LIMA (Reuters) – Peru, dealing with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks and a five-month lockdown, surprised On Monday after thirteen people, mostly young women, died in a stampede in an illegal nightclub caused by a police raid.
The tragedy at the club, which the government has described as “fertile ground” for COVID-19, exposed tensions in the Andean country of 33 million more people, which has one of the worst mortality rates per capita in the world with nearly 28,000 deaths. .
Infections accumulate again in a wave of harmful moments and, in general, only about 600,000, the sixth in the world.
As Latin America is the epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic, countries know how to curb the spread of infections while facilitating quarantines in the face of growing public anger at the complicated economic and social impact.
The police raid, which began overdue on Saturday night and prompted a hurry to leave the club, was expected to enforce a ban in force since March in bars and nightclubs. This month, the government tightened regulations on social gatherings.
Geraldine Sanchez, who visited the club with her sister hours before the incident, told Reuters TV that they had planned to stay on site for a short time before returning home. His 24-year-old sister died in the stampede.
“Thank God I saved. Otherwise, I could have suffocated and died like my sister,” she told Reuters at the morgue door looking for data on her sister’s body. “Fuel cans went off and the women got scared. “
The government denied that police used tear gas or firearms during the raid, while President Martín Vizcarra called for harsh sanctions against nightclub owners. Police said an initial examination did not discover the use of tear fuel.
Club owners and many revelers were arrested or arrested, and many underwent COVID-19 testing, the government said.
Reuters can simply tap the owners to comment.
“PLAY FIELD” FOR INFECTION
Authorities said the club’s party was at risk of spreading the virus. Eleven of the thirteen affected tested positive for COVID-19 and 15 of the 23 also detained, police said.
“The fertile floor of the nightclub for the transmission of this disease: there is viral load because it is a closed environment,” said Claudio Ramarez, an official of the Ministry of Health, after immediate testing of the participants.
Social media images and television photographs show police knocking on a door to rescue victims. On the stairs, there were shoes, damaged bottles and masks.
“The nightclub had no license to operate since 2016. No we know how it worked,” Councilman Javier Sulca of the municipality of Los Olivos in Lima told the press.
Peru is one of the first in the region to impose a strict blockade, which failed to curb the increase in contagion, while hitting the mining economy, which contracted 30% at the time of the year, one of the most internal in the world. .
The tragedy may open another side to the government’s complaint about the management of the pandemic. Vizcarra’s popularity remains high, but has plummeted in recent months. On Monday, the opposition-dominated Congress summoned Interior Minister Jorge Pérez to what happened at the club.
On social media, many have criticized those who attended the club, others have called for an investigation into police movements after the deaths.
“Blaming the other young people who attended the disco is losing social empathy,” Marcel Velzquez, a professor of Peruvian history and literature, wrote on Twitter.
“Many of the other people who died are my daughter’s age, I feel the pain of the parents. “
(This story corrects paragraph five time to show that the police raid expired on Saturday night, not early Sunday)
(Reporting through Marco Aquino; written through Adam Jourdan; edited through Tom Brown)
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