Protest
DU students stage protest demanding resignation of Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall provost
The resident students of Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall of Dhaka University have staged a sit-in in front of the vice-chancellor's (VC) house demanding the resignation of their provost.
They gathered in front of the VC's house around 9.30pm Thursday to protest "irregularities in seat allocation, lack of emergency facilities, poor quality of food in the canteen, student harassment, inadequate water filters and cooking facilities."
The agitating students demanded the resignation of Hall Provost Nazmun Nahar, professor of the Department of Geography and Environment, saying: "She does not care about the students and is always busy with her personal affairs."
Preferring anonymity, one of the protesting students said, "The hall provost has been involved in many irregularities. It takes a minimum of 15 days for us to get a document signed by the hall provost even if it is urgent. She takes Tk4,000 from every student every year to allocate seats although it is not allowed by the university regulations."
At one stage, four protesting students went to the VC's house to express their grievances.
DU Proctor Professor AKM Golam Rabbani said: "The students shared their sufferings and problems with us. They have some valid demands and points. We will try to resolve the issues through discussion."
After the meeting, the students returned to their dormitory at around 11:45pm.
However, Provost Nazmun Nahar could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.
Read more: DU punishes 114 students
Brazil’s President Lula fires army chief in aftermath of capital uprising by far-right protesters
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fired Brazil’s army chief Saturday just days after the leftist leader openly said that some military members allowed the Jan. 8 uprising in the capital by far-right protesters.
The official website of the Brazilian armed forces said Gen. Julio Cesar de Arruda had been removed as head of the army. He was replaced by Gen. Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, who was head of the Southeast Military Command.
Lula, who did not comment publicly on the firing, met with Defense Minister Jose Mucio, chief of staff Rui Costa and the new army commander in Brasilia at the end of the day. Speaking to journalists afterward, Mucio said the Jan. 8 riots had caused “a fracture in the level of trust” in the army’s top levels and the government decided a change was needed.
Read more: Brazil charges dozens in pro-Bolsonaro riots; more expected
In recent weeks, Lula targeted the military with criticism after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed through government buildings and destroyed public property in an attempt to keep Bolsonaro in office.
The uprising underlined the polarization in Brazil between the left and the right.
Lula said several times in public that there were definitely people in the army who allowed the rioting to occur, though he never cited Arruda.
During a breakfast with the press, Lula said earlier this week that “a lot of people from the military police and the armed forces were complicit” and had allowed protesters to enter the buildings with open doors. In another interview, the president said that “all the military involved in the coup attempt will be punished, no matter the rank.”
The comments were followed by Lula scheduling several meetings with the defense minister and the armed forces’ commanders. Mucio denied they had mentioned the Jan. 8 rioting, but he said relations between the military and the government needed adjustment.
On the eve of Arruda’s firing, a video of a Paiva speech earlier in the week was released in which he said the election results should be respected in order to guarantee democracy.
Rioters who stormed through the Brazilian Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in Brasilia sought to have the military intervene and overturn Bolsonaro’s loss to Lula in the presidential election.
Read more: Days before new president, old divisions tearing at Brazil
In a video posted on social media from inside the presidential palace on the day of the attack, a colonel is seen trying to stop police from arresting Bolsonaro’s supporters who had invaded the building. He asks for patience from the military police, which report to the federal district’s government.
More than a thousand people were arrested on the day of the riot and the morning after the disturbance, which bore strong similarities to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Congress by mobs who wanted to overturn former President Donald Trump’s election loss.
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice earlier this month authorized adding Bolsonaro in its investigation into who incited the rioting in Brasilia as part of a broader crackdown to hold responsible parties to account.
According to the text of his ruling, Justice Alexandre de Moraes granted the request from the prosecutor-general’s office, which cited a video that Bolsonaro posted on Facebook two days after the riot. The video claimed Lula wasn’t voted into office, but rather was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil’s electoral authority.
Lula has been trying to reduce the high number of military officers in the government administration left by Bolsonaro. At least 140 military officers have been dismissed since Lula took office Jan. 1.
Peru anti-government protests spread, with clashes in Cusco
Protests against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte’s government that have left 47 people dead since they began a month ago spread through the south of the Andean country on Wednesday with new clashes reported in the tourist city of Cusco.
Health officials in Cusco said 16 civilians and six police officers were injured after protesters tried to take over the city’s airport, where many foreign tourists arrive to see sites including the nearby Incan citadel of Machu Picchu.
Protests and road blockades against Boluarte and in support of ousted President Pedro Castillo were also seen in 41 provinces, mainly in Peru’s south.
Read more: Policeman burned to death amid antigovernment unrest in Peru
The unrest began in early December following the destitution and arrest of Castillo, Peru’s first president of humble, rural roots, following his widely condemned attempt to dissolve Congress and head off his own impeachment.
The protest, mainly in neglected rural areas of the country still loyal to Castillo, are seeking immediate elections, Boluarte’s resignation, Castillo’s release and justice for the protesters killed in clashes with police.
Some of the worst protest violence came on Monday when 17 people were killed in clashes with police in the city Juliaca near Lake Titicaca and protesters later attacked and burned a police officer to death.
In total, Peru’s Ombudsman’s Office said that 39 civilians have been killed in clashes with police and another seven died in traffic accidents related to road blockades, as well as the fallen police officer.
Peru’s government has announced a three-day curfew from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. in Puno.
The National Prosecutor’s Office said it has requested information from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the defense and interior ministries for an investigation it has opened against Boluarte and other officials for the protest deaths.
In Juliaca, in Puno province, a crowd marched alongside the coffins of the 17 people killed in Monday’s protests.
“Dina killed me with bullets,” said a piece of paper attached to the coffin of Eberth Mamani Arqui, in a reference to Peru’s current president.
“This democracy is no longer a democracy,” chanted the relatives of the victims.
As they passed a police station, which was guarded by dozens of officers, the marchers yelled: “Murderers!”
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights began a visit to Peru on to look into the protests and the police response.
Boluarte was Castillo’s former running mate before taking over the presidency. She has said she supports a plan to push up to 2024 elections for president and congress originally scheduled for 2026. She’s also expressed support for judicial investigations into whether security forces acted with excessive force.
But such moves have so far failed to quell the unrest, which after a short respite around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays have resumed with force in some of Peru’s poorest areas.
Castillo, a political novice who lived in a two-story adobe home in the Andean highlands before moving to the presidential palace, eked out a narrow victory in elections in 2021 that rocked Peru’s political establishment and laid bare the deep divisions between residents of the capital, Lima, and the long-neglected countryside.
Protesters in Cambridge demand justice for Bangladeshi-American shot by police
Expressing anger and frustration, several hundred protesters on Monday (January 09, 2023) demanded justice for a Bangladeshi American college student who was shot and killed by police in the Boston suburb of Cambridge last week, a shooting that has drawn attention from Bangladeshi media.
Sayed Faisal, 20, a student at the University of Massachusetts Boston, was shot on January 4 while advancing on officers with what police described as a kukri and after a less-than-lethal “sponge round” failed to stop him, authorities have said. A kukri is a short sword with an angled blade that originated in South Asia.
Protesters at the rally outside Cambridge City Hall organized by the Bangladesh Association of New England held signs saying “Justice for Faisal” and “Faisal needed help not bullets,” while his friends and teachers remembered his friendliness, his positive outlook and his intelligence.
An independent judicial inquest into the shooting has been initiated. The findings of that inquest will be forwarded to the Middlesex district attorney’s office to decide whether charges are warranted, a process that could take a year or more.
Read More: Killing of Bangladeshi-American in US: Human chain in front of MoFA demands justice
Faisal, who was known as Prince by his family, was an only child who was never violent and had never been involved with law enforcement before, his parents said in a statement released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“We are completely devastated and in disbelief that our son is gone,” the Cambridge residents said. “Prince was the most wonderful, loving, caring, generous, supportive, and deeply family-oriented person. He loved to travel, create art, and play sports with his friends.”
Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, City Manager Yi-An Huang, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, and Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow are all expected to attend a community meeting on Thursday to discuss the shooting and answer questions from the public.
The City Council has also scheduled a special meeting on Jan. 18 to discuss protocols, processes, and training of city police.
Read More: Momen slams Bangladeshi expat's killing in US, denounces hate crime
Authorities have not released the name of the officer who opened fire. The officer, who is on paid administrative leave, is a seven-year department veteran who has never been the subject of a citizen’s complaint, police spokesperson Jeremy Warnick said Monday.
According to the preliminary investigation, police received a 911 call early last Wednesday afternoon from a resident who reported seeing a man jumping out of an apartment window with a machete which he appeared to be using to cut himself.
Officers and paramedics found the man, identified as Faisal, bleeding in an alley.
Faisal saw police, who requested that he drop the weapon, and ran for several blocks.
Read More: We support calls for “thorough, transparent investigation” over Bangladeshi-American student's death: US Embassy
He then reportedly moved toward the police while still holding the weapon, even when they fired a less-than-lethal round at him. He continued to advance and one officer fired a gun, striking Faisal, who later died at a hospital, authorities said.
Pro-Bolsonaro rioters storm Brazil’s top government offices
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 99 (AP/UNB) — Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his election defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace Sunday, a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Thousands of demonstrators bypassed security barricades, climbed on roofs, smashed windows and invaded all three buildings, which were believed to be largely vacant on the weekend. Some of the demonstrators called for a military intervention to either restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power or oust Lula from the presidency.
Read more: Brazil's Lula sworn in, vows accountability and rebuilding
Hours went by before control of the buildings on Brasilia’s vast Three Powers Square was reestablished, with hundreds of the participants arrested.
In a news conference from Sao Paulo state, Lula accused Bolsonaro of encouraging the uprising by those he termed “fascist fanatics,” and he read a freshly signed decree for the federal government to take control of security in the federal district.
“There is no precedent for what they did and these people need to be punished,” Lula said.
TV channel Globo News showed protesters wearing the green and yellow colors of the national flag that also have come to symbolize the nation’s conservative movement and were adopted by Bolsonaro’s supporters.
The former president has repeatedly sparred with Supreme Court justices, and the room where they convene was trashed by the rioters. They sprayed fire hoses inside the Congress building and ransacked offices at the presidential palace. Windows were broken in all of the buildings.
Bolsonaro, who flew to Florida ahead of Lula’s inauguration, repudiated the president’s accusation late Sunday. He wrote on Twitter that peaceful protest is part of democracy but vandalism and invasion of public buildings are “exceptions to the rule.”
Police fired tear gas in their efforts to recover the buildings, and were shown on television in the late afternoon marching protesters down a ramp from the presidential palace with their hands secured behind their backs. By early evening, with authorities’ control of the buildings restored, Justice Minister Flavio Dino said in a news conference that roughly 200 people had been arrested and officers were firing more tear gas to drive away lingering protesters.
But with the damage already done, many in Brazil were questioning how the police had ignored abundant warnings, were unprepared or were somehow complicit.
Lula said at his news conference there was “incompetence or bad faith″ on the part of police, and that they had been likewise complacent when Bolsonaro supporters rioted in the capital weeks ago. He promised those officers would be punished and expelled from the corps.
The incident recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Political analysts have warned for months that a similar storming was a possibility in Brazil, given that Bolsonaro has sown doubt about the reliability of the nation’s electronic voting system — without any evidence. The results were recognized as legitimate by politicians from across the spectrum, including some Bolsonaro allies, as well as dozens of foreign governments.
Unlike the 2021 attack in the U.S., few officials were likely to have been working in the Brazilian Congress and Supreme Court on a Sunday.
U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that the riots in Brazil were “outrageous.” His national security adviser Jake Sullivan went a step further on Twitter and said the U.S. “condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil.”
Biden later tweeted that he looked forward to continuing to work with Lula, calling the riots an “assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted: “The violent attempts to undermine democracy in Brazil are unjustifiable. President @LulaOficial and the government of Brazil have the full support of the UK.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said on Twitter that he condemned the assault on Brazil’s democratic institutions but he was confident “the will of the Brazilian people and the country’s institutions” would be respected.
Earlier videos on social media showed a limited presence of the capital’s military police; one showed officers standing by as people flooded into Congress, with one using his phone to record images. The capital’s security secretariat didn’t respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment about the relative absence of the police.
“Brazilian authorities had two years to learn the lessons from the Capitol invasion and to prepare themselves for something similar in Brazil,” said Maurício Santoro, political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “Local security forces in Brasilia failed in a systematic way to prevent and to respond to extremist actions in the city. And the new federal authorities, such as the ministers of justice and of defense, were not able to act in a decisive way.”
Federal District Gov. Ibaneis Rocha confirmed on Twitter he had fired the capital city’s head of public security, Anderson Torres. Local media reported that Torres is currently in the U.S.
The office of Lula’s attorney general asked the Supreme Court to order Torres’ imprisonment.
Bolsonaro supporters have been protesting Lula’s electoral win since Oct. 30, blocking roads, setting vehicles on fire and gathering outside military buildings, urging the armed forces to intervene. The head of Brazil’s electoral authority rejected the request from Bolsonaro and his political party to nullify ballots cast on most electronic voting machines.
“Two years since Jan. 6, Trump’s legacy continues to poison our hemisphere,” U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate’s foreign relations committee, tweeted, adding that he blamed Bolsonaro for inciting the acts. “Protecting democracy & holding malign actors to account is essential.”
Amid unrest, Iran’s hardliners turn their anger to France
Iranian hardliners on Sunday burned French flags outside the French embassy in Tehran, protesting cartoons published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that lampoon Iran’s ruling clerics.
The caricatures were published at a time of persistent anti-government protests in Iran, now in their fourth month. Demonstrators are calling for the downfall of its Islamic Republic and are challenging its hardline establishment.
The demonstrations outside of the French embassy follow previous attempts by Iran’s rulers to mobilize their supporters in counter-demonstrations.
Hundreds of protesters, including students from seminary schools, shouted “Death to France” and accused French President Emmanuel Macron of insulting Iran while urging Paris to stop “animosity” toward Tehran. Police officers, some of whom appeared to be holding images of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, kept the demonstrators at a distance from the embassy building.
Read more: Iran executes 2 more men detained amid nationwide protests
State television said some clerics held similar protests in the shrine city of Qom, the center of religious learning in Iran.
Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on Sunday linked the French magazine’s cartoons with what officials have repeatedly alleged is the West’s plot to spread purported riots in Iran.
Later in the day, President Ebrahim Raisi offered his first reaction to the French cartoons and echoed similar claims. “Resorting to insults on the pretext of freedom is a clear indication of their frustration in concluding plot for chaos and insecurity” in Iran, he said.
Charlie Hebdo has a long history of publishing vulgar cartoons mocking Islamists, which critics say are deeply insulting to Muslims. Two French-born al-Qaida extremists attacked the newspaper’s office in 2015, killing 12 cartoonists, and it has been the target of other attacks over the years.
Its latest issue features the winners of a recent cartoon contest in which entrants were asked to draw the most offensive caricatures of Supreme Leader Khamenei.
One of the finalists depicts a turbaned cleric reaching for a hangman’s noose as he drowns in blood, while another shows Khamenei clinging to a giant throne above the raised fists of protesters. Others depict more vulgar and sexually explicit scenes.
Read more: Iran authorities arrest actress of Oscar-winning movie
Anti-government protests erupted across Iran in September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating its strict Islamic dress code.
The unrest has grown into one of the severest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution that brought it to power. Human rights groups say that at least 517 protesters have been killed and over 19,200 people have been arrested amid a violent crackdown by security forces. Iranian authorities have not provided an official count of those killed or detained.
On Saturday, authorities executed two men convicted of allegedly killing a paramilitary volunteer in the demonstrations.
The Saturday hangings brought to four the number of people known to have been executed since the unrest began in September over the death of Amini. All of the sentences were handed out in rapid, closed-door trials that have been met with international criticism.
Sunday was also the third anniversary of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s downing of an Ukrainian passenger plane with two surface-to-air missiles, killing all 176 people on board — a tragedy that ignited an outburst of anger across Iran. Tehran initially denied responsibility for downing the plane before admitting to having mistakenly done so amid high tensions with the U.S.
An Iranian court has yet to issue a verdict three years into the trial of 10 military personnel who have not been publicly identified but are allegedly implicated in the plane’s downing.
Families of the victims met on Sunday at the site of the crash to hold a memorial ceremony separately from an official commemoration organized at Tehran’s international airport, which had been the point of departure for the flight.
In a separate development on Sunday, a court sentenced Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to a five-year prison term for “propaganda against the system,” Iranian media reported.
The outspoken and pro-reform Hashemi has been in prison since late September after she was arrested by security forces for supporting protests that have been led by women opposing the mandatory headscarf or hijab under the Islamic Republic.
In 2011, Hashemi was convicted and served five years in prison over similar security charges.
Iranian officials have continued to claim the months-long protests are being driven by foreign agents but have offered no proof.
Following Charlie Hebdo’s publishing of cartoons mocking Iranian clerical figures, authorities in Tehran shut down on Thursday a decades-old French research institute and called the closure a “first step” in their response.
Thousands of Israelis protest new government's policies
Thousands of Israelis took to the streets Saturday evening to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government that opponents say threaten democracy and freedoms.
The protesters gathered in the central city of Tel Aviv days after the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the country’s 74-year history was sworn in.
Read more: New Israeli government vows to develop West Bank tourism
“The settler government is against me,” read one placard. Another banner read, “Housing, Livelihood, Hope.” Some protesters carried rainbow flags.
The protest was led by left-wing and Arab members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. They contend that proposed plans by the new Cabinet will hinder judicial system and widen societal gaps.
The left-wing protesters slammed Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who on Wednesday unveiled the government’s long-promised overhaul of the judicial system that aims to weaken the country’s Supreme Court.
Critics accused the government of declaring war on the legal system, saying the plan will upend Israel’s system of checks and balances and undermine its democratic institutions by giving absolute power to the new governing coalition.
Read more: Israeli missile strikes put Damascus airport out of service
“We are really afraid that our country is going to lose the democracy and we are going to a dictatorship just for reasons of one person which wants to get rid of his law trial," said Danny Simon, 77, a protester from Yavne, south of Tel Aviv. He was referring to Netanyahu, who was indicted on corruption charges in 2021, allegations that he has denied.
Protesters also called for peace and co-existence between Jews and Arab residents of the country.
“We can see right now many laws being advocated for against LGBTQ, against Palestinians, against larger minorities in Israel,” said Rula Daood of “Standing Together,” a grassroots movement of Arabs and Jews. “We are here to say loud and clear that all of us, Arabs and Jews and different various communities inside of Israel, demand peace, equality and justice.”
Ganatantra Moncho announces sit-in protest on January 11 after mass procession
The Ganatantra Moncho, an alliance of seven political parties, on Friday announced a three-hour public sit-in protest in Dhaka and other divisional cities on January 11 as part of the simultaneous movement of the opposition parties and alliances to unseat the current government.
Sheikh Rafiqul Islam Babul, the convener of Bhasani Anusari Parishad and also a leader of the alliance, announced this programme from their mass procession today.
He said they will hold mass sit-ins on January 11 in all divisions, demanding the release of all the top opposition leaders, including Begum Khaleda Zia, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Mirza Abbas, Pratim Das, who were imprisoned in "fabricated, false" cases.
The sit-in in Dhaka will be held from 11am to 2am in front of the Jatiya Press Club, Babul added.
Earlier in the day, the Ganatantra Moncho brought out a mass procession from the Jatiya Press Club around 11am.
The procession ended at the Nightingale intersection in Kakrail after parading different roads through the Paltan intersection and Bijoy Nagar Road.
Also Read: Simultaneous Movement: Ganatantra Mancha brings out mass procession in Dhaka
Meanwhile, Biplobi Workers Party General Secretary Saiful Haque said, "No national election is possible under this government. Also, no fair election is possible in the future while this government is in charge. That is why we said this government should be forced to resign before the election. And after that, an interim government will have to be formed. There is no alternative to that."
"The BNP announced a 10-point demand; we came up with 14 points. A liaison committee has already been formed. At a discussion yesterday, we decided that these points would be the basis of our simultaneous movement, which we will present to the people as soon as possible."
Ganasanghati Andolan Chief Coordinator Junaid Saki said the 2018 election is a disgraceful day for the nation. "This government has joepardised the state by looting votes in the dark of the night."
The BNP and other opposition parties and alliances are observing December 30 as a "Black Day," marking the anniversary of the 11th parliamentary election held on this day in 2018.
Around 33 like-minded political parties, including the BNP, are holding mass procession programmes in the capital today to push for their 10-point demand, including the resignation of the government, dissolution of parliament, transfer of power to a non-partisan caretaker government and formation of a new election commission.
Anger in rural areas fuel protests against Peru government
The anger of Peruvians against their government is nowhere more visible than in Andahuaylas, a remote rural Andean community where the poor have struggled for years and where voters' support helped elect now-ousted President Pedro Castillo, himself a peasant like them.
Their fury is such that their protests continued Monday despite the deaths of seven people, among them two young demonstrators over the weekend, including 17-year-old Beckham Romario Quispe Garfias
As thousands of people spilled into the streets, Raquel Quispe recalled her brother as a talented athlete tired of feeling invisible in the eyes of politicians. He was named for English soccer great David Beckham and Romario, the Brazilian soccer phenomenon turned politician.
Clouds above her, she stood outside the hospital where his body was kept, and with a simmering anger in her voice, at times betrayed by tears, she summed up what drove him and others to protest since Castillo's ouster last week: an exclusionary democracy.
Read more: Congress removes Peru's president amid political unrest
“For them, those who are there in Congress, the only opinion that is valid is that of Peruvians who have money, of wealthy people,” said Quispe, an early childhood education teacher.
“They do whatever they want. For them... the vote of the provinces is not valid, it is useless. But the vote of the people of Lima is taken into account. That is an injustice for all of Peru.”
About 3,000 people gathered in the streets of Andahuaylas Monday, to protest and to mourn and pay their respects before the white caskets of the young men who died over the weekend. Across the community, rocks were scattered on roads still marked by simmering fires. An airstrip used by the armed forces remained blocked, black smoke still etched on a nearby building.
Demonstrators across rural communities, including Andahuaylas, continued to call on President Dina Boluarte to resign and schedule general elections to replace her and all members of Congress. They also want authorities to free Castillo, who was detained Wednesday when he was ousted by lawmakers after he sought to dissolve Congress ahead of an impeachment vote.
While protesters have also gathered in Lima, the capital, the demonstrations have been particularly heated in rural areas that were strongholds for Castillo, a former schoolteacher and political newcomer from a poor Andean mountain district.
Protesters on Monday went a step further by blocking access to an international airport for several hours in southern Peru and occupying its runway. Demonstrations in Arequipa, where the airport is located, left one protester dead, Minister of Defense Alberto Otarola told lawmakers during a session of Congress focused on the civil unrest.
The Ombudsman’s Office of Peru reported that seven people had died since the demonstrations began Wednesday. Five of them died Monday. All seven deaths happened outside Lima, including four in Andahuaylas.
Read more: Peru extends state of emergency due to COVID-19 amid fourth wave
The escalation came even after Boluarte gave in to protesters’ demands hours earlier, announcing in a nationally televised address that she would send Congress a proposal to move up elections to April 2024 — a reversal of her previous assertion that she should remain president for the remaining 3 1/2 years of her predecessor’s term.
Boluarte, in her address to the nation, also declared a state of emergency in areas outside Lima, where protests have been particularly violent.
“My duty as president of the republic in the current difficult time is to interpret ... the aspirations, interests and concerns ...of the vast majority of Peruvians,” Boluarte said in announcing she would propose early elections to Congress.
Boluarte, 60, was swiftly sworn in Wednesday to replace Castillo, hours after he stunned the country by ordering the dissolution of Congress, which in turn dismissed him for “permanent moral incapacity.” Castillo was arrested on charges of rebellion.
Members of Boluarte’s Cabinet appeared before Congress Monday to give an account of the protests. Far-right lawmaker Jorge Montoya demanded appropriate measures to end the unrest, telling Castillo’s supporters that now that he has been removed that “chapter is closed.”
“These are not acts of protest, they are acts of terrorism that must be drastically punished,” Montoya said. “You cannot defend a situation that is at the extremes.”
Peru has had six presidents in the last six years. In 2020, it cycled through three in a week.
The latest presidential crisis is taking place as the Andes and its thousands of small farms struggle to survive the worst drought in a half-century. The country is also experiencing a fifth wave of COVID-19 cases.
Castillo's supporters had hoped that the populist outsider would address some of the challenges they have long faced. But during his 17 months in office, Castillo could not achieve any signature project and faced the racism and discrimination that his impoverished supporters often experience.
In Andahuaylas, about 80% of voters who cast a ballot during the runoff election last year supported Castillo. His proposals included rewriting the country’s constitution, which was last drafted and approved in 1993 during the government of Alberto Fujimori, the disgraced former president whose daughter, Keiko, lost the presidency to Castillo.
Rosario Garfias was among those demonstrating outside the hospital where her 17-year-old son's body was being held. She expressed heartbreak over her son’s death, speaking in Quechua, one of Peru’s Indigenous languages.
“My mother is making a complaint in her language. I know that many do not understand her, not even Congress understands it,” said her daughter, Raquel Quispe.
“She is saying that ... she is hurting deeply because they have killed him, like in a slaughterhouse. And my mom, like my family, asks for justice for my brother.”
BNP to stage countrywide demo Thursday protesting police action at Nayapaltan
The BNP will stage demonstrations in all cities and district towns on Thursday to protest "barbaric" police action and mass arrests of the party's leaders and activists in front of its Nayapaltan central office on Wednesday.
Party standing committee took the decision at an emergency meeting at night, said a press release.
Following the police action at Nayapaltan, the BNP standing committee, the highest policy-making body of the party, sat in the meeting to work out its next course of action.
The BNP policymakers strongly condemned and protested the "unnecessary, unwarranted and cowardly" police attack and firing that left a Swechchasebak Dal leader dead and injured many others centring the party's December 10 rally.
They also protested the arrest of a good number of party leaders and activists.
The meeting demanded the unconditional release of the attested party leaders and activists and called upon the police administration to stop such attacks, arrests, harassment and repressive and suppressive acts.
Read more: We know why 'BNP is orchestrating violence' ahead of December 10: Quader
Meanwhile, the BNP postponed the special press conference that was scheduled to be held at a city hotel on Thursday at 3:30pm.
BNP medical cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan said the fresh date and time of the press conference will be announced later.
Read more: Over 300 BNP leaders, activists held: Police