Lima, (EFE).- The United Nations (UN) special rapporteur for the right to freedom of expression and association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, assured this Wednesday that he considers that “there was an excessive use of force that led death” during anti-government protests in Peru.
“I want to tell you that there was excessive use of force, as I already mentioned, that it led to the deaths (of protesters) and that there was also (more) violence. Not only civilians died in the protest, but also some members of the security forces who were also injured and died, ”said the rapporteur at a press conference in Lima, at the end of his official visit to the Andean country.
Along these lines, Nyaletsossi Voule urged the Peruvian Justice to ensure that the investigations into the deaths that occurred during the protests are “transparent, independent, and include the victims in order to know exactly what happened and under what conditions this excess of force occurred.” .
political reforms
The rapporteur also insisted on the need to carry out “political reforms in the country to ensure the representation” of some social groups that, he said, “are not represented in political development.”
“I invite Peruvians to think about what is the best way to resolve this political, social and economic crisis by thinking about better political reforms that could include vulnerable groups, indigenous populations, minorities so that they feel more protected “, held.
During his visit to Peru, which began on Monday of last week, Nyaletsossi Voule met with the president, Dina Boluarte, and other authorities, as well as with former president Pedro Castillo, who has been in pretrial detention since December 2022, when he tried to give a self-coup.
Regarding the former president, the rapporteur asserted that he is in prison “in good condition, even though he has some claims.”
The anti-government protests in Peru started after Castillo’s failed self-coup (2021-2022), which the UN rapporteur described as an “unconstitutional interruption of order”, and left 77 people dead, 49 of them in direct confrontations between protesters and law enforcement.