Autopsies show 30 people died from gunfire in Peru protests

LIMA, Peru — In autopsy after autopsy, Peruvian anti-government protesters share the same cause of death: “firearm projectile.” Crhistian Armando Mamani, a 22-year-old musician, was protesting in a southern city when a bullet entered the left side of his torso and pierced both of his lungs. Human rights groups — including the United Nations — have called on the Peruvian government to investigate claims of excessive force used by police and soldiers during recent protests that have left 49 civilians dead, and the autopsies provide some evidence of the alleged use of lethal ammunition. Carmen Rosa Cardoza, a Peruvian forensic anthropologist, told the AP that the autopsies show a pattern of a “disproportionate use of force.” “In the injuries by the firearm projectiles, there’s a pattern linked to human rights violations,” she said, noting that most of the fatal wounds are on the head, neck, thorax and abdomen. The Interamerican Commission on Human Rights requested in January that Peru’s government launch an inquiry into the use of weapons by police during the protests. Then, in the last week of February, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights sent a document to Peru’s government that expressed the organization’s concern with the deaths of protesters and gave the government 60 days to provide more information on what it is doing to investigate the killings and implement policies that prevent the excessive use of force in protests.