By Alexander Villegas

JULIACA, Peru (Reuters) – Hundreds of demonstrators marched by Peru’s southern metropolis of Juliaca on Thursday to commemorate the one-month anniversary of clashes that left 19 folks useless within the metropolis, the worst violence in over two months of anti-government protests.

Relations and protesters amassed underneath an overpass for a memorial to the victims after marching previous concrete highway limitations nonetheless pockmarked with bullet holes and the shuttered airport guarded by troopers and police.

The city within the Andean area of Puno has been rocked by protests because the Dec. 7 ouster of leftist President Pedro Castillo. Clashes on Jan. 9 left 18 useless, together with one police officer. One other protester died days later.

The violence was the one deadliest day within the protests that themselves mark the worst unrest Peru has seen in over 20 years, posing an immense problem to the brand new authorities in Lima and threatening mining operations on the earth’s no. 2 producer.

On Thursday, as households mourned the useless, some protesters in different cities joined requires a wider nationwide strike. Navy plane sometimes flew overhead because the ceremony commemorating the victims came about.

“The Puno area actually got here out in help, we’re not one, we’re many,” stated Ruth Meza, who stated her classmate Elmer Solano was killed within the Juliaca clashes.

Peru’s southern Andes, the point of interest of the protests, is house to the well-known Incan ruined metropolis of Machu Picchu and big reserves of copper, however lags behind a lot of the nation in schooling, well being and earnings ranges.

The jailed Castillo, a former trainer and union chief, retains help amongst many such communities, who’re demanding constitutional change and an overhaul of Congress, in addition to his launch.

MASS FOR PROTEST DEAD

Luis Zambrano, a priest who performed a mass for members of the family on Wednesday, stated that whereas protesters have been generally violent, he believed authorities reacted with an excessive amount of pressure.

“They did not come to calm the waters,” he stated.

Throughout Zambrano’s mass, a show desk with pictures of those that died within the protests shortly overflowed and needed to be rearranged as extra members of the family arrived, with crowds spilling out of the church.

Relations of those that misplaced their lives met with legal professionals and the native ombudsman after the mass. They stated they wished to hunt justice from a authorities which had performed little to help them.

Nivardo Enriquez, the ombudsman, stated his workplace was working with the native prosecutor to supply proof, testimonies and post-mortem reviews.

“(The prosecutor’s workplace) is doing its job,” Enriquez stated. “And we hope it is being performed with the corresponding velocity.”

Dionisio Aroquipa informed Reuters his 17-year-old daughter Jhamileth Nataly had been killed within the protests. Reuters was not in a position to instantly affirm the main points of his account.

“Those that have been protesting have been caught, they have been investigated. However for the deaths? There’s virtually no justice,” stated Aroquipa.

He stated his daughter, a psychology scholar in Bolivia, volunteered at an animal charity and hoped to journey to Brazil and Argentina.

“She had desires,” Aroquipa stated. “However with regards to investigation into what occurred to my daughter, you do not see any progress.”