Peru TV broadcasts images of public lynching

Peru’s state-run television station broadcast images today of villagers in the country’s remote Lake Titicaca region dousing an accused thief with petrol and setting him alight.

Alejandro Noalca Mamani, 54, died late yesterday of burns that covered 85% of his body, according to a communiqué by the regional hospital in Juliaca, 510 miles south east of Lima.

Local news media said Noalca Mamani was caught stealing a propane gas tank used for home cooking in Azangaro, around seven miles north of Juliaca.

Police were not immediately available to comment.

Images broadcast by TPN television showed Noalca Mamani tied to a lamp post as angry villagers berated him.

Wire and ropes were then removed from his neck and wrists, and he was doused with petrol set on fire.

A police patrol reportedly arrived shortly after the lynching and took Noalca Mamani to a nearby medical outpost.

He was later transferred to the Juliaca hospital, where he died about an hour after arriving, the communiqué said.

Vigilante justice is common in Peru’s remote rural areas where people complain of a lack of police presence.

Around 1,000 residents from Ilave – a town south of Juliaca – beat their mayor to death on April 26 after accusing him of corruption.

More than 200 riot police were sent in to regain control of the town the following day.