Demonstrations to demand the closure of Congress and an electoral advance result in at least seven deaths
The wishes of Dina Boluarte to remain in the interim presidency of Peru through 2026 have ended faster than expected. The protests in the interior of the country in favor of a closure (dissolution) of Congress and new elections have caused at least seven deaths. Part of the protesters also demand the release of Pedro Castillo, who was ousted and placed under arrest last week for trying to dissolve Parliament. This Monday, the National Prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, filed a constitutional complaint against the former head of state. Everything suggests that he will continue to be detained. Faced with the danger that the crisis will spread especially throughout the interior of the country, the provisional president declared the state of emergency in the areas “of high social conflict”, where airport occupations, fires and clashes with the police have taken place. At the same time, Boluarte had no other way than to summon general elections in April 2024. The initiative will be reviewed on Wednesday by a Congress that is as unpopular as it is reckless due to its ability to become Peru’s parallel power.
When communicating his decision, Boluarte said he was “interpreting in the broadest possible way the will of the citizenry and asked the legislature for a green light to the project so “expeditious“. He pointed out in this regard that the “responsibility that the exercise of government action implies” has led it to modify its road map.
“In the span of the present time until the date of holding the early general elections, my Government will also promote agreement in Congress of a law to reform the political system that allows all Peruvians to have a more efficient, transparent and participatory democratic system of government, free from all the practice of corruption and with political parties legitimized by citizen participation,” he said. In this way, Boluarte once again formulated an agreement for a Parliament with a predominance of the right so that institutional problems do not worsen.
In this sense, he also called on all political forces, as well as civil society, to participate in this process “so that a wave of democratic will and national responsibility guide and guide us to lay the legal, institutional and democratic life bases for a united, free and socially just Peru”.
social unrest
according to the newspaper The Republic“if the protest, which for the moment does not have a clear horizon, is unified around a more political slogan and the Executive chooses to tighten coercion against the demonstrators, it will be necessary to fear the rapid wear and tear of the new Government and the exhaustion of their capacity for dialogue and negotiation”.
For the moment, the conflict does not seem to abate. In fact, hundreds of people of peasant origin blocked the interoceanic highway and took over the Arequipa airport, some 1,000 kilometers to the south, where Castillo has the disorganized adherents that he always lacked in Lima. The Minister of Defense, Alberto Otárola, announced the cessation of the functions of all the prefects at the national level to face the process of “destabilization of the regions”.
The deaths in the southern Andean region of Apurimac, where Boluarte is from, poses an additional challenge for the provisional president. “I deeply regret the death of our compatriots in Andahuaylas, Apurímac, my land. I express my heartfelt condolences to his relatives,” Boluarte said.
Instability
If there is something stable in a Peru that since 2018 has devoured four presidents, it is its instability. boluarte does not escape that general rule. “The first major challenge for the post-Castillo democratic coalition appeared immediately,” the Lima newspaper said. Trade. “The president and her ministerial team they will not enjoy a honeymoon period. Along these lines, it would be a huge mistake if they assumed that his rise to power implied the end of a crisis, when it was, rather, just another episode in an endless series. So they are on swampy political terrain with the possibility that a bad movement ends up swallowing them”.
According to the publication, if Boluarte and his team want to “overcome” the present situation “with chances of success”, it will be “essential to build immediate bridges between the Executive and the rest of the political forces.” The first great challenge has arisen from the streets and the interior. “While some try to cause anxiety by using the political context to force their point of view with roadblocks, kidnappings and destruction, the highest political leaders will have to nit-pick these days, respectfully, but also firmly.”
Order from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Bolivia
In this context, Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia and Colombia expressed their “deep concern for the recent events that resulted in the removal and detention” of Castillo, and asked that his life be safeguarded. For the four countries, the rural teacher has been “victim of undemocratic harassment” and, since his dismissal, is the object of ” a judicial treatment in the same violative way”. They also requested that the “citizen’s will” expressed at the polls be “prioritized”. The message does not ask that the ousted president be reinstated.