Protesters and police clash in Lima during the 'Generation Z March'

Lima.- Hundreds of protesters, called to participate in the so-called 'Generation Z March', clashed during the night of this Saturday in the historic center of Lima with riot police officers of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) who stopped their intention to reach the Congress headquarters. The main incidents occurred on Abancay Avenue, where groups of people sought to overcome a security cordon set up by riot police, which led to a large amount of tear gas being fired and clashes between police with batons and protesters with various blunt objects.

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Neither the authorities nor representatives of the protesters have reported so far whether the clashes left any injuries, although the newspaper La República pointed out that an elderly person received blows to the head and was attended to by health brigades. Various citizen groups, mostly made up of young students and workers, have called for a protest march this Saturday in the historic center of Lima, under the name 'March of Generation Z', in rejection of the Government of President Dina Boluarte and the Congress of the Republic. The organizers assured that the intention was to show that "all of Peru is united" against corruption, organized crime, and the violence that has been unleashed in the country.

This call was made after two other days of protest that last Saturday and Sunday also led to clashes with the PNP, which deployed hundreds of agents in the center of the capital.

During those two days, it was reported that 12 agents were injured, as well as at least 18 attacks against reporters, including representatives of the Foreign Press Association in Peru (APEP), almost all of them caused by police officers.

New Incidents

In the new clashes this Saturday, the agents also hit with their batons journalists who were covering the incidents and then prevented them from passing on a bridge over the Rímac River, in the border area between the districts of Cercado de Lima and Rímac. The newspaper La República also noted that PNP agents directed laser pointers at the protesters who were recording the incidents with their cameras and cell phones. Lima also faced a mobilization on Saturday by urban transport associations, who are demanding greater security measures in the face of the wave of extortion they are suffering, which in recent weeks has led to the murders of drivers and attacks against transport units, committed by alleged hitmen. Urban transporters blocked several roads in the San Juan de Lurigancho district, the largest in the capital, and sections of the Panamericana Norte highway during the early hours of this Saturday, with the aim of heading towards the Legislative Palace. A group of transporters finally managed to reach Abancay Avenue, in front of the Congress headquarters, with signs that showed messages such as "Let us work without fear", "No to the collection of quotas" and "No to extortion", without any major incidents occurring at that moment.