Roadblocks set up across Peru by demonstrators demanding the resignation of the country’s president will be dismantled, officials have said. Police and the military are preparing to mount a joint operation, according to the defence and interior ministries. Supporters of former President Pedro Castillo took to the streets after he was impeached and arrested for trying to dissolve Congress in December
They want his successor Dina Boluarte to quit and hold fresh elections. The ministry of the interior tweeted that blocking communication routes is a crime and said that ten people had already died because ambulances could not get through roadblocks. Earlier in January, Peru’s human rights watchdog reported two deaths as a result of blockades in the northern La Libertad region – a 51-year-old woman and a teenager who lost her baby. The blockades have also resulted in shortages of fuel and food in several regions.