Peru: Police Officer Burned To Death Amid Protests

LIMA, Peru – Authorities said on Tuesday that a police officer on duty in the Peruvian region of Puno was attacked by protesters and burned to death. This made the death toll from riots after former President Pedro Castillo was removed from office to 47.

According to police sources, José Luis Soncco Quispe was on patrol with a fellow officer in Juliaca, a city on the border with Bolivia, when they were attacked by a mob that later set fire to their car.

Ronald Villasante Toque, who was in the patrol car with Soncco, said that the men were “held and violently abused by about 350 protestors,” according to the reports.

Villasante was attacked and transported to a hospital in Lima with serious brain injuries. He claimed he had no idea what was going on with his partner.

Officer Tied Up And Beaten

In a session of Congress, Prime Minister Alberto Otárola from Peru confirmed Soncco’s death, saying protesters attacked the men.

“When police got on the site, they discovered that one cop had been battered and tied up, and the other, Luis Soncco Quispe, had tragically died,” he stated. “In his patrol car, he was burned alive.”

Otárola declared a three-day curfew in Puno from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. and a day of mourning for the slain on Wednesday.

According to Peru’s Ombudsman’s Office, 39 citizens have been killed in fights with police since the protests began in early December following Castillo’s removal, and another seven have died in road accidents, in addition to the fallen police officer.

17 Deaths In Juliaca Peru

After 17 people were killed in Juliaca Peru, the officer was killed when rallies for early elections started again in Castillo’s strongholds in rural areas that had been ignored.

After a widely criticized attempt to get rid of Congress and keep Castillo from being impeached, he was removed from office and arrested. This started the riot.

Dina Boluarte, who will take over for Castillo, was his running mate in the last election. She has backed a plan to move the presidential and congressional elections from 2026 to 2024. She has also supported judicial inquiries on whether security officers used excessive force.

No End In Sight For Protests

But so far, these steps haven’t been enough to stop the unrest, which, after a short break over Christmas and New Year’s, has come back with a vengeance in some of Peru’s poorest neighborhoods, where support for Castillo’s unusual way of running the country was strongest.

Castillo, a newcomer to politics in Peru who won by a small margin in the 2021 elections, shook Peru’s political establishment and showed that Lima residents and the countryside, which had been ignored for a long time, were very different.

SOURCE – (AP)