Six Peruvian soldiers have drowned after jumping into a freezing river while fleeing anti-government protesters in the country’s south.
Soldiers came under attack from people armed with slingshots and sticks at a demonstration on Sunday against the right-wing coup regime of President Dina Boluarte in the city of Ilave in the Puno region.
The bodies of the soldiers were retrieved from the Ilave River, a tributary to Lake Titicaca on the border between Peru and Bolivia.
Five other soldiers were also suffering hypothermia following attempts to cross the river.
Puno has been the epicentre of protests that broke out in December when then-President Pedro Castillo was removed and arrested in a right-wing coup.
More than 50 people have died and about 1,300 have been injured – nearly half of them members of the security forces – in clashes since then.
While protests were sparked by Castillo’s removal and arrest, many protesters have taken a more revolutionary stance, and the protests reflect a wider class struggle of working class and Indigenous Peruvians against the state and capitalist forces.
Between 800 and 900 people surrounded the soldiers and started throwing stones at them. People called the soldiers corrupt and murderers. Over 60 people have been killed in the protests at the hands of extremely brutal state repression, which includes several massacres, in particular one in Juliaca on January 9 when 18 protesters were murdered.
On Saturday, 16 people – civilians and soldiers – were injured in clashes elsewhere in Puno that also saw a police station burned.