Peru police use tear gas to block protesters from marching

Police fired tear gas to try to subdue thousands of protesters who poured into the Peruvian capital Thursday, many from remote Andean regions, calling for the ouster of President Dina Boluarte and the return to power of her predecessor, whose removal last month launched deadly unrest and cast the nation into political chaos.

The demonstrators gathered in Lima's historic downtown scuffled with security forces who barred them from reaching key government buildings, including Congress, as well as business and residential districts of the capital.

Besides Boluarte's resignation, the supporters of former President Pedro Castillo were demanding the dissolution of Congress and immediate elections.

Castillo, Peru's first leader from a rural Andean background, was impeached after a failed attempt to dissolve Congress.

For much of the day, the protests played out as a cat-and-mouse game, with demonstrators, some of whom threw rocks at law enforcement, trying to get through police lines and officers responding with volleys of tear gas that sent protesters fleeing, using rags dipped in vinegar to alleviate the sting to their eyes and skin.

We're surrounded, said Sofia Lopez, 42, as she sat on a bench outside the country's Supreme Court. We've tried going through numerous places and we end up going around in circles.

Late Thursday evening, firefighters were working to put out a raging inferno that broke out in an old building near the protests that were taking place in Plaza San Martn in downtown Lima but its relationship to the demonstrations was not immediately clear.

Images showed people rushing to get their belongings out of the building that was close to several government offices.

As the sun set, fires smoldered in the streets of downtown Lima as protesters threw rocks at police officers who fired so much tear gas it was difficult to see.

There was visible frustration among protesters who had hoped to march into the Miraflores district, an emblematic neighborhood of the economic elite.

In a Miraflores park, a large police presence separated the antigovernment protesters from a small group of demonstrators expressing support for law enforcement. Police fired tear gas there as well to disperse demonstrators.

Boluarte was defiant Thursday night in a televised speech alongside key government officials in which she thanked police for controlling the violent protests and vowed to prosecute those responsible for violence.

The president also criticized the protests for not having any kind of social agenda that the country needs, accused them of wanting to break the rule of law and raised questions about their financing.

A total of 22 police officers and 16 civilians were injured Thursday throughout the country, Interior Minister Vicente Romero Fernndez said.

Peru's ombudsman said at least 13 civilians and four police officers were injured in the Lima protests Thursday.

Until recently, the protests had been mainly in Peru's southern Andes, with a total of 55 people killed in the unrest, mostly in clashes with security forces.

Anger at Boluarte was the common thread Thursday as protesters chanted calls for her resignation and street sellers hawked T-shirts saying, Out, Dina Boluarte, Dina murderer, Peru repudiates you and New elections, let them all leave.