Young Peruans encounter police in anti -government protests

Police and young anti -government protesters collided in the Peruvian capital, Lima over the weekend.

A right group said at least 18 protesters were injured in protests held on Saturday and Sunday, called “Gen Z March” by the organizers. A police officer suffered Burns, officers said.

Groups of young people, mainly under 30, have joined the bus and taxi drivers and went to the congress to express their anger for scandals with corruption and increasing insecurity.

The protesters, some of whom were stones and other missiles, were scattered by police shooting with tear gas and rubber bullets, AFP News reported.

The protests for the first time broke out on Saturday, September 20, caused by a retirement reform, adopted earlier this month, under which young people will have to pay in a private pension fund.

The approval of President Dina Bolurta’s approval has been in single figures for months and many Peruvians say they want her to leave office.

“We are heading against corruption, for life and against the crime that kills us every day,” 28-year-old Adriana Flores told AFP.

Gen Z protesters have joined the transport workers who say the government is not doing enough to combat blackmail.

Taxi and buse drivers say that gangs, including Venezuela -based Tren de Aragua, threaten them to pay “money for protection”.

They also accuse police of closing their eyes to widespread blackmail.

Some kept signs that read “we demand life without fear.”

Reporters said some of the Gen Z protesters tried to break the security barriers that police had erected around Congress.

But the human rights group CNDDHH said the police had reacted in their response.

“There was no excuse to launch large quantities of tear gas, even less to attack people,” CNDDHH lawyer Mar Mar Perez told AFP.

Making the congress, protesters chanted “United for Peru we deserve.”

After reaching the security barriers, they also sang the national anthem.

Many Peruans are critical of Congress, accusing the legislation of not representing people’s interests.

“These people (members of the Congress) raise their own salaries. They kill us like flies and are not interested in anything. We need a complete change. We are sick of this situation,” a young woman told the local RPP news site.

President Bolurate, who swore as a president after her predecessor was prevented for an attempt to dissolve the congress in 2022, doubled his salary in July – a move that many called “outrage” to their low approval records.

Her term ends in July next year.