Dina Boluarte celebrates a month in Peru’s presidency amidst protests and chaos

The president of Peru, Dina Bolarte, completed a month in office on Saturday amid protests against his government, which arose from the sacking of his predecessor Pedro Castillo. But his inauguration, far from appeasing the crisis and social discontent, has sparked other protests that are still active and have already caused at least 28 deaths and dozens of injuries.

Following Castillo’s December 7 arrest, after a failed attempt to shut down Congress and rule by decree, his vice president, Dina Boluarte, took office to complete the center-left leader’s term, which was due to expire in July 2026. .

But immediately, thousands of people in the streets reminded him of the anger of the population with the political class in general and quickly set out to propose draft legislation to bring forward the general election in April 2024.

However, the announcement of early elections did not calm the protests either. Various social organizations, mainly from the south of the country, They also ask for his departure from the Presidency, the closure of Parliament and the convening of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution.

The Head of State has made continuous calls for dialogue to the groups of demonstrators and has met with various political, trade union and business organizations to find a climate of serenity that will allow him to lead the government in this period of transition, as he defined it.

Despite this, the public prosecutor has already opened an investigation against him, as well as several ministers, for the deaths of 28 people in the protests in December, the same ones that had begun as soon as he was sworn in. The alleged excessive use of force by the militarywho came out to restore public order in support of the State Police, after the declaration of emergency.

The focus of December’s protests, and subsequent crackdown, was in the southern cities of Andahuaylas and Ayacucho, but in other parts of the country there were dozens of checkpoints and the pick up from different airportswhich forced the closure of its operations.

After a Christmas lull, protests resumed this week and were concentrated in the Puno region on the border with Bolivia, where protesters attempted to seize the airport in the city of Juliaca on Friday and clashed with police it ended with about 36 injured, including civilians and police.

Castillo, one month in prison

On the other hand, former President Castillo remains detained in a police prison in the Lima district of Ate, while is being investigated for rebellioncharge that is added to the corruption complaints that the national prosecutor opened against him last year.

Castillo’s wife and children received political asylum from Mexico and live there under the protection of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who also offered asylum to the former Peruvian president.

The Mexican president does not recognize the legitimacy of the Boluarte presidency and the Peruvian Foreign Ministry declared the Mexican ambassador in Lima, Pablo Monroy, persona non grata on December 20 and gave him 72 hours to leave the country in response to what he considered an “Interference” by López Obrador in Peruvian internal affairs.

Similarly, Peru’s Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia due to their governments’ critical stance towards the Peruvian Executive and then called their diplomatic representatives in those nations, as well as Mexico, in Lima for consultations .

The differences with regional political leaders still continue in the Peruvian government, given that in the last few hours the Executive has confirmed that it is analyzing the entry into the country of the former Bolivian president Evo Morales, who maintains an ideological link with the representatives of Puno.

Furthermore, some social movements propose the formation of an independent republic of the south with the regions of Arequipa, Cusco and Puno, among others.

Source: EFE

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