Protesors killed, 18 in Peru

The new president of Peru has been officially charged with homicide _and genocide_ after state thugs guarding an airport killed 18 of the thousands of protesters who tried to take over that airport.

Whether charges of homicide are justified depends on details I don't know. If they are, whether the charges legally should fall on the thugs alone, or higher officials as well, depends on more details I don't know. I don't know which side is right or wrong in Peru.

But charges of genocide can't possibly be justified. The thugs did not try to wipe out a demographic group, or even to take actions in that direction. They did not even try to wipe out the _protesters_ in that one airport.

Weakening the definition of "genocide" will undermine the special odium that the world has attached to any intentional effort to wipe out a particular demographic group. That would be a bad thing to do.