A fire burns in a mansion near the historic Plaza San Martin in Lima, Peru, on Thursday, where anti-government protestors clashed with police. Photo by Renato Pajuelo/EPA-EFE
Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Anti-government protesters intensified their demonstrations against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte in the capital of Lima on Friday, clashing with police and damaging infrastructure for a second day.
Police again fired tear gas after another day of large-scale protests began peacefully but later devolved into clashes as demonstrators attempted to reach the downtown headquarters of Congress and the Peruvian Prosecutor's Office, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.
Witness reports and social media posts indicated that protestors also battled police at the Colmena transit station, which appeared to be damaged in the skirmishes, as well as on streets near Lima's Central Market, Chinatown and at other key points in the capital's historic central area.
The government brought in tanks and armored vehicles operated by the National Police but did not use them Friday, EFE reported.
The ongoing protests, in which an estimated 54 people have been killed, moved from the country's southern Andean regions into the capital on Thursday and were met with nearly 12,000 police officers and security forces, Lima police chief Victor Zanabria told reporters.
Peruvian Defense Minister Jorge Chávez Cresta called some of the demonstrators "violent extremists" who crossed the line from legitimate political protest into criminality with an attack this week on a police station in the Peruvian region of Puno, where a woman died when the station was set on fire.
"My respect and solidarity is with the National Police of Peru, not only for the professional work that they have carried out for the second day in the city of Lima, but also for the reprehensible attack and fire at the Zepita police station, in the region of Puno," he said at a press conference.
Protestors first took to the streets of the South American nation last month, demanding the reinstatement of former president Pedro Castillo, who was impeached after attempting to dissolve Congress in the wake of previous impeachment attempts.
The Constitutional Court of Peru determined that Castillo's attempt to dissolve congress was a coup attempt to interfere with a legitimate impeachment process.
Castillo attempted to flee the country but was detained before he could leave and Boluarte was later sworn in as a caretaker president. She supports an effort to move up elections for president and Congress originally scheduled for 2026 to next year.
The anger at Boluarte was evident in Lima this week as street merchants sold T-shirts saying, "Out, Dina Boluarte," "Dina murderer, Peru repudiates you" and others calling for new elections, the Madrid newspaper El Pais reported.
