Peru- No Justice for Juliaca Massacre as Coup Resistance Resumes / Our Reporter

from thefreeonline on 11th July 2023 Marc Gavaldà at AlertaAmazonica via La Directa – original HERE in Catalan)
Justice for 19 state killings never arrives in Juliaca

La Directa – Cooperative journalism for social transformation

Chronicle of the day of tribute to the victims of the revolt against the government of Dina Boluarte in Peru. The act is a preview of the mass mobilization that will take place on July 19 under the name “Tercera Toma de Lima”

The coffins traveled through the streets of Juliaca on Sunday, July 9, six months after the massacre | Oriol Tolrà

Juliaca is a commercial population of 260,000 Quechuas and Aymaras on the Peruvian plateau.

Last January 9, after a Christmas truce, the mobilizations were reactivated against the impeachment of President Pedro Castillo and against the government they consider “illegitimate” of Dina Boluarte, which, with the support of the elites and parties of the oligarchy took power and started an unprecedented repressive spiral.

Resumption of Anti-Boluarte Demos Announced

That day, in Juliaca, the protests that encircled the Manco Kapac airport were repressed by an indiscriminate police action, with live fire weapons that caused the death of seventeen people and hundreds of injuries.

Six months later, the relatives organized a vigil for the martyrs and demonstrated with coffins around the city.

They carry portraits of loved ones and a cardboard reproduction of coffins with name, age, profession of victims. photo: Oriol Tolrà

There is an atmosphere of tense calm pointing to the new national mobilization, called for July 19 under the slogan of the “Tercera Toma de Lima” THE THIRD OCCUPATION OF LIMA

Killers stand around as victims lie in the street

Fifty kilometers from Juliaca, Puno is the Aymara capital of Peru.

On the coastline of Lake Titicaca, after the massacre, the city led an unprecedented stoppage of activities that lasted four months. Peasant communities organized themselves in shifts by age and gender to maintain the roadblocks and the blockade of businesses.

Beyond the massacre of our brothers in Juliaca, the racism of the government was fought, which went so far as to state that “Puno is not Peru”.

Today there are not many traces of the mobilization, although there is an atmosphere of tense calm pointing to the new national mobilization, called for July 19 under the slogan of the “Third Takeover of Lima”.

The different communities, in extraordinary assemblies, are deciding these days to join the protest.

In this city we meet Max Nina, a young amateur journalist who traveled that sad January 9 to Juliaca.

His photos shot in the crossfire went around the world. Contrary to the official version that criminalized the demonstrators, the bodies of dying boys and girls were seen, transported on motorbikes to city squares turned into dispensaries, where they ended up bleeding to death in the face of the impotence of the population.

Many people suffered the impact of pellets in the back and stray bullets, even if they did not participate in the protests. Nina claims that she feared for her life, hearing the whistling of the projectiles against her skin.

When she could, she would upload photos to social networks and they would spread like wildfire, verifying that a massacre was being perpetrated against a people armed only with stones and sticks.

The association of Relatives of the Victims of January 9 asks for reparation for the affected families who have lost a loved one and healing for the people who are still recovering from their injuries

When half a year has passed since the Juliaca massacre, the association of Relatives of the Victims of January 9 has called a mass and vigil in the small parish of Pueblo de Dios, in the vicinity of the Juliaca airport.

It’s a hot sun that burns the skin. Little by little, the church was filled with family members, dressed in mourning with white gladioli.

They carry portraits of loved ones and a cardboard reproduction of coffins with the name, age, profession of the victims

The space is filled to the brim and a liturgical event begins, interspersed with the excited participation of relatives and friends of the victims.

They are asking for reparation for the affected families who have lost a loved one and healing for the people who are still recovering from their injuries – some with projectiles lodged in their bodies.

They want justice and also peace in a context of what they consider a “dictatorship”. In posters and messages they ask “the Lord” that the blood shed is not forgotten.
The vigil for the victims was held in the small parish Pueblo de Dios |Oriol Tolrà

Raúl Samillán is the brother of Marco Antonio, a doctor who was executed while attending to gunshot wounds in the streets of Juliaca. He chairs the Association of Relatives of Victims of January 9.

With tears in his eyes and a trembling voice, he asks to continue standing in the judicial process, which he is holding with great difficulty due to the fact that the files of the Prosecutor’s Office have been transferred to Lima, more than 1,200 kilometers away.

A march with traditional music and messages against the government of Dina Boluarte preceded the vigil for the dead |Oriol Tolrà

This poses great material difficulties for them to follow the criminal case. The mass concludes with cries of justice. The relatives lift the coffins and line up in a procession, accompanied by drums and sikuris – who play the siku, an Andean wind instrument -, passing through the busy commercial streets of Juliaca, until the Plaça d’Armas, where it is installed a vigil Candles illuminate the portraits of those who are no longer there. Testimonies of pain and anger are heard.

While in the capital, Dina Boluarte’s power is fortified with new armaments and a detachment of 1,200 soldiers from the Southern Command of the United States Army, everything points to the fact that next July 19, the Peruvian people will do their best to demand the impeachment of the “illegitimate” president, the closure of Congress, the start of a constituent process and new elections, within the framework of the Third Takeover of Lima.

Association of Relatives of Victims of January 9 Dina Boluarte Juliaca Lima Lake Titicaca Max Nina Pedro Castillo Peru Puno

by Marc Gavaldà at AlertaAmazonica. – Translation thefreeonline