Tens of thousands of protesters pour into the city after weeks of protests across the country; many come from poorer regions of the Andes, from the border regions of Bolivia and Ecuador and areas along the Pacific coast.
Police are on “maximum alert” and have ordered nearly 12,000 officers to guard Lima’s streets ahead of feared clashes.
The explosive political development was fueled by the dramatic day of December 7 when then-President Pedro Castillo was threatened with impeachment and responded by dissolving the country’s parliament. Castillo was overthrown and imprisoned, Vice President Boluarte took over even though she belonged to the same leftist party as Castillo.
Since then, protests against Boluarte in particular – she is called a “traitor” by party friends – and power in Lima in general have grown mainly in Peru’s outer regions.
At least 44 people have been killed in clashes, Wednesday and Thursday two protesters have been killed in the southern parts of the country.
But with the movements towards the capital, the pressure on power in Lima also increases:
— We come to make our voices heard. We are completely forgotten, says Edwin Condori who traveled from the Cusco region to the demonstrations at the classic protest square Plaza San Martín in Lima, a few blocks from the presidential palace at Plaza Mayor.