Students in Peru say they were violently beaten by police officers during a raid at a university in Lima on January 21.

Police reportedly smashed through the gates of the National University of San Marcos and forced a group of around 90 students out of their dormitories, hitting and kicking some.

The police entered the university to evict protesters who they believed had taken shelter at the university, after a demonstration in Lima turned violent. Protests have been ongoing in Peru since the imprisonment of former president Pedro Castillo in December.

Some female students say they were arrested and strip-searched by male officers after being detained, despite not having taken part in the protests.

In a statement, the university described the raid as an “abuse of authority” and said it had caused “physical and psychological injury”.

“We urge the state to build bridges to solve the political crisis that is putting the stability of all our public institutions at risk,” the university said.

The Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas has condemned the incident, calling it a “violation of university autonomy” .

“We call for peace and respect for human rights”

The human rights group wrote in a statement that the police’s actions “severely undermine one of the premises on which academic freedom functions: that the university campus must be a safe place for the open expression of ideas”.

Under the Inter-American principles, university campuses can only be occupied by third parties in exceptional circumstances.

“If they did this in Lima, in one of the largest universities in Latin America, with all international and national media looking at them, what will they do if they were to take a similar measure on a rural university or a smaller town university?” asked Salvador Herencia-Carrasco, director of the Human Rights Clinic of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre in Canada.

CAFA called on the Peruvian government to investigate this “breach of university autonomy” and to “commit to protecting the autonomy of all higher education institutions in Peru”.

“In Peru, unlike other countries in the region, international pressure does impact and shape policy,” added Herencia-Carrasco, explaining that international statements may help to prevent further human rights violations.

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