundreds of anti-government demonstrators were staying.
«Perhaps the manner was not appropriate and for this I apologize to the students of San Marcos and to the students who were inside», said the president in reference to a police operation that resulted in more than 200 arrests and aroused international criticism.
After the police intervention, university students denounced that the agents had entered the campus by force, breaking in some cases the doors of the rooms of the student residence.
Despite recognizing that the operation may not have been carried out in the most appropriate way, Boluarte has emphasized that the main objective of the police operation was to protect the integrity of the students of the university and the residence, according to the Andean radio station RPP.
«The police intervened to protect the lives of the students who were inside the university, because it was not known who had entered and we could not guarantee what could happen inside the university,» he said.
In fact, the president boasted that, despite the high number of detainees, the operation ended without injuries and that those arrested by the authorities were quickly released after the completion of the relevant proceedings.
What happened at the University of San Marcos was quickly criticized by countries and international organizations. In fact, the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, has denounced this same Tuesday in the framework of the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) that the images in the university recall «scenes from the times of dictatorships».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
