Peru: Egregious Abuses by Security Forces
April 26, 2023 1:00AM EDT
Investigate Commanders, Senior Officials
Relatives and friends of people killed during demonstrations in Juliaca, Peru, carry pictures of their loved ones at a February 9, 2023, march commemorating one month since their deaths. © 2023 Juan Carlos Cisneros/AFP via Getty Images
(São Paulo, April 26, 2023) – Peru’s military and police likely carried out extrajudicial or arbitrary killings and committed other egregious abuses against demonstrators and bystanders during protests from December 2022 through February 2023, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The abuses occurred against the backdrop of deteriorating democratic institutions, corruption, impunity for past abuses, and persistent inequality.
The 107-page report, “Deadly Decline: Security Force Abuses and Democratic Crisis in Peru,” documents excessive use of force by security forces, due process violations and abuses against detainees, and failures in criminal investigations, as well as the entrenched political and social crisis that is eroding the rule of law and human rights in Peru. While some protesters were responsible for acts of violence, security forces responded with grossly disproportionate force, including with assault weapons and handguns. Forty-nine protesters and bystanders, including 8 children, were killed.
“The Boluarte administration seems to have looked the other way for weeks as security forces killed protesters and bystanders,” said César Muñoz, associate Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “There were serious acts of violence by protesters, which need to be investigated, but that is no justification for the brutal, indiscriminate, and disproportionate response by security forces.”
. . .
Foreign governments have largely failed to consistently speak out or take action to defend democracy and human rights during the crisis. The United States and Canada did not denounce the killings and other serious abuses for months. Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico defended Castillo. Few governments seem to have focused on the new threats to democratic institutions coming from Congress.
More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/26/peru-egregious-abuses-security-forces
