LIMA – A Peruvian judge yesterday banned ousted president Martin Vizcarra from leaving the country days after his dismissal by Congress as the nation’s political crisis spilled over into street clashes between protesters and police.
The announcement came after thousands of people took to the streets in the capital Lima and cities across Peru late Thursday to protest Vizcarra’s impeachment over corruption allegations.
At least 14 protesters were wounded in clashes with police, the National Human Rights Coordinator said.
Judge Maria Alvarez said she was imposing an 18-month travel ban on Vizcarra at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, investigating allegations that the 57-year-old received more than $600,000 in kickbacks from developers while a regional governor.
“We have said that we will stay,” Vizcarra assured journalists yesterday, once again rejecting the charges against him and questioning the legality of his removal.
"We have the truth and the support that backs us up," he said.
Congress voted on Monday to impeach him, while Congress Speaker Manuel Merino assumed office as Peru’s third president in four years.
Tense protests that began on Tuesday continued into yesterday, when hundreds of young people marched to the residence of Prime Minister Antero Flores-Araoz in Lima, after the 78-year-old conservative challenged them to come to his house because he did not understand their demands.
With signs saying "Merino is not my president" and "Rats out of Congress!", they marched dozens of blocks to the house, where they were stopped by a police barricade.
In the capital Lima late Thursday, police used tear gas and pellets to disperse a group trying to reach the congress building while protesters threw sticks and stones at the officers.
Those wounded in the clashes included two young men hit “by firearms”, said Jorge Amoros, a doctor at Almenara hospital in Lima where both are hospitalised. – AFP, November 14, 2020
