LIMA, Peru (Reuters) — An armed group which took over a police station in southern Peru and killed four officers to demand the resignation of unpopular President Alejandro Toledo will not surrender on Monday as planned, its leader said.
«Things have changed. We’re not handing in our weapons at midday because the government has broken its commitment,» former army major Antauro Humala told Reuters by cell phone from the southeastern Andean town of Andahuaylas.
Humala, who has been holding 10 officers hostage, promised on Sunday to lay down the weapons that his 200-strong group seized during the New Year’s Day uprising in a public ceremony provided the government guaranteed the safety of his followers.
But Humala said the government had broken another of the conditions he laid down for his surrender.
«They have not followed the agreement that there would be no troop mobilization,» he said, adding security forces were about 200 yards (meters) from his followers.
Toledo’s popularity is just 9 percent in polls and many Peruvians say they are fed up with constant influence peddling scandals and unemployment 3 1/2 years into his five-year term.
The government declared a state of emergency in the poor farm town 560 miles (900 km) southeast of Lima on Saturday and sent 1,000 troops to quash the uprising.
«We don’t trust them,» Humala said.
«Negotiations have broken down and we have asked for a higher-level commission, including a representative of the state ombudsman’s office to come, and we’ll hand our weapons to them,» Humala said.
Humala gained notoriety in 2000 when he joined his brother, Ollanta, in an uprising against President Alberto Fujimori. They eventually surrendered after Fujimori was fired for corruption and were jailed briefly but later pardoned.
Humala and his «reservists» — former members of the military or national police who fought in Peru’s wars with Ecuador and with leftist rebels in the 1990s — had held several blocks in the farm town for more than a day.
They posted snipers on the police station roof, seized automatic rifles, grenades and explosives and controlled 25 police vehicles.
