Two protestors found
Luis Aguilar Rodríguez, 26, bleeding from the chest on Abancay Avenue on November 12 and took him to a hospital, his mother said. After surgery, doctors told her that the object that had hit his chest, damaging his lungs, was a glass marble, which they removed. Aguilar Rodríguez left the hospital on November 30. X-ray showing a marble lodged in Luis Aguilar Rodriguez’s lung. Photo courtesy of Luis Aguilar Rodriguez’s family.
Human Rights Watch documented nine cases of victims apparently hit by pellets believed to be lead. In some cases, the multitude of injuries points to the use of shotguns at close range. While initially concentrated within a small radius as they are fired, pellets contained in cartridges expand away from each other to create a constellation of projectiles that can reach several decimeters in radius within a few meters of being fired. The more pellet injuries a victim has, the closer police officers are likely to have be
Peru: Serious Police Abuses Against Protesters
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Ensure Accountability; Prevent Future Abuses
(Lima) – The Peruvian National Police committed multiple abuses against mostly peaceful demonstrators protesting the ousting of then-President Martín Vizcarra in November 2020, Human Rights Watch said today. Peru’s interim President Francisco Sagasti, Congress, and the Police Command should adopt reforms to ensure that officers respect the right to peaceful assembly.
Two protesters were killed and over 200 were injured, some seriously, in the protests, between November 9 and 15. Witness statements and other evidence Human Rights Watch collected indicate that police repeatedly used excessive force against protesters. Injuries apparently caused by the impact of teargas cartridges and videos of police shooting teargas straight into the crowd show that they recklessly used riot guns. In addition, the evidence strongly suggests that officers used 12-gauge shotguns to fire lead pelle