Peru’s police violently clashes with Anti-TPP protesters
Tele Sur | 26 February 2016
Peru’s police violently clashes with Anti-TPP protesters
This is the fifth time Peruvians have demonstrated against the free-trade agreement since the beginning of the secret negotiations.
Peruvians massively took to the streets of the country’s capital Lima on Thursday to protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, an ambitious trade deal signed earlier in February aimed at opening up the market for transnational firms in detriment of the populations of the nations that signed the agreement.
At around 5 p.m. local time, thousands of people peacefully marched toward the country’s Congress.
But later in the night, police violently clashed with protesters, teleSUR’s correspondent Rael Mora reported.
They used sticks, shotguns and tear gas, and arrested about 25 people, according to the group Colectivo Dignidad or Collective Dignity.
Videos and photos of police brutality have been posted on social media. Users strongly condemned the silence of Peruvian mainstream news outlets in face of the protest and the police violence that ensued.
Many human rights groups have also strongly condemned the TPP, claiming it would limit the power of the state in many sectors including health, environmental safety, and labor rights at the expense of the most vulnerable sectors of society.
