Death toll rises due to protests in Peru

The President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, ratified that her "Government is firm" and accused the demonstrators demanding her resignation of wanting to "break the rule of law" in the midst of the protests that reached Lima on Thursday, with clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

The governor assured that, in spite of the increase of protests and confrontations, she maintains her invitation to dialogue with the political and social forces that demand her resignation and the closing of Congress, as well as the call for general elections and a constituent assembly.

Boluarte addressed the demonstrators with a warning:

The president denounced that yesterday groups tried to take over 3 airports and a large fire razed a large house in the historic center of Lima just a few meters from the iconic Plaza San Martin, epicenter of the great anti-government demonstration in the Peruvian capital.

For hours, the demonstrators confronted the police deployed in the area and pushed them back until they withdrew from the Plaza San Martin, when the flames began to raze the building, as yet unidentified, in a sector with many historic houses built partly of wood.

In addition, four Haitian citizens died Thursday in the Peruvian municipality of Desaguadero, which hosts the main border crossing with Bolivia and is located at an altitude of more than 3,800 meters, as a result of road blockades due to anti-government protests in Peru, which have claimed the lives of more than 50 people since December.

The head of the ministerial cabinet also regretted the death of "two compatriots" during Thursday, when a national strike was called.

Two men died in the southern regions of Puno and Arequipa after clashes between demonstrators and the forces of law and order.

These six new deaths in the south, which has been the epicenter of the anti-government protests after the Christmas truce, bring to 59 the total number of deaths during the mobilizations since they began last December in the country, after the failed self-coup of former president Pedro Castillo.