Two people were killed and at least five were injured on Sunday during growing demonstrations against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte following a failed coup and the arrest of former president Pedro Castillo, AFP reports.

A sign of rising tensions: Congressional hearings on the situation in the country have been suspended after a series of incidents. Photos posted on social media show a man punching another man in the back in a boardroom aisle, followed by a stampede in the center for no apparent reason. The session was nevertheless suspended early in the evening on Sunday.

Protests have become more frequent across the country, especially in northern cities and in the Andes. Thousands of people mobilized in the streets of Cajamarca, Arequipa, Tacna, Andauaylas, Cusco and Puno, demanding the release of the former head of state and new elections and calling for a national strike.

“We regret the death of two people and several wounded during the clashes. I call on the population to remain calm,” Interior Minister Cesar Cervantes said on RPP radio soon after the first police report of one dead, a teenage girl, and five wounded. .

“No Peruvian’s life deserves to be sacrificed for political interests. I repeat my call for dialogue and non-violence,” Dina Boluarte wrote on Twitter. On Saturday, clashes in Andauaylas (south) resulted in 20 injuries (16 civilians and 4 police officers).

Violence resumed the next day, with police firing tear gas and throwing stones at demonstrators. According to law enforcement agencies, reinforcements with special police forces were supposed to arrive by plane to keep the demonstrations under control.

• Read also Peruvian President Pedro Castillo dismissed and arrested / Vice President inaugurated

Andauaylas, located in the Apurimac region, is the home region of Dina Boluarte, who is considered a “traitor” by supporters of the ousted president. According to the RPP radio station, a police station in Huancabamba, Apurimac town, was set on fire.

In Lima, between 1,000 and 2,000 people demonstrated in front of Congress, chanting “Castillo, you are not alone, the people support you” and waving placards accusing “Dina (Boluarte) and Congress” of being “corrupt rats.”

They were sprayed with tear gas early Sunday evening. Lima has always turned away from Castillo, a rural school teacher and union leader who is distant from the elites, even though he has the support of the Andean regions after the 2021 elections.

Agricultural unions and civil society organizations of peasants and indigenous peoples called on Sunday for an “indefinite strike” starting on Tuesday, rejecting Congress and demanding early elections and a new constitution.

According to a statement from Peru’s Agrarian and Rural Front, which is demanding Castillo’s “immediate release,” he “did not commit a coup d’état” when he tried to dissolve parliament and impose a state of emergency on Dec. 7. . A few hours later, he was arrested by his own bodyguard as he headed to the Mexican embassy to seek political asylum.

He is accused of “rebellion”. Dina Boluarte, who was vice president until her inauguration on December 7 after Castillo’s dismissal, formed an independent and technical government on Saturday with former prosecutor Pedro Angulo as prime minister.

“Until now, the president has not decided on the main question: is this a transitional government or a government that intends to stay until 2026?” said political scientist Giovanna Peñaflor.

The call for new elections is linked to mass rejection of Congress: according to November polls, 86% of Peruvians disapprove of the parliament. On Friday, Dina Boluarte did not rule out the appointment of early elections to find a peaceful way out of the political crisis.

At the same time, the theory advanced by Castillo’s former chief of staff and a lawyer is spreading in the country, according to which the former president was drugged without his knowledge during the failed coup attempt.

In a letter Castillo allegedly wrote while in prison, he claims that a doctor and nurses in “disguise” and a “faceless” (hooded) prosecutor “forced” him to take blood samples without his consent, invoking a “Machiavelli plan.” The president of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Francisco Brizuela, announced that the former president “refused to submit” to the tests, sums up AFP.