City limits 'I fear something very violent will happen'

Burning pyres of rubbish and bullet-pocked walls. Troops holed up in the airport with AK-47s and riot shields, waiting for a truce. A mayor holding court behind the broken windows of a vandalised city hall.

“I feel that my city is destroying itself,” lamented Oscar Cáceres as angry protesters gathered outside his municipal headquarters to demand political change and justice for the 17 people killed here during the most deadly day of violence in the two-month uprising against the government of Peru.

The political upheaval in the country has given the Andean city of Juliaca – the biggest in the southern department of Puno – the atmosphere and appearance of a war zone. Near the pulverised international airport – the scene of ferocious clashes between protesters and security forces on 9 January, during which the 17 people were killed – a graffiti artist has left a message. “El Pueblo Manda” – “The People are in Charge,” it says. Spend time in Juliaca and it is impossible to disagree.

During three days in the city, only once did the Observer see members of the police or military outside the command centre that has been set up at the airport. Instead, Juliaca’s barricaded streets have been taken over by anti-government rebels who have been in open revolt against president Dina Boluarte since early December when her leftist predecessor, Pedro Castillo, was removed from power and arrested after allegedly attempting a coup.