The 107-page report, “Deadly Decline: Security Force Abuses and Democratic Crisis in Peru,” documents excessive use of force by security forces, due process violations and abuses against detainees, and failures in criminal investigations, as well as the entrenched political and social crisis that is eroding the rule of law and human rights in Peru. While some protesters were responsible for acts of violence, security forces responded with grossly disproportionate force, including with assault weapons and handguns. Forty-nine protesters and bystanders, including 8 children, were killed.
QUINUA, Peru (AP) This rural hamlet nestled high in the Peruvian Andes was the site of a major battle that secured South America’s independence from Spain in the 19th century. But on Saturday, the streets of Quinua were overrun by weeping residents commemorating a far more senseless loss: the death of Clemer Rojas, a 23-year-old student who left his parents' home Thursday to protest the ousting of President Pedro Castillo and never returned.
Clemer Rojas was killed near a provincial capital that has emerged as an unlikely epicenter of unrest in the country's still unfolding political crisis