PERU YOUTH RISE

At least 19 people, including a police officer, were injured in protests over the weekend against President Dina Boluarte's government and Congress, the government and human rights organizations said on Sunday.
Dozens of protesters marched over the weekend towards government offices in central Lima under heavy police deployment.

Youth threw stones, firebombs, and firecrackers at police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas, AFP reporters reported.
National Human Rights Coordinator (CNDDHH), a nongovernmental human rights organization, reported Sunday that 18 people were hurt in the clash, one of them a journalist.

"A policeman suffered first-degree burns from a Molotov cocktail in the march by various groups," the National Police said on Saturday, sharing photos of the violence on social media.

CNDDHH blamed the police for the violence.

"We call on the police to respect the right to protest. There was no necessity for so much tear gas to be fired, much less attack people," CNDDHH legal representative Mar Perez told AFP.

A new march by hundreds of transport workers and Generation Z youth collective rioting over alleged extortion and corruption was dispersed with tear gas by dozens of police officers last Sunday evening.
"We are marching against corruption, for life and against the crime killing us day by day," 28-year-old engineer Adriana Flores told AFP Sunday.

Social unrest has grown since Boluarte's administration signed into law on September 5 the requirement for youth to contribute to private pension funds amid job insecurity and over 70 percent unofficial rate of unemployment.

Boluarte's popularity has plummeted during the final stretch of her term, which will end on July 28, 2026.
The Congress, dominated by conservatives, is in the same dilemma on corruption charges, major opinion polls confirm.
Protests have also escalated in Peru in recent months after a wave of extortion and murders by organized crime syndicates.