LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru's capital and its main port were under a tight curfew Tuesday decreed by President Pedro Castillo in response to violent protests over rising fuel and food prices, with armed soldiers and police deployed to enforce the measure.
The surprise curfew and emergency measures announced shortly before midnight were decried by the opposition as illegal and marked the first time since the government of now-jailed strongman Alberto Fujimori that Peruvian authorities ordered people to stay at home to control protests. On April 5, 1992, Fujimori shut down Peru's congress and judicial system, and sent tanks into the streets amid social and economic unrest.
On Tuesday, major highways and street markets in Lima were almost deserted, and the main bus and public transportation lines were out of service. The empty streets resembled the tightest lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic which hit Peru badly, leaving more than 212,000 people dead.
“It’s a shame. We’re experiencing a terrible economic situation, brother,” said Juan Gutiérrez, a 45-year-old father of four who had been waiting in vain for a bus for more than an hour so he could get to a clothing workshop where he is paid by the piece.
“Do you know what it means to lose a day? We have to work to eat,” he said.
The state of emergency ordered people to stay at home and restricted rights to movement and gatherings. It also eased rules limiting arbitrary searches.
The government said people could leave their homes only in cases of medical emergency or the need to buy medicine or food. The curfew exempted essential services such as food markets, pharmacies, clinics and trash collection. But there were no buses to take workers to their jobs.
Truckers and other transport workers have been protesting and striking over fuel and food prices, blocking some key highways. Protests over the past week have resulted in four deaths and the burning of toll stations and small-scale looting.
In response, the government on Sunday temporarily removed a tax that increases the prices of gasoline and diesel by 28% to 30%.
That supposedly brought the price of diesel down to 47 cents a liter — about $3.68 a gallon. But many of the protesters said stations had not adopted the lower prices.
Castillo said the disturbances caused “worry among workers, mothers and the population in general” and imposed the curfew to “reestablish peace and internal order.”
Defense Minister José Gavidia told journalists Tuesday the curfew was motivated by intelligence indicating there were plans for broader violence.
“The acts of violence were going to spread, especially to central Lima, which is why we had to adopt this extreme measure,” Gavidia said. “This is not a whim.”
Armed soldiers were deployed at strategic points in Lima and the port of Callao, including the airport, gas stations and shopping centers. Agents were seen detaining several passengers on a bus taking people to a protest in southern Lima.
“I don't think things are going to be fixed from one day to the next because (Castillo) has closed everything," said Elena Gamboa, 40, who managed to open her street stand despite the curfew.
In Lima's wealthier districts, people banged pots and pans in protest. One 75-year-old man, who identified himself only as Oscar, said he was marching against “the communist government of Castillo.”
Castillo has acknowledged in recent weeks that the country faces an economic crisis that he blamed on the pandemic and Russia's war on Ukraine.
The president announced in the afternoon that the main leaders of congress would meet to discuss the crisis. The curfew was scheduled only for Tuesday, but it was unclear if it would be extended or expanded to outside of Lima and Callao.
Peru's official ombudsman, Walter Gutiérrez, as well as the president of Congress, María Alva, called the curfew “unacceptable” and said legislators would continue working.