Harsh editorial by Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, which calls Pedro Castillo a “dictator”

This Wednesday, Peru experienced a new hectic day in its national politics, with the coup d’état of Pedro Castillo, the dissolution of the Congress and the subsequent dismissal of the president of the country until this Wednesday. The newspaper El Comercio, half a centenary of that country, dedicated a harsh editorial to the leftist leader, now in prison. He called him a “dictator”, spoke of “infamy” and compared him to the “scoundrels” of the past.

“Coup” is the concise but decisive title of the editorial which the newspaper published on its website in the early afternoon. It was most poignant on the way down: “Corner yourself from signs of corruption and faced with the possibility of being vacated, Pedro Castillo decided to finish his become dictator”.

The newspaper, the oldest in the country, reviews the last hours of Peruvian politics and deepens his criticism of Castillowho went from denying the possibility of dissolving Parliament a week ago to attempting a self-coup this Wednesday, when the opposition gathered votes in Congress to oust him.

Finally, after the self-coup, Parliament voted for him to leave power. Following the constitutional line, he was replaced by his vice president, Dina Boluarte.

“Pedro Castillo has decided to give a Coup d’etat. Neither more nor less. As a result, he became a dictator and therefore must go down in history, in which pages of infamy today shares the site with all pimps who in the past have attempted to subvert the constitutional order in our country”, summarizes El Comercio in the first paragraph of his editorial.

In addition, he alludes to the prosecutor’s corruption investigations and defines Castillo as “leader of a criminal organization”.

“History will take care of it judge the tyrant“He added in another of the strong lines that he dedicated to the now ex-president.

He also assured that there were “signs” of the maneuver that Castillo forced this Wednesday and that the coup “was not built overnight”.

He urged “Congress, citizens, the Armed Forces and institutions” to stand “on the side of legality”. Otherwise, El Comercio continues, they will become “accomplices of the ignominy. And that’s a place you never come back from.”

Already in his last sentences, he referred to the Peru’s “fluctuating and often unfortunate” relationship with democracy. “There has been no shortage of puppets who have tried to subjugate institutions and laws,” said the newspaper that Juan Aurelio Arévalo Miró Quesada has directed since 2020.

He concludes with another appeal: the immediate future of Pedro Castillo “must be governed by the same laws that today, with total self-confidence, he he trampled“.

Pedro Castillo, arrested after the autocoup in Peru

The left-wing leader came to the presidency after winning the second round of the 2021 election against Keiko Fujimori. In addition to the initial political difficulties, however, investigations have been added in recent months that could marginalize him from the Government House.

In February 2022, he appointed his fourth cabinet in six months. In August, he was the subject of a total of six investigations for corruption and influence trading, an unprecedented situation in Peru. And on 11 October the Justice presented an appeal for unconstitutionality accusing him of the crime of criminal organization of corruption.

Opposition in Congress was pushing a motion to remove him from office. In the last few hours he seemed to have gathered the necessary votes for the proposal to go through.

Cornered, Castillo attempted a coup on Wednesday, which also earned him criticism from his vice president. He dissolved Congress and announced an emergency government.

In the early afternoon, however, Parliament itself fired him. And then Dina Boluarte was sworn in as the new president of Peru, the first woman to hold that position in the country’s history.

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