It has been two years since more than 1,400 people were injured in different regions of Peru by bullets, pellets, and tear gas fired by the police and the army during protests in different regions of the country between December 2022 and March 2023. This is the story of four of the survivors of these protests, and how the authorities have failed to ensure their health and recovery.
Stories of survival
Diego: “There is no day that I don’t feel pain, it’s like my breakfast and lunch every day.”
Diego never thought that he would have to live with more than a hundred metal pellets of lead shot all through his body.
“Before I was injured, what I loved to work hard for my plot of land. My goal was to have my own house, … I wanted to grow fruit trees, citrus fruits and rice. But on January 9 in the city of Juliaca, my life was cut short.”
Diego Quispe Livisi is a 35-year-old farmer and mining worker in the province of Azángaro, an hour from the city of Juliaca in southern Peru. On January 9, 2023, he was walking near the Juliaca airport looking for a means of transport when the police shot him. That same day, 18 people were killed as a result of the illegitimate, excessive and unnecessary use of force by the Peruvian National Police, being the deadliest day of the repression.
Before I was injured, what I loved to work hard for my plot of land. My goal was to have my own house, … I wanted to grow fruit trees, citrus fruits and rice. But on January 9 in the city of Juliaca, my life was cut short.
Diego Quispe Livisi.
Teófilo: “I took out a loan to cover my health expenses, and I’m very much in debt.”
On December 10, 2022, the bone in the left leg of Teófilo Ramirez Ortega, a 54-year-old father of five, was pierced by a bullet that broke into three pieces.
“Before I was injured, I loved to work. I worked on my crops, in construction, in transportation, everything.”
Police officers shot Teófilo when he was walking through the center of the city of Andahuaylas while working as a motorcycle cargo carrier. After being bedridden for more than a year, he has only recently regained a little mobility.
“For me it would have been better to be in a jail than in a locked room for so long,” he says. “I didn’t even sleep. I was in so much pain that I screamed all the time.”
Reyder: “Emotionally it still confronts me so much when I remember. It’s hard to forget.”
Reyder Hinostroza, a 27-year-old taxi driver, was wounded by a bullet in the right leg when he ran to help another injured person on the night of December 15, 2022, a date that will be remembered for the indiscriminate use of lethal force by the army against protestors and unarmed passers-by in the city of Ayacucho. The lethal crackdown saw 10 people killed in one day.
Reyder’s job as a taxi driver has taken a hit, and he can’t work as many hours as he used to. Although he has stopped using crutches, he still limps. All this has affected his ability to support his grandparents, who only have his income and support for their subsistence.
Luzmila: “Here in Juliaca there are no specialists. I would have to go to Lima for that and I can’t afford it.”
Luzmila is 46 years old and her mother tongue is Quechua. On January 7, 2023, she was shot in the ankle by police officers who were four blocks away while she was about to cross an avenue near the Juliaca airport with her daughter and five-year-old granddaughter.
Before the events, she worked as a cook in a restaurant. “Now it hurts a lot, and I’m good for nothing. I’ve blood pressure problems, and I have anxiety, diabetes, and obesity. I didn’t have those conditions before.”
“The bone has healed, but it seems that the nerves are not healing. Here in Juliaca there are no nerve specialists. I would have to go to Lima for that.” Tears come to her eyes as she talks about the slow pace of her recovery. “My family is sad that I’m not better.”
Now it hurts a lot, and I’m good for nothing. I’ve blood pressure problems, and I have anxiety, diabetes, and obesity. I didn’t have those conditions before.
Luzmila.
A health system that has failed them
Diego, Teófilo, Reyder and Luzmila comment that the medical care they have received during these two years has been inadequate, discriminatory, expensive and sometimes humiliating.
For Diego, the medical care he received from public services in Peru was so poor that he was forced to travel to Bolivia to get it. The doctors informed him that the pellets he has inside his body are made of metal with grooves, which complicates any surgical intervention. “That is why I have to continue living with this until the last day that God gives me life. There is no other way. I have to continue fighting like this.” Diego has lead shot from pellets in his arms, hand, legs, calves and buttocks.
His symptoms include a lot of sensitivity to heat. “The objects (pellets) make my body like a solar thermos, and the temperature rises.” This situation has affected his sleep, and causes him constant pain, as the metal in his body cuts nerves and tissues. “Sometimes I smile on the outside, but on the inside I feel devastated,” he says.
A few months after the events, he arrived at the public hospital of his province in enormous pain. Diego told Amnesty International the health personnel dismissed and minimized his pain, in addition, a technician from the hospital told him that they did not attend to “the cases of January 9 [of the protests],” and instead, Diego observed how that same day a boy injured from playing sports arrived and they attended to him, but they ignored Diego.
Just as Diego was treated with contempt in the public hospital of Azángaro, Teófilo also told Amnesty International that, in December 2022, the treatment of the staff of the public health system in Andahuaylas was humiliating and they tried to blame him for what had happened to him with phrases and questions such as “you were from the strike [protest] weren´t you”, or “what did you do to make them do that to you.”
With consistent physiotherapy sessions, Teodoro´s mobility could improve. But he does not have enough money to cover these sessions, and those offered to him at the public hospital in Andahuaylas are few and far between.
Despite acknowledging that he lives with trauma, Teófilo has not been offered psychological support. “It would be a relief for me to have that kind of care, but it hasn’t been provided.” This is the situation for many survivors, who have not had comprehensive support to address their mental health. They have struggled to get ahead, often affecting their personal and family finances.
This point is even more relevant considering that, in a recent investigation on Peru’s health system, Amnesty International found that there is a tendency for people who have public insurance to be treated in the private sector, spending from their pocket, which has an effect on the availability and equitable accessibility of health services.
Partial and truncated support from the authorities
In the face of international and national outrage over the repression in the country, Peruvian authorities established a temporary Commission that for several months in 2023 compiled a list of beneficiaries to receive economic support. According to a response to a public information request from Amnesty International, the government disbursed a total of 7 million soles (approximately US$1.99 million) to grant exceptional and one-time payments to 155 seriously injured people and 111 relatives of deceased people. Although the payments received by the injured people were important to support their recovery, the survivors told Amnesty International that their needs far exceeded what the state has been able to provide, as they were not only physically affected, but also their life projects have been cut short, affecting their rights to education, housing, work and others. This is in addition to the fact that many of the survivors of repression come from marginalized communities in rural areas that lack comprehensive services from the state. Instead of being left as something temporary, the Commission that was formed to support victims should become a comprehensive program of administrative reparations, taking as an example the reparations plan that was established for the victims of the violence that occurred during the country’s internal armed conflict of the 1980s and 1990s.
Hope and struggle to move forward
Despite frustration and obstacles, survivors have found ways to organize themselves, forming Victims’ Associations both in their regions and at the national level. As Teófilo says: “There is strength in numbers. We are not animals, and we were treated like that, but we are not. We are Andean Quechua-speakers.” The struggle of these Associations is the same, which Diego captures with his words: “We are not going to give up, we are going to see who was responsible for these events, because I really want to know. What gives me the most encouragement is to achieve justice.” This sentiment is shared by Reyder: “I am no longer the same person, but I will always fight.” And in Luzmila’s words: Yes, I was injured, but they can never take my life. I’m going to keep going for my family.”
The state must respond to the legitimate request of the victims to bring to justice those suspected of being responsible for serious human rights violations, including those at the highest level, and offer a comprehensive program of administrative reparations that includes all health expenses of victims and survivors.
This article is part of Amnesty International’s campaign for access to justice for victims of the repression of protests in Peru. Stand in solidarity with them by signing this petition: Stand with victims of repression in Peru.
This article was originally published on Newsweek en Español