Peru’s ousted president Pedro Castillo ordered to remain behind bars for 18 MONTHS after failed coup

Peru’s ousted President Pedro Castillo has been ordered to remain behind bars for another 18 months after his arrest last week sparked deadly riots in the nation.

Castillo must remain in custody as a Supreme Court judge said he posed a flight risk when attempting to request asylum at the Mexican embassy in Lima.

The former left-wing schoolteacher faces a prison order that runs until June 2024 after he tried to dissolve the legislature and announced he would rule by decree.

His opponents claimed it was an attempt to circumvent an impeachment vote, amid several corruption investigations targeting him.

Castillo is now charged with rebellion and conspiracy and could be jailed for up to 10 years if convicted, according to prosecutor Alcides Díaz.

The protests erupted after Castillo was removed from power by lawmakers last week, following his attempt to dissolve Congress ahead of an impeachment vote.

The judge’s decision came a day after the government declared a police state as it struggles to quell violent protests that have led to at least eight deaths.

The latest political crisis has only deepened the instability that grips the country, with six presidents coming and going in as many years.

Judge César San Martín Castro’s ruling came days after Congress stripped Castillo of the privilege that prevents Peru’s presidents from facing criminal charges.

Castillo and his legal team refused to participate in Thursday’s virtual hearing, arguing that it lacked “minimum guarantees.”

Peru’s supreme prosecutor, Alcides Chinchay, said in court Thursday that Castillo faces at least 10 years in prison on the rebellion charge.

Meanwhile, a large group of protesters, and police in riot gear, gathered in downtown Lima on Thursday night.

The government also imposed a curfew in at least 15 communities, as allowed by the national emergency declaration issued on Wednesday.

The demonstrators demanded the release of Castillo, the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, and the immediate calling of general elections to elect a new president and members of Congress.

They have burned police stations, seized an airstrip used by the armed forces and invaded the runway of the Arequipa international airport, the gateway to some of Peru’s tourist attractions.

Thousands of tourists have been affected by the protests. The passenger train that takes visitors to Machu Picchu suspended service and roadblocks on the Pan-American Highway left trailer trucks stranded for days, spoiling food bound for the capital.

In Cusco, one of the main tourist destinations, people were stuck Thursday in hotels and the airport. Among them are 20 citizens of Ecuador, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry of that country.

“I was about to return to Ecuador on Monday and unfortunately they told us that all flights were canceled due to the protests,” said Karen Marcillo, 28, who has had to sleep at the Teniente Alejandro Velasco Astete airport in Cusco.

Peru’s tourism industry is still recovering from the effects of the pandemic, which reduced visits last year to 400,000, compared to 4.4 million in 2019.

While in office, Castillo spent much of his time fending off attacks from an adversarial Congress and investigations ranging from corruption to plagiarism.

Now, it is unclear if Boluarte, ever his running mate and vice president, will have a chance to govern. Like Castillo, she is a newcomer to politics with no base in Congress.

“She’s doing a good job right now,” said Cynthia McClintock, a professor of political science at George Washington University who has studied Peru extensively. “But it’s a big challenge.”

While some protesters “seem to want a kind of instability at any cost,” McClintock said, others saw their ouster as an opportunity to air latent grievances such as deep inequality, poverty and a lack of public services.

Boluarte, however, may be given a breather by legislators looking to keep their jobs.

They cannot seek re-election and would be out of a job if a general election for Congress is scheduled, as the protesters want.

Boluarte tried on Wednesday to placate the protesters by saying that general elections could be scheduled for December 2023, four months before the date he had proposed to Congress a few days earlier.

All of the protest-related deaths occurred in impoverished rural communities outside of Lima that are strongholds for Castillo, a political neophyte and former schoolteacher from a poor Andean mountain district.

In Andahuaylas, where at least four people have been killed since the demonstrations began, there were no soldiers on the streets Thursday despite a government declaration allowing the armed forces to help maintain public order.

Some grocery store owners were clearing roads littered with stones and burned tires, but planned to close their doors due to expected protests led by people from nearby rural communities.

Castillo’s attempt to dissolve Congress came ahead of the third attempt by lawmakers to impeach him since he was elected in July 2021.

After Congress removed him from power, Castillo’s vehicle was intercepted as he was traveling through the streets of Lima with his security team.

Chinchay, the government’s top prosecutor, insisted that Castillo is a flight risk, saying he was trying to reach the Mexican embassy to ask for asylum after leaving the presidential palace.

“We don’t think he wanted to go to the Mexican embassy for tea,” Chinchay said.

In issuing his ruling, Castro said that there is still a “specific flight risk” in Castillo’s case and “remains latent over time.”

He cited Castillo’s apparent effort to reach the Mexican Embassy, ​​comments by Mexico’s president and foreign minister about his country’s willingness to offer him asylum, and a jail visit he received from the Mexican ambassador to Peru.

Castillo’s public defender, Italo Díaz, denied that the former president is a flight risk. He told the judge that Castillo’s children and wife depend on him and that he could return to his job as a teacher if he were released.

The declaration of the state of emergency suspends the rights of assembly and freedom of movement and empowers the police, supported by the military, to search the homes of people without permission or court order.

Defense Minister Luis Otarola Peñaranda said that the declaration was agreed by the council of ministers.

On Wednesday, Boluarte called for calm as demonstrations against her and Congress continued.

“Peru cannot overflow with blood,” he said.