LIMA, Dec 19 — Leopoldo Huamani, 60, a farmer from Chalhuanca in southern Peru, travelled for three days to reach the capital Lima and march in support of ousted and jailed...
LIMA, Dec 19 — Leopoldo Huamani, 60, a farmer from Chalhuanca in southern Peru, travelled for three days to reach the capital Lima and march in support of ousted and jailed leader Pedro Castillo, whose fall has sparked deadly protests around the country.
The situation has exploded in the last two weeks. Protesters have blocked highways, set buildings on fire and taken over airports in the wake of Castillo’s December 7 ouster, hours after he illegally tried to shutter Congress to avoid an impeachment vote he feared losing. At least 18 people have died.
The police and armed forces have been accused by rights groups of using deadly firearms and dropping smoke bombs from helicopters. The military says protesters, most in Peru’s Andean south, have used homemade weapons and explosives. “I was chosen by the forgotten men and women of deep Peru, by the dispossessed who have been neglected for over 200 years,” Castillo said in a handwritten letter from jail. He is serving 18 months of pretrial detention while being investigated for alleged crimes of rebellion and conspiracy, which he denies.
A political rookie, he had won support with pledges to reform the constitution, redistribute huge copper riches and empower marginalised indigenous groups. On many of these promises he failed, his star waning before his ouster. He and his associates faced a spate of corruption probes and he went through five Cabinets and over 80 ministers in just 17 months.
Castillo, who ran for the socialist Peru Libre party but later shifted towards the right, faced a hostile and fragmented legislature, where the conservative party of the candidate he narrowly defeated held the largest single bloc.
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