Boluarte rules out the resignation and asks the Peruvian Congress to vote to bring forward the elections

With more than 20 dead from the blockades, violent marches in defense of former coup leader Pedro Castillo and harsh repression, President Dina Boluarte He had to come out of the closet on Saturday to deny that he is considering resigning.

Instead, he sternly demanded that Congress decide once and for all on the call for early elections, the valve that could largely dissolve the convulsion cornering Peru.

The president, who until ten days ago was Castillo’s deputy, faces growing difficulties clearly jeopardize the stability of their government of emergency.

Boluarte took office after the former president surprised the country by announcing the closure of the unicameral parliament and the formation of a de facto government, led by decree.

The coup was defeated in just two hours due to lack of military support for the attempt. Castillo tried to flee to the Mexican embassy and ended up arrested on rebellion charges. But the country has since burned with supporters of the former president who have called for immediate elections and also a commitment to draft a new constitution.

“What does my resignation solve?” the president asked at a press conference the same day he received a plea for support from US Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken.

In the midst of the escalation of the crisis, Boluarte asked the deputies, who had rejected his project to bring forward the elections the day before, “not to look for pretexts” and Vote in advance of the December 2023 election.

​Also, he confirmed it he will relaunch his cabinet and that he will go to the south of the country, where he has imposed a curfew and the military has already been deployed to cut off the protests of Castillo’s followers.

Strong support for progress

Weakened in the unicameral Congress of 130 lawmakers, where none of the MPs are his, Boluarte, was noted by a survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies published this Saturday by the newspaper The Republicwhich indicates that 83% of those consulted want an advance for the elections.

He used the data four times in the nearly two-hour conference and addressed members of Congress directly. Is that the president’s bill to shorten the mandate of the executive and legislative was responded to close the door hard by Congress using this initiative as a tool for extortion.

The measure required 87 votes in two sessions or 66 votes which then had to be ratified by referendum, but it achieved neither alternative. It collected 49 votes in favour, 33 against and 25 abstentions.

“Don’t look for excuses not to bring the election forward. Not abstaining from voting, voting directly in the interest of the country, not hiding behind abstention, or black or white, half measures do not solve the country’s problems”, Boluarte said in an angry tone.

The president believes that if he shows Peruvians that by law there will be elections next year, the crisis will subside and he will gain legitimacy. In her anger at Congress, the 60-year-old center-left lawyer criticized the left, which first called elections in 2023 and now demands a Constituent Assembly knowing that it is impossible in this context.

He also pointed to members of Congress who are bolted to their seats in Congress and don’t want to leave before July 2026.

All eyes are on Parliament. On Friday, at the end of the meeting of the Council of State which brings together the main organizations of the country, José Williams, president of the Congress, left the door open for vote again early elections if consensus is reached.

The price of such negotiation could be too high if the legislators do not act with haste and responsibility something they have not done in this crisis, nor when they hit Castillo in the last year and a half.

This Saturday, when the cabinet was a week old, there were already two victims. The education and culture ministers resigned due to the violent crackdown. One of the toughest, Defense Minister Alberto Otárola, former government official Ollanta Humala, also convicted of corruption, He was mixed when he responded to the excessive use of force.

However, the appearance of Boluarte takes place in a framework of apparent truce. Although according to the same opinion study, 71% reject her taking office as president, this Saturday the Cusco airport resumed its operations. They expected the same in Arequipa, the country’s second city.

Also this Saturday there were no more dead and Castillo added 48 hours since he didn’t write encouraging the protests.

Boluarte repeated the message of peace and dialogue, speaking in fluent Quechua at the conference. She also victimized herself for being a woman, she assured that “machos” don’t let her work and reiterated that the day will begin on Monday in the city of Ica, one of the conflicted ones in the south of the country.

Limes. Special delivery