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Outraged Peruvians Demand Boluarte Resign During Tumultuous 'Takeover of Lima'
"We're at a breaking point between dictatorship and democracy," warned one student demonstrator.
Jan 20, 2023
Thousands of Peruvians took to the streets of the nation's capital on Thursday demanding the resignation of Dina Boluarte—the unelected U.S.-backed president—justice for the more than 50 people killed during the six-week uprising, the return to power of jailed former President Pedro Castillo, and the dissolution of the Congress that ousted him.
The protesters, many of them Indigenous Aymara and Quecha people, traveled to what they called the "Takeover of Lima" from all over the nation of 34 million inhabitants to take part in mostly peaceful demonstrations against what opponents call a "coup regime." The demonstrators carried banners with slogans including "Out, Dina Boluarte," "Dina, Murderer," and "Not One More Death."
"We want justice, we don't want our dead to be forgotten," protester Zulema Chacón toldThe Guardian.
"We want that usurper out, she doesn't represent us," she added, referring to Boluarte.
\u201cDespite repression, anti-coup protesters in Lima, Peru, continue in the streets calling for the fall of the regime.\n\ud83d\udcf9 @LuciaAlvites\u201d— Kawsachun News (@Kawsachun News) 1674181008
Carrying a Bible, protester Paulina Consac, who traveled 750 miles from the Andean city of Cusco to coastal Lima, told the Associated Press that "our God says thou shalt not kill your neighbor. Dina Boluarte is killing, she's making brothers fight."
Referring to the right-wing-controlled Congress that overthrew Castillo—a leftist who was democratically elected but moved to dissolve the legislature before it could overthrow him—shopkeeper Delia Zevallos told The Guardian that "they are the thieves and they lie and lie to us."
"The people have woken up, we're not children anymore, we know how to read and write... and no one can tell us what to do," she added.
Pedro Mamani, a student at the National University of San Marcos, said that "we're at a breaking point between dictatorship and democracy."
None— Willyzam (@Willyzam) 1674235688
According to Defensoria del Pueblo, Peru's national ombudsman, the 6,000-7,000 demonstrators who marched on Plaza 2 de Mayo and Plaza San Martín were peaceful. However, "violent groups" attempted to reach the building housing Peru's Congress. A massive fire broke out at a building near Plaza San Martín late in the evening; there was no indication that the blaze was related to the protests, although some on the left accused police of causing the inferno.
Defensoría del Pueblo reported injuries to 13 civilians and four of the more than 11,800 police officers deployed in the capital. The ombudsman said at least 53 people including one police officer have been killed and hundreds more were wounded since Castillo was ousted on December 7.
Protests continued elsewhere Thursday, including in the southern city of Arequipa, where a group of around 200 people attempted to storm Rodríguez Ballón International Airport. One protester, identified as 30-year-old Jhancarlo Condori Arcana, died after being shot in the abdomen by police at the airport.
Boluarte said during a nighttime television address that the protests had "no social agenda" and that protesters wanted to "break the rule of law, generate chaos and disorder, and seize power."
Earlier on Thursday, Boluarte met with officials from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, whose spokesperson, Maria Hurtado, said earlier this month that the agency was "very concerned at the rising violence."
\u201cYojana gives us the demands of Peruvian protestors that Western media fails to make clear.\n\nListen to "The Coup in Peru w/ Yojana Miraya Oscco and Renzo Aroni" now streaming wherever you get your podcasts!\u201d— The Red Nation #TheRedDeal (@The Red Nation #TheRedDeal) 1674189927
Weighing in on the protests in a Spanish-language tweet, U.S. Ambassador Lisa Kenna—a former CIA agent appointed by former President Donald Trump whom Castillo claims met with Boluarte the day before his removal—said it's "fundamental that the forces of order respect human rights and protect the citizenry."
Commenting on the uprising, former Greek Finance Minister and progressive activist Yanis Varoufakis tweeted that "the protesters in Peru are right: When the elected president is deposed in a palace coup, only fresh elections can cure the rift and restore democracy."
"Solidarity with Peruvian democrats = solidarity with democracy," Varoufakis added.
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Thousands Descend on Lima Demanding Resignation of Unelected Peruvian President
"We have come to Lima to defend our country, considering we are under a dictatorial government... which has stained our country with blood," one protester explained.
Jan 19, 2023
Thousands of Indigenous and other Peruvians descended on the capital Lima on Wednesday to demand the resignation of unelected President Dina Boluarte, show support for imprisoned former leftist leader Pedro Castillo, and condemn government forces for killing dozens of protesters over the past six weeks.
The demonstrators—who include Aymara and Quecha people from Andean regions, trade unionists, and other activists—traveled to the coastal capital in caravans during the second week of a general strike as part of a new "March from the Four Corners." The first such march took place in 2000 against then-President Alberto Fujimori, a U.S.-backed right-wing autocrat.
"We are from Chota in Cajamarca. We have come to Lima to defend our country, considering we are under a dictatorial government... which has stained our country with blood," protester Yorbin Herrera told Al Jazeera.
\u201cLima. Per\u00fa. Enero 18, 2023. Im\u00e1genes de las inmediaciones de Plaza San Mart\u00edn. @RamiroteleSURtv @JaimeHerreraCaj\u201d— Patricia Villegas Marin (@Patricia Villegas Marin) 1674094235
Another demonstrator, Luis Garro, said: "I am upset. Angry. Traumatized and shocked by what is happening here. I believe that the people are going to force Dina Boluarte and the Congress out."
Florencia Fernández, a lawyer who lives in Cusco, toldthe Associated Press that "in my own country, the voices of the Andes, the voices of the majority have been silenced."
"We've had to travel to this aggressive city, this centralist city, and we say, the Andes have descended," she added.
\u201cThousands of Peruvians from rural indigenous areas are arriving to the capital city today to demand the fall of the coup regime. \n\nThis is Day 13 of the general strike. The Boluarte dictatorship will likely respond with more repression.\u201d— Kawsachun News (@Kawsachun News) 1673981964
Alonso Cárdenas, a professor of public policy at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University in Lima, noted the significance of protests in the capital.
"When there are tragedies, bloodbaths outside the capital, it doesn't have the same political relevance in the public agenda as if it took place in the capital,” he told the AP. "The leaders have understood that and say, they can massacre us in Cusco, in Puno, and nothing happens, we need to take the protest to Lima."
At least 17 people were killed by state security forces in what human rights defenders called a "massacre" in Juliaca, the capital of San Román province in Puno, on January 9.
Some of this week's protesters traveled to Lima on the tour bus of renowned cumbia singer Yarita Lizeth, who has donated money to cover wounded protesters' medical bills while condemning "this violent repression against my brothers from Juliaca... who were unjustly killed."
\u201cPeruvian cumbia singer, Yarita Lizeth, has donated her tour bus to anti-coup protesters in Puno.\n\nProtesters are travelling to the capital city to demand the fall of the regime.\u201d— Kawsachun News (@Kawsachun News) 1673997594
By taking to the street, protesters were defying the government's extended state of emergency in Lima and three other regions, a move that suspended constitutional rights including the inviolability of the home, freedom of transit, and freedom of assembly.
A counter-demonstration in support of Boluarte, dubbed a "march for peace," also took place in Lima on Thursday. The de facto president said Tuesday that she would meet with anti-government demonstrators "to talk about the social agendas that you have because you well know that the political agenda that you are proposing is not feasible."
At least 53 people have been killed since the December 7 overthrow and arrest of Castillo—a democratically elected former rural teacher and union organizer—by the country's right-wing-controlled Congress after he moved to dissolve the legislature in a bid to preempt a move to dismiss him for "permanent moral incapacity."
The latest deaths includeSonia Aguilar Quispe, a35-year-old woman who was shot in the head in the southern town of Macusani; Salomón Valenzuela Chua, a 30-year-old father of four; and the unborn child of a teenager.
\u201cAt least\u00a050 have been killed, 49 of them civilians, some of them shot in the chest, back and head. The youngest to die was Brayan Apaza, age 15, whose mother, Asunta Jumpiri, 38, called him an \u201cinnocent boy\u201d killed after he had gone out to buy food.\u00a0 https://t.co/80FyyHu0mu\u201d— Helen Davidson (@Helen Davidson) 1674026966
Castillo, who faces charges of rebellion and conspiracy, remains imprisoned by order of a panel of Peru's Supreme Court of Justice.
Boluarte has proposed elections for April 2024. Her government is recognized by the United States, Canada, Chile, and several other countries, while leftist leaders of Latin American and Caribbean nations including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have condemned Castillo's removal.
A poll published earlier this week by the Institute of Peruvian Studies showed 71% of respondents disapprove of Boluarte, while 60% say the protests against her government are justified.
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Groups Slam Trade Deal for Choosing 'Private Interests and Profits' over People and Planet
Over 130 organizations publish statement denouncing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and similar 'free trade' pacts
May 28, 2013
Following the most recent round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in Lima, Peru, more than 130 organizations have come out against such international trade agreements calling them a "deadly weapon" against democratic rule, the protection of individual rights and environmental justice.
"These agreements further consolidate the asymmetry of laws that propagate that the rights and power of corporations are protected by 'hard law' and are above the rights of peoples and communities," write the groups write in an open letter criticizing the agreements.
"We believe that Nation-states should have not only the obligation but also the full freedom to implement laws and policies in favour of the people and the environment, without the threat of being sued by transnational capital," the letter continued.
According to the alliance--which includes such groups as Friends of the Earth, Global Trade Watch, Institute for Policy Studies, Global Exchange--under International Investment Agreements (IIAs) such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a co-signed country can be sued by a transnational corporation if their laws or policies go against the interests of the corporations, such as legislation that favors people or the environment.
"International Investment Agreements grant unprecedented rights to foreign corporations and investors," said Alberto Villarreal from Friends of the Earth-Uruguay, adding, "They are deadly weapons against democratic rule and the protection of peoples' rights and environmental justice."
The group is calling on State signatories to "denounce and stop signing" these agreements that have "unlawfully subjected them to foreign jurisdictions and violate peoples' rights."
Rather, they propose an alternative legal framework for international economic relations that is based primarily on democratic principles, prioritizing the rights of humans and nature over "private interests and profits."
They explain:
This framework should include binding obligations for private and public transnational corporations on issues of human rights, as well as economic, labor, social rights, and respect for mother nature. It should also guarantee governments' possibility to enact public policy for the realization of these rights. In this context, any investment agreement should also include a mechanism for public participation and democratic discussion with representatives of the relevant social sectors.
The 11 member states of the Trans-Pacific Partnership--including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, United States of America, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam and Peru--are expected to finalize their negotiations by the end of 2013.
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