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Mayor hanged from street lamp
28/04/2004 09:33 - (SA)
Lima - A mob lynched the mayor of Ilave on Monday and took hostage three city officials in the Andean city near Lake Titicaca.
A force of 220 officers retook the Ilave city police station, which protesters had held for several hours on Tuesday, Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi said.
"The police have been able to re-enter the city and are gradually retaking control," he said. "It is a process that is going to take some time."
The Aymara, enraged by reports of corruption, meanwhile converged on Ilave from their farming villages in southeastern Peru to rally in the main square, chanting "Ilave united will never be defeated."
Thousands of residents had blocked roads into Ilave since April 2, demanding the mayor resign after corruption allegations. They blamed Lima, 1 300km to the north, for ignoring the problem.
President Alejandro Toledo has twice declared a state of emergency to quell waves of rioting, lest it topple his government.
Rospigliosi did not deny the possibility that Toledo may do it again.
Meanwhile, at the northern end of Peru, the mayor of Cahuapana, 800km north of Lima, was taken hostage along with two other officials, Rospigliosi said.
"The contagiousness of this is very dangerous," the interior minister said.
He acknowledged authorities did not know the whereabouts of the three officials taken hostage in Ilave on Monday.
"There is a commission on the scene that is going to try to meet with protest leaders," said the minister. "We would have to use a great deal of violence to regain control at this time."
Three police officers were injured before the attackers were dispersed with tear gas, said Rispigliosi.
The violence in Ilave, an Andean city of 90 000 mostly Aymara highland Indians, at 4 000m in the Andes, erupted when Mayor Cirilo Fernando Robles Cayomamani returned from a nearby town.
Robles "was forcibly taken from the city along with three aldermen, paraded through the streets and hanged from a street lamp," before his body was thrown from a bridge, a police spokesperson said.
After lynching Robles, hundreds of demonstrators turned their anger to the main police station where three people suspected of inciting the violence had been taken under arrest, Rospigliosi said.
"They're breaking in. They want to burn us down. There are only 50 of us and we have got some injuries. We are going to have to shoot to defend ourselves," one police officer told Rospigliosi.
"Do what you have to," the minister answered. "By all means, do not let them take your weapons," he added before the line was cut off.
"The police must hold on to its weapons and avoid being lynched," Rospigliosi said.
Meanwhile, another protest broke out in the jungles of northeastern Peru when Aguaruna Indians took the mayor of Yurimaguas hostage, along with two other city officials, Rospigliosi said.
"We have a somewhat difficult situation in various parts of the country," he said.
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