Ousted leader insists he’s still Peru’s president

LIMA, Peru — Violent protests spread across Peru on Tuesday as an international dispute broke out over the dramatic ouster and arrest of former President Pedro Castillo last week by a Congress he attempted to dissolve.

Meanwhile, the leftist presidents of Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia insisted the jailed leader remains the rightful president of this troubled

South American nation.

Seven demonstrators, all teenagers, are reported to have died and 15 police injured in fierce clashes, mainly in poverty-wracked mountain regions that voted heavily for the 53-year-old former rural teacher and union leader in last year’s presidential contest.

Protesters blockaded the Pan-American highway south of the capital, setting tires ablaze, and the airport in the tourist hub of Cusco, forcing flight cancellations. They attempted to reach the congress building in downtown Lima.

Human rights groups accused police of using “excessive force” against protesters. The National Association of Journalists reported 28 attacks on media workers, the great majority of them committed by supporters of Castillo, who routinely launched verbal assaults on the free press during his scandal-wracked 17 months in power.

The fury led new President

Dina Boluarte, Castillo’s vice president, to propose bringing general elections forward from 2026 to 2024.

But many Peruvians, fed up with both Castillo and the ethically challenged, want elections immediately.

Juanita Goebertus, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, described the communique as “incredibly worrying.”

“Of course, there are different ideological visions in the region, but there has to be a shared basic commitment to democracy and the rule of law,” she said. “Pedro Castillo attempted a coup. He tried to close Congress and rule by decree. You can’t get away from that.”

Castillo, who now faces the prospect of decades behind bars, appeared unable to assimilate his vertiginous fall from office. From his jail cell, he tweeted that he remained president of Peru, despite being “humiliated, [held] incommunicado, mistreated and kidnapped.”