Peru’s interim president, Manuel Merino, resigned on Sunday, less than a week into his new administration, after protests calling for his removal left two dead and dozens injured, plunging the country into yet another political crisis.
“I want to let the whole country know that I’m resigning,” Merino said in a televised address, a day after a police crackdown on protesters in Peru left at least two people dead.
Merino assumed the presidency on Tuesday after the opposition-dominated Congress voted to remove his predecessor, Martin Vizcarra, over bribery allegations, which he denies.
The resignation followed a night of unrest in which dozens of protesters were injured from blunt force, tear gas or projectiles that rights groups say came predominantly from police using excessive force to quell the protests.
A network of human rights groups reported that 112 people had been hurt and the whereabouts of 41 others were unknown. Health authorities said the dead included Jack Pintado, 22, who was shot 11 times, including in the head, and Jordan Sotelo, 24, who was hit four times in the thorax near his heart.
“Two young people were absurdly, stupidly, unjustly sacrificed by the police,” Peruvian writer and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa said in a recorded video shared on Twitter. “This repression – which is against all of Peru – needs to stop.”
Meanwhile, a swell of political leaders urged Merino to leave, with at least 13 of his 19 ministers bailing out of his newly formed government. The president of Congress called on Merino to resign immediately and said lawmakers would vote to oust him if he refused.
“We should put above all else the lives of the Peruvian people,” said Luis Valdez, the current head of Congress, who himself plans to resign.
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