Peru president plans to move election forward by two years after two died in latest protests

In response to widespread demonstrations, Dina Boluarte, Peru's new president, has declared in a nationally televised speech that she will send Congress a proposal to advance the general elections.

Early on Monday, Boluarte said that she would introduce a bill to move the next election forward by two years, to April 2024.

Following Pedro Castillo's removal from office for trying to dissolve Congress, two young people died and four were hurt during Sunday's rallies calling for elections.

Eliana Revollar, the head of Peru's ombudsman's office, told a local radio station RPP that two teenagers, ages 15 and 18, died "probably as a result of gunshot wounds" after conflicts with police on Sunday in the city of Andahuaylas, in the Andean province of Apurimac.

In an interview with local television station Canal N, Baltazar Lantaron, the governor of the Apurimac area, stated that "four injuries are documented, treated at the health centre, three of them [with cuts] to the scalp, with various injuries."

On Sunday, thousands of protestors flocked to the country's streets once more, including hundreds in Lima, the nation's capital, where riot police deployed tear gas to drive them away.

Particularly in rural areas, where Castillo, a former teacher and political newcomer from a destitute Andean mountain region, enjoys support, the protests roiling Peru intensified. In addition to marching through the streets, protesters vandalized a tiny airfield used by the military and set a police station on fire.

The 15-year-old child died from an injury sustained during the demonstration, according to Congresswoman Maria Taipe Coronado, who was pleading with Boluarte to resign.

“The death of this compatriot is the responsibility of Mrs Dina for not submitting her resignation,” said Taipe, who is affiliated with the party that helped Castillo and Boluarte to their election last year as president and vice-president respectively before both were kicked out of that party. “Since when is protesting a crime?”

“The life of no Peruvian deserves to be sacrificed for political interests,” Boluarte tweeted on Sunday following Taipe’s speech in Congress. “I express my condolences for the death of a citizen in Andahuaylas. I reiterate my call for dialogue and to put an end to violence.”

Following Castillo's dismissal by Congress and arrest for attempting to shut down the legislature in an effort to block an impeachment vote against him, Boluarte was sworn in last week.

Demonstrators, many of whom are Castillo supporters, have been calling for Peru to hold elections for days in order to prevent Boluarte from remaining in power through Castillo's formal term end in 2026. Some demonstrators have also demanded the closure of Congress.

The Andahuaylas airport has been closed as a result of attacks and vandalism that have occurred since Saturday, according to the Peruvian Corporation of Airports and Commercial Aviation, which oversees the nation's airports.

The transmitter room, which is essential for delivering navigation services, had been burned down by protesters, it was noted.

The ombudsman's office said on Saturday that two police officers had been detained by demonstrators in Andahuaylas for several hours before they were eventually freed. Four police officers and 16 civilians were hurt during clashes on Saturday, the report claimed.

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