Peru: the national human rights coordinator …

Peru’s National Human Rights Coordinator denounced this Sunday that there are at least 44 missing after second major protest march that took place on Saturday evening against the government of Manuel Merino. The then president had decided to crack down on the thousands of people who demonstrated in the streets: police violence left following the death of two young people. Then, cornered, Merino decided to resign.

In addition, the Coordinator, who brings together dozens of humanitarian organizations in the country, estimated that they 112 injured by police repression during this march – in front of the 94 wounded declared by the Ministry of Health, 63 of them hospitalized -, according to the spokesperson and lawyer of the organization Mar Pérez on the channel News #.

In the opinion of the lawyer, it was “The darkest night democracy has known in the past 20 years”. According to his account, among the seriously injured, there is a boy who “will probably never walk again”.

Pérez called on the prosecution to gather all the necessary evidence to ensure that victims of the crackdown can access justice. “We are really surprised by this number (of missing). We only counted 5 detainees (…) It seems to us that unreported arbitrary detentions were privileged ”, declared the lawyer.

They also reported a case of sexual abuse of an inmate, who was forced to undress and was subjected to intimate examination. According to the coordinator’s complaint, the woman had been arrested for printing brochures against President Merino.

“People have also been arrested for wearing posters and caps in protest against Merino when they went to or from the marches and were taken to police stations, which is completely undemocratic,” the lawyer added. . Finally, Pérez denounced in court and publicly an event in which an alleged Peruvian national police truck, with license plates covered, took away a young detainee, which “sowed the suspicion that some young people were taken to a detention center ”.

To the report of the wounded and missing, we must add the death of two young men, Jack Brian Pintado Sánchez (22) and Jordan Inti Sotelo Camargo (24). Pintado died of “multiple holes in his face and face from a gun projectile,” according to the medical report released by the Peruvian National Police in the early hours of Sunday. Meanwhile, Sotelo Camargo died “from a gun projectile in the thorax, at the level of the heart”.

The prosecution, in a statement posted on its Twitter account, regretted the deaths of the two and guaranteed that the process would take place “with the appropriate transparency, objectivity and speed”.

Facing pressure from citizens and after Congress urged him to resign under threat of dismissal anyway, Merino announced his resignation on Sunday five days after taking office. “I want to salute the whole country that I am resigning,” Merino said in a nationwide television message, which sparked a celebration in the streets of Lima. In the coming hours, Congress must appoint a new president, who will be chosen from among parliamentarians.