Peru withdraws curfew intended to control protests

Peru's president on Tuesday lifted a curfew he had decreed less than a day earlier in the country's capital and its main port in a bid to quell sometimes violent protests over rising fuel and food prices.

President Pedro Castillo had announced the surprise curfew and emergency measures shortly before midnight and ended them Tuesday afternoon after more than 1,000 people protested the stay-at-home order in Lima and amid a meeting with congressional leaders. The curfew and emergency measures marked the first time since the government of now-jailed strongman Alberto Fujimori that Peruvian authorities had ordered people to stay at home to control protests. Protests over the past week have resulted in four deaths and the burning of toll stations and small-scale looting.In response, the government on Sunday temporarily removed a tax that increases the prices of gasoline and diesel by 28% to 30%.That supposedly brought the price of diesel down to 47 cents a liter. But, many of the protesters said stations had not adopted the lower prices.