Political crisis in Peru: amid protests, Congress meets again to discuss the progress of the elections

The Peruvian Congress will try this Tuesday to resume the session to decide the progress of the general elections for this year, after Monday the debate was suspended after seven hours without being able to find a way to appease the large sector of the country that requires the presidential change.

“We are sure that there will be a way out. All the democratic benches will discuss it taking into account the high sense of urgency,” said the head of cabinet Alberto Otárola on Monday, before the session was suspended with a decision in his hands that the country has in suspense.

In a message to the country on Sunday, President Dina Boluarte had exerted greater pressure by calling on Congress to bring forward the elections, warning that otherwise she would push constitutional reforms so that such elections would be imposed.

In Washington, the Organization of American States (OAS) expressed “dismay” at the violence in Peru, and called on the government to hold elections ‘soon’ under international observation, in a statement in which only El Salvador abstained “because it is still in consultation with the capital”.

The United States, through its ambassador Francisco Mora, stressed that “the timing of the elections in Peru is a matter that must be decided by the country’s leaders and institutions” and asked the international community to support the Boluarte government.

endless protests

The parliamentary appointment this Tuesday is at 11 (13 from Argentina). In the afternoon unions, trade unions and peasant forces of the southern Andes of Peru and other regions, he called for mobilizations in central Lima under the motto of The Great March, Dina resigns now.

“We are in a political crisis. I intend to unite as one fist,” said the peasant leader of Puno, Brígida Curo, at a press conference to convene the march on Tuesday.

For his part, the union leader of the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP), Gerónimo López, complained that Congress “clings to stay in office”.

“We see a president making speeches and flirting with Congress, there is no political will to listen to the people’s platform of struggle. The people demand the immediate resignation of President Dina Boluarte,” added the leader.

The political and social crisis, which It has already caused 48 deaths in southern cities and in Lima in seven weeksit shows no signs of resolution.

Politics, paralyzed and without answers

political power was unable to find an answer to the demands of the populationespecially rural areas of the southern Andes with an indigenous majority, historically neglected, who had chosen to improve their living conditions with the arrival to the presidency (2021-2022) of Pedro Castillo, a leftist, dismissed and arrested on 7 December after attempting to dissolve Congress.

Boluarte, then vice president, assumed the reins of government.

A deployment of heavily armed military troops left Lima and reached the region of Ica, 250km south of Lima, where they freed several sections of the Pan-American Highway blocked at this strategic point for connecting with the south of the country.

In inland cities, especially towards the Andes and the Peruvian jungle, the scenes revealing the lack of commoditiesespecially fuel, liquefied gas for domestic use in this country.

“There are people who have been queuing since three in the morning (…). I haven’t had gas for two weeks. We have to go back in time and cook with wood and charcoal, which is difficult, it hurts the lungs,” Gabriela Álvarez, 33, a housewife from Poroy, 15km from the city of Cusco, told AFP.

There, about 300 people lined up to buy a bottle of domestic gas.

In Puerto Maldonado, 1,580km southeast of Lima in the Amazon region, long lines of Peruvian vehicles waited their turn to refuel in towns bordering Brazil, television footage showed.

The cuts have also generated problems among seriously ill patients who need transfers, cancer treatments, and have complicated the distribution of medical services in various areas of the country.

Peru’s Las Bambas copper mine, operated by China’s MMG and supplying about 2% of the world’s metal volume, announced it would suspend operations from Wednesday if cuts continue.

Source: AFP