Peru: Evidence refutes official account of killings: ‘Security forces had disproportionate and indiscriminate responses in Juliaca’
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ROME – Peru’s security forces used disproportionate and indiscriminate force in the city of Juliaca on January 9, the cruelest and deadliest day of crackdown on recent protests. It makes it known Human Rights Watch in a media report released today. Eighteen protesters and bystanders were killed and 15 of them were confirmed to have died of their gunshot wounds. The other three died from shotgun shells of the type used by the police. The report, which bears the title “They, the cops, killed my brother”reconstructs the events of that day, refuting official accounts given to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and in public statements. On May 3, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released a report which concluded that security forces used excessive force in response to the protests and that some of the killings could amount to extrajudicial executions.
The facts. Some protesters threw stones, fired homemade fireworks at security forces and entered the runway of Juliaca airport, actions which can be properly investigated and prosecuted. But ample evidence shows that the police and military response to those acts of violence was disproportionate, in violation of Peruvian and international law. “The Peruvian government insists on telling an official version of events in Juliaca that the evidence contradicts it,” said César Muñoz, associate director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch – instead of trying to downplay or discredit the mounting evidence of abuse, President Dina Boluarte should acknowledge the gross human rights violations in Juliaca and elsewhere in Peru, pledge to ensure accountability and reparation and health support for victims, and take immediate steps to prevent such abuses from happening again.” More than 1,200 people were injured across the country, including hundreds of policemen. A police officer was killed in unclear circumstances at a location more than three kilometers from the site of the main protests in Juliaca on January 9. Prosecutors charged a former police officer and another man with the murder.
The interviews. Human Rights Watch interviewed 26 witnesses, lawyers, prosecutors and family members of victims in Juliaca and analyzed more than 500 photographs and 10 hours of video footage posted on social media, as well as autopsy and ballistics reports and the criminal investigation file from the Office of the Homicide prosecutor there. The media report provides additional evidence and details of the abuse in Juliaca complementing the findings of a report by Human Rights Watch of 26 April.
Many protesters were rural and indigenous workers. A total of 49 protesters and bystanders have died in the context of the police and army response to demonstrations across Peru from December 2022 to February 2023, according to the country’s ombudsman office. Most of the protesters were rural and indigenous workers in the southern part of the country who called for snap elections after a failed coup by then-President Pedro Castillo, among other political demands. They have also been driven onto the streets by frustration with inequality and marginalization.
The events of Juliaca. Regarding the events in Juliaca, Peruvian officials told IACHR that security forces remained within the airport perimeter “at all times” and that no one died inside the airport “or around the its outer perimeter”. Those officials also said the cause of the deaths was not the excessive use of force because the deaths occurred “outside that perimeter, including in places or streets away from the airport where there was no security force presence.” safety that day”. Yet the evidence obtained from Human Rights Watch establish that both of these claims are false. Nelson Huber Pilco, 22, was shot approximately 12 meters inside the airport’s eastern fence at around 4pm. He later died of his injuries. The video shows him on the ground inside the airport fence as another protester calls for help.
The video and 17 photos that denounce. A verified video and photograph from Human Rights Watch show police armed with shotguns exiting the east fence of the airport at around 12:30. Seventeen photographs show dozens of police officers at an intersection just south of the airport fences near where several people were shot and killed, including Marco Antonio Samillán, 30, a medical student who was killed around 4 p.m. :10 while providing first aid to a young man. A video also shows police officers wielding Kalashnikov-type assault rifles and firing shotguns in an area about 1.8 kilometers from the airport after 8pm. At least four people were killed in that area at the time.
The government shirks its responsibilities. The government has also tried to divert responsibility from the security forces in its public statements about Juliaca. On the day of the events, Prime Minister Alberto Otárola said the killings were “the direct responsibility of those who want to carry out a coup” and Defense Minister Jorge Chávez said protesters used firearms. On 24 January, two weeks after the events, President Boluarte said that “it was not the police who were shooting”, that the killings did not occur where the police were deployed at the airport and that the “majority” of those dead were killed by homemade weapons. He suggested that firearms and ammunition entering Peru from Bolivia could cause the deaths of protesters. The government has not provided any evidence to support these claims.
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