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LIMA: Peru’s new President José Jerí refused to resign on Thursday following the death of a protester during a massive demonstration led by Gen Z activists demanding he step down.
About 100 people were also injured, including 80 police officers and 10 journalists, according to authorities, who said they were investigating the shooting and killing of the protester.
“My responsibility is to maintain the stability of the country; that is my responsibility and my commitment,” Jerí told the local press after visiting Peru’s Parliament, where he said he would request powers to combat crime.
The protests began a month ago calling for better pensions and wages for young people and expanded to capture the woes of Peruvians tired of crime, corruption and decades of disillusion with their government.
After Jerí, the seventh president in less than a decade, was sworn in on Oct. 10, protesters called for him and other lawmakers to resign.
Protests turn violent
Peru’s prosecutor’s office announced Thursday that it was investigating the death of 32-year-old protester and hip-hop singer Eduardo Ruíz, who prosecutors said was shot by firearm during the mass demonstration of thousands of young people. It wrote on the social media platform X that it has ordered the removal of Ruíz’s body from a Lima hospital and the “collection of audiovisual and ballistic evidence in the area where the incident occurred, in the context of serious human rights violations.”
Local media and security cameras showed video of Ruíz collapsing in a Lima street after a man fleeing from several protesters fired a shot. Witnesses said the shooter was running away because he was accused of being a plainclothes police officer infiltrated among the demonstrators.
At least 24 protesters and 80 police officers were injured in the demonstrations, according to Peru’s Ombudsman’s Office. Six journalists were struck by pellets and another four were assaulted by police, according to the National Association of Journalists.
The president expressed regret over the protester’s death.
Global trend
The Peruvian protests comes amid a wave of protests unfolding across the world, driven by generational discontent against governments and anger among young people. Protests have broken out in Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Kenya, Peru and Morocco, with protesters often carrying black flags with the “One Piece” anime symbol — a pirate skull wearing a straw hat.
In Lima’s main plaza 27-year-old electrician David Tafur said he decided to join the demonstration after learning about it on TikTok.
“We’re fighting for the same thing — against the corrupt — who here are also killers,” he said, referring to violent 2022 protests and government crackdown in which 50 people were killed.
Controversial new president
The escalating tensions come just days after Peru’s Congress ousted President Dina Boluarte, was known as one of the least popular presidents in the world for repressing protests and failing to control crime.
Jerí, the 38-year-old president of Congress, then took office, promising to get a recent crime wave under control. He swore in Ernesto Álvarez, a ultraconservative former judge active on social media, as prime minister.
Álvarez has not yet commented on it, but previously claimed said that Peru’s Gen Z is a “gang that wants to take democracy by storm” and does not represent “the youth who study and work.”
Criticisms of Jerí and his government quickly emerged because he previously faced an investigation after being accused of a woman of raping her. The prosecutor’s office dismissed the case in August, though authorities continue to investigate another man who was with Jerí the day of the alleged rape. Protesters also condemned Jerí because as a legislator he voted in favor of six laws that experts say weaken the fight against crime.
Protesters demanded Jerí and other lawmakers resign and repeal the laws they say benefit criminal groups.
During the protest, more than 20 women shouted “The rapist is Jerí” or “Jerí is a violin” — a slang expression in Peru where “violin” means rapist. Protesters launched fireworks at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber pellets.
Frustrations grow
That anger was built upon decades of frustration by Peruvians, who have seen their leaders, year after year, plagued by corruption scandals, fueling a feeling of cynicism and deception in many of Peru’s youth.
“After the pension issue, other frustrations followed — linked to insecurity, the erosion of state capacity in Peru, and corruption,” said Omar Coronel, a sociology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, who studies social movements.
Violent scenes from the protest drew back memories of violent protests in the early months of Boluarte’s government, when 50 protesters were killed.
Protesters held signs reading “Protesting is a right, killing is a crime.” One woman carried a poster that read “From a murderess to a rapist, the same filth,” criticizing the change in government.
“For me, it’s about outrage over abuse of power, corruption and killings,” said Tafur, the protester.

LAGOS: US Sen. Ted Cruz has been trying to rally fellow evangelical Christians and urge Congress to designate Nigeria as a violator of religious freedom with unfounded claims of “Christian mass murder,” which the government of the West African nation has vehemently rejected as false.
Cruz, a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wants Nigeria to be designated a country of particular concern as one with “severe violations” of religious freedom. Designated countries include Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. A designation could result in US sanctions. The bill he introduced last month is awaiting action by the Senate and there is no certainty of it being approved.
Cruz’ claims have been amplified by some celebrities and commentators in the US, without evidence, with some going as far as alleging a “Christian genocide.” Cruz’ office did not respond to questions, including about his motivation for the allegations.
Here’s what to know.
Both Christians and Muslims are killed
Nigeria’s 220-million-strong population is split almost equally between Christians and Muslims. The country has long faced insecurity from various fronts including the Boko Haram extremist group, which seeks to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law and has also targeted Muslims it deems not Muslim enough.
Attacks in Nigeria have varying motives. There are religiously motivated ones targeting both Christians and Muslims, clashes between farmers and herders over dwindling resources, communal rivalries, secessionist groups and ethnic clashes.
While Christians are among those targeted, analysts say the majority of victims of armed groups are Muslims in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, where most attacks occur.
Both Muslim and Christian communities, and groups, have at various times alleged “genocide” during religiously motivated attacks against both sides. Such attacks are often in the north-central and northwestern regions struggling, among other forms of violence, with farmer-herder conflict that is between farming communities — predominantly Christians — and Fulani herders who are mainly Muslims.
Joseph Hayab, a former chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna state, among the worst hit by the insecurity, disputed claims of “Christian genocide.”
While thousands of Christians have been killed over the years, “things have been better than what they were before,” Hayab said, warning, however, that every single death is condemnable.
Nigeria’s government rejected Cruz’ claims, which have been discussed among Nigerians. “There is no systematic, intentional attempt either by the Nigerian government or by any serious group to target a particular religion,” Information Minister Idris Muhammed told The Associated Press.
Nigeria was placed on the country of particular concern list by the US for the first time in 2020 in what the State Department called “systematic violations of religious freedom.” The designation did not single out attacks on Christians. The designation was lifted in 2023 in what observers saw as a way to improve ties between the countries ahead of then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit.
Responding to the latest claims from US commentators, the Christian Association of Nigeria said it has worked to draw attention over the years to “the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.”
In its 2024 report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom highlighted attacks targeting both Christians and Muslims in what it called systematic religious freedom violations in Nigeria. “Violence affects large numbers of Christians and Muslims in several states across Nigeria,” the commission added.
What the data says
Data collected by the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data program shows 20,409 deaths from 11,862 attacks against civilians in Nigeria between January 2020 and this September.
Of those, 385 attacks were “targeted events against Christians … where Christian identity of the victim was a reported factor,” resulting in 317 deaths, ACLED says.
In the same period, there were 417 deaths recorded among Muslims in 196 attacks.
While religion has been a factor in Nigeria’s security crisis, its “large population and vast geographic differences make it impossible to speak of religious violence as motivating all (the) violence,” said Ladd Serwat, senior Africa analyst at ACLED.
Analysts reject claims of genocide
Analysts say Nigeria’s complex security dynamics do not meet the legal definition of a genocide. The UN convention on preventing genocide calls it acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
“If anything, what we are witnessing is mass killings, which are not targeted against a specific group,” said Olajumoke Ayandele, an assistant professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs who specializes in conflict studies. “The drumming-up of genocide might worsen the situation because everyone is going to be on alert.”
Chidi Odinkalu, a professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a former chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission, said Nigerian authorities, however, need to address the rampant violence.