A video broadcast on Internet networks showed the head of the Directorate against Terrorism (Dircote), Óscar Arriola, facing an individual wearing a ski mask found, according to what he says, among the belongings of the 11 defendants, as alleged evidence of terrorist activity.

One of the farmers who arrived to join the protests against the government, replied that neither that nor machetes, slingshots and other elements belong to them and that the police have brought them to incriminate them and asked that the operation be investigated.

According to witnesses, fifty policemen raided the building, located in the central Plaza Bolognesi and where the New Peru Movement and the Socialist Party have their offices, as well as the peasant union.

The press spokesman for Nuevo Perú, Román Paredes, told Prensa Latina that the Police do not allow the leaders of his organization or the peasants’ lawyers to enter, although other sources affirm that a prosecutor is present.

Congresswoman Ruth Luque, who protested the measure, was also not allowed to enter, as was former New Peru presidential candidate Verónika Mendoza, who pointed out that the peasants came to Lima to protest peacefully, which is a valid human right, despite to the state of emergency decreed by the Government.

The National Human Rights Coordinator, who has denounced abuses by the troops and the Police in the repression of the protests, spoke in a similar vein.

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