This crisis in Peru is not new

The crisis aggravates in Peru. The political and social environment is complex and everything indicates it will not get any better soon.

Less than a week ago, the then president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, tried to solve his most pressing issues with the Congress. However, either by stubbornness, lack of counseling, or just a miscalculation, he could not count on a major element in any government in trouble: the armed forces and some of his cabinet.

Experts coincide that with his initiative to dissolve Congress, Castillo shot himself in the foot, while others suggest he was bound hands and feet and could not do more. The truth is that, since then, his followers demand his release and so they are still challenging the police power, which represses them.

Meanwhile, the new president Dina Boluarte takes desperate measures such as suggesting the holding of new presidential elections by April 2024, in order to ease the agitation in the streets of Lima and other cities, where there have been deaths and injuries, which led to the imposition of state of emergency in the southern side of the nation.

However, 2024 is a bit far away for a people who reject it and demand a new congress and government.

The recent history of that nation shows that you need to be “in harmony” with the legislative in order to successfully be president of Peru, and Castillo came “out of nowhere,” he was never liked by members of Congress. Since he assumed power in July 2021, his administration has not stopped collapsing like an avalanche, and he never governed in peace, especially due to Congress, until the Congress itself approved Castillo’s vacancy and, consequently, he improvised, alleging his own ungovernability due to parliamentary pressure.

Peru has been destabilized for years and presidents do not hang onto the job for long in the House of Pizarro. Castillo’s dismissal is just one more. He inherited corrupt administrations, lacking in democracy, cradle of thieves with too many alliances with the mafia, and more interested in doing business than in governing.

Peruvians face an overwhelming challenge because, until now, they have not found solutions to the political crisis that, apparently, is a long-standing state already sown in that society.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff