Peru has closed its world-famous tour
site of Machu Picchu as it struggles to
contain anti-government protests in the
demonstrations have spread to many parts
of the country leaving almost 50 people
dead, the situation is tense in the capital Lima after protesters traveled
from rural regions to demand the
resignation of President Dina tolerate
dozens of people were injured in clashes
with police on Friday, the unrest started
in December, following the ousting of
previous president Pedro Castillo
police in Lima raided a University
campus where protesters were in large
numbers
arresting hundreds in the process
buses ferried the detainees to a police
station
s have flared for months as protesters
demand the resignation of President Dina
bollard
the former vice president took power
after her predecessor Pedro Castillo was
ousted
Castillo was embroiled in corruption
investigations and tried to dissolve
Congress ahead of an impeachment vote
authorities closed Peru's most iconic
tourist destination Machu Picchu leaving
hundreds of tourists temporarily
stranded
officials say the railway to the site
had been damaged in multiple places
much of the worst violence has taken
place in rural regions
many protesters see Pedro Castillo who
has indigenous Roots as one of their own
standing against the urban Elite
in the affluent Lima District of
Miraflores' life is very different from
that in the provinces
not everyone has sympathy for the
the problem is not Lima but the regional
Governors or Mayors they're elected and
yet they do nothing with the money
they're given
and they receive a lot of money
if you ask many of the people who are
Marching while they're out there they
don't know why, but some protesters
in the city center, it's about a broken
political system
a tiny group of people holds the power
manage the state manage the police the
Armed Forces Congress the chief
prosecutor's office they manage the
the judicial system, I think we're in a bad
way, and that is why we're going out to
fight
outside Lima's Police Headquarters A
The crowd demanded the release of detainees
from the University raid
another day of clashes left dozens more
injured
and Peru as divided as ever
all right, let's cross now to Lima where
DW correspondent Nicole Reese is
standing by for us Nicole great to see
you so it seems that the protests are
much more than just about reinstating
the former president, how is this
the movement evolved and who are these
well as you just mentioned people have
traveled from the rural areas of the
the country here to Lima and its most
people come from the south, those you see
in the background, for example, are people
who comes from these rural areas like
protests started there, but have then
shifted to the capital most of
then come from a poorer background, in the
working in agriculture their work in mining
they're also Engineers here that we've
met that spoke to us some people from
Lima is also at the protests of course
and they all are saying the same they
felt a large huge inequality over these
past few years together with a political
instability because Peru has had time
again new presidents over the past few
years and they also say that they have
not seen the benefits that are being
generated in their regions or in the
the country there's mining there's
Agriculture and they don't see the
benefits, so that's also one part of the
the story right here why the protests are so
big and the other side is also that the
police have been very harsh with
protesters we've seen several people
being killed by the police in the
clashes here in the past few weeks
they're being shot, they've been also
hurt with um
with other tools, so there's huge anger
here that this is still happening that
police oppression is happening on such a
large scale and that's also why the
the situation seems to be getting tenser by
the hour
Nicole told us this you're in Lehman the
capital, but how widespread are these
protests in Peru
the moment, it's still looking as
a whole block of the South that is in
this state in the state of protests
we're also hearing that students from
the South will now travel to the capital
because as it stands these protesters
here behind me are standing there in
support of people who had been uh
camping at a university site and this
the morning this University side was evicted
police entered with a tank they sprayed
tear gas and they detained around 200
people there, that's why
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