Peru’s violent protests show no signs of stopping

Protests in Peru related to the arrest of former President Pedro Castillo have become increasingly violent, resulting in many deaths, and show no real signs of abating. Despite unprecedented political violence and calls for his resignation, Castillo’s successor and former Vice President, President Dina Boluarte, refused on Sunday to resign, saying, “My commitment is with Peru.”

In the months since the protests began, 49 people, including children and police officers, have been killed, the Associated Press reported on Friday. Demonstrations are concentrated in the southern Andean region of Peru, especially in the Puno region, the poorest in Peru and with the highest concentration of Indigenous people, and in the cities of Ayacucho and Arequipa, among others, although they also occur in the capital Lima as of today. this week. This is the area where the call for Boluarte’s resignation is most resonant, among the rural population who saw in Castillo one of their own – “son of the soil” – penetrated the world of the political elite in Lima.

However, Castillo entered office inexperienced, unprepared, and unwilling to compromise or form alliances. That is why the campaign promises greater prosperity, better education and health care for the rural poor has largely gone unrealized. Before the third attempt by the Peruvian congress to impeach him, Castillo announced coup itself, his own coup, dissolved the government and instituted governance by decree. However, his infamous tenure ended when he was arrested; he is currently in prison on numerous charges including corruption.

Meanwhile, Boluarte and Peru’s security forces were accused of using excessive force that resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of protesters.

Castillo wasted an opportunity for change in Lima

Castillo’s victory over Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former President and dictator Alberto Fujimori, represents a dramatic break with decades of right-leaning rule by Lima’s elite in July 2021. But Castillo’s total lack of experience and political infrastructure, among other failures, means that despite the crucial election , he cannot rule.

“Castillo’s party has never been in government, he has no experience, so if you think that Castillo represents the Left in Peru, the Left has never been in power,” Moisés Arce, professor of Latin American social sciences. at Tulane University, told Vox. “So they don’t have the professionals, the workforce, that can create or produce a good government.”

Castillo ran on a Marxist platform, promising to nationalize the country’s massive mining industry, rewrite the Fujimori-era constitution, and impose higher taxes on the rich. These promises, as well as Castillo’s identity as a former school teacher, union leader, and campesino gained support in the countryside and among the Indigenous population, which represents about a quarter of Peru’s total population.

“If there is a moment to create redistribution, greater social programs for the poor, expand health care, you name it – it’s Castillo,” said Arce, indicating that the conditions for change exist, but Castillo failed to meet that moment because “Insufficient preparation .”

The stratification of Peruvian society and politics is very important, and is an important aspect of the current unrest. “Castillo taps the grievance” in Peru, Arce said. “Out of the pandemic, poverty in Peru has increased, many services have collapsed, the health system [collapsed] – Castillo kind out of the grievance.

Castillo, though incompetent, politically out of touch, ill-equipped, and possibly corrupt, is a powerful symbol of low-income, rural, and Indigenous people who have not previously been represented at the highest levels of Peruvian politics. As Arce explained, Castillo did not do well in public opinion polls; he is not liked, but congress is worse.

Protesters identified with Castillo and who have had serious and legitimate grievances with the Peruvian state and elite are now participating in some of the bloodiest protests in Peruvian history. They have closed airports, blocked highways, and clashed with police. Meanwhile, Boluarte imposed a state of emergency in December that violated Peru’s constitutional right to assemble and move freely within the country.

Right-wing critics have called the protesters terrorists, evoking the deep national trauma of the Shining Path uprisings of the 80s and 90s. The Shining Path Maoist rebels killed an estimated 31,000 Peruvians, and their actions still evoke the concept of Peruvian terruqueo, as Simeon Tegel wrote in the Washington Post Thursday. Terruqueo, or smearing the enemy by falsely accusing him of terrorism, has bubbled up in recent protests – allegedly with racist overtones due to the background of the demonstrators, providing a veil of impunity for the use of excessive force.

On Thursday, protesters tried to seize the airport in the tourist city of Cusco, prompting officials to close the airport near the Macchu Picchu Inca citadel. Protesters in Puno torched cars with police officers inside, set fire to a congressman’s house, and stormed the airport there, while police fired tear gas and live rounds at protesters, according to the Washington Post.

Some groups like Amnesty International have spoken out about Boluarte’s handling of the protests, citing the National Police and the Armed Forces for using excessive force against protesters, most recently on January 11, after at least 17 protesters were killed in the city. Juliaca in the region of Puno. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also sent a delegation to Peru on Wednesday to observe the human rights situation there.

Peru’s attorney general also opened an investigation into Boluarte and other top officials, charging them with “massacre, high-quality murder and serious injury,” Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday. Castillo, meanwhile, defend his case on Twitter from a jail cell in Barbadillo prison.

Peruvian politics has long been in crisis. It is impossible to change.

Peru is no stranger to political upheaval; Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s most famous dictator and leader, began his term as a democratically elected president. He took power just as Castillo did in December. Fujimori led Peru from 1990 to 2000, then fled to Japan; he is currently in prison for the human rights abuses he committed while he was in power.

Since 2016, no president of Peru has been elected, and it is unlikely that Boluarte will complete the rest of Castillo’s term, which will end in 2026. Boluarte has proposed to postpone the election until 2024, which was approved by the congress, despite the protesters’ request. new elections for president and legislature as soon as possible.

Boluarte has also been able to consolidate the support of several small right-wing parties together holding the majority – another point of anger for protesters who saw him move to the right despite being elected as a Leftist. However, the legislature approved his government on Tuesday, a significant vote of confidence despite the unrest.

Ultimately, what happens next depends on what happens in Lima, Arce said. And while the protests were violent, dramatic, and headline-grabbing, they were concentrated outside the capital. Although according to the Council on Foreign Relations, the protesters have the support of Peru’s largest union federation and the largest Indigenous association, it will be difficult to maintain momentum “unless we create an alliance in Lima,” Arce said.

In terms of Peru’s political future, the end of Castillo’s presidency also means the end of the Left in Peru today, Arce said. Boluarte’s critics argue, perhaps rightly, that while he was elected on the Left ticket, he moved to the right from the moment he took office, and immediately moved away from Castillo after the coup attempt.

“You can’t predict things in Peru,” said Arce, “but I think Castillo, in a way, has canceled the meaning of anything left or what the left is.”