The Peru government did not yield to the demands of the people Protests in Lima reached the US Embassy.

Page/12 in Peru

(from Lima)

The Left Opposition will present a motion on Thursday Remove President Tina Polwart for “moral incompetence.” By government repression. Anti-government protests that began in December have left more than fifty people dead, 46 of whom were shot dead by security forces. A unanimous two-thirds vote of the 130-member Congress is required to pass the recall. Right wing support defends from Boluarte.

Demonstrators gathered in front of diplomatic headquarters in an exclusive residential area to protest the country’s support for the government, which reached the US embassy and called for the president’s resignation. “Yankees get out,” he said.

For the seventh day in a row, rallies took to the streets of Lima on Wednesday, which has become the epicenter of protests that have rocked the country since a week in the southern Andes. Immigrants from the interior of the country play an important role in the capital. Demonstrations in the capital these days ended in heavy repression with dozens injured.

Inside too

In various areas, daily mobilization and roadblocks continue. Protesters and police were injured in the blockade along the Pan-American Highway, 290 kilometers south of Lima. The Andean region of Puno on the border with Bolivia — the center of the largest protests and repression with more than two dozen deaths — has been militarized. Hundreds of soldiers came to this area. Puno has extended its curfew starting at 8:00 p.m.

Amid questions of brutal repression, the government decided to reward the police with economic bonuses. Amount not disclosed. The head of the cabinet, Alberto Otárola, is a retired general accused of human rights abuses after walking out of a meeting with the president of Congress, José Williams. The meeting was held at the Assembly headquarters. In a joint presentation to reporters, the duo apologized for the suppression and refused to take questions.

With a devastating death toll from security forces firing, hundreds injured, beatings and arbitrary arrests, Otárola and Williams praised the police’s conduct, describing it as “very professional” and “brave”. “We will seek loan to give special bonus to the heroic policemen”Otárola said it was the most visible face of government authoritarianism. “They have earned it well,” said the ex-army man accused of killing 69 farmers, who is now Congress president.

The election date has not been changed

Odarola unexpectedly arrived in Parliament with the Ministers of Interior, Defense and Justice. Amidst massive protests calling for Boluarte and this year’s elections to be withdrawn, the surprise meeting was expected to see the executive present a bill to Congress to advance elections to this year, not 2024. No it was like this. The Congress government and the right-wing majority agreed that elections should be held in April 2024., indifference to what popular demands and crisis analysts advise. This meant a regime change only in July next year, a date that was rejected by mass mobilizations as it was considered too far off.

The call for elections in 2024 must be approved in a second referendum after its approval last December. 87 out of 130 votes are required. 93 votes were received in the first ballot. There are Left Congressmen who voted in December in favor of the 2024 elections because the Right ruling the Congress has left no other alternative. But not approving early elections would have been worse, according to left-wing lawmakers pushing for elections this year: they will present the plan to Congress this Thursday.

The Left wants it before the election

The Left is proposing elections in October 2023 and a regime change in December this year. This option will help calm social unrest. But the parliamentary right, dominated by the far-right aligned with the government, is pushing for 2024 and wants to block this year’s election. They are looking for time to make reforms that will facilitate their victory in the next elections, such as trying to control electoral systems. Holding elections only next year will complicate the way out of the political crisis. Denies the full right to call a Constituent Assembly, another popular demand.

President at the OAS

Boluarte appeared before the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) this Wednesday with his usual double speech. He said that his administration respects the right to protest and human rights, but in reality it suppresses them and implements a policy that violates human rights. He said he was pained by the deaths and promised that the culprits would be investigated and punished. But she and her ministers continue to support the security forces. And it aims to blame protesters for their deaths. Again he evaded his responsibility for giving orders for repression and for supporting it. Two hours earlier, his chief of staff called the police officers “heroes” and announced the economic reward.

Without mentioning them directly, Pollard criticized presidents who questioned their government because of repression. He slipped that these leaders would support violence. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its complaint to the Chilean government for criticizing President Gabriel Boric’s Celac meeting of repression by the Peruvian government. The Boluarte administration has also clashed with the governments of Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico for the same reason, while being isolated internationally. Right pressure on him to break with the region’s progressive governments. The far-right’s frenzy peaked with a statement by Fujimori congressman Ernesto Bustamante, demanding a declaration of war on Bolivia and the neighboring country invading after his government backed demonstrations in Peru.

Intellectuals and well-known cultural and artistic figures in the country have launched an international campaign for their counterparts from other countries to post videos on social networks denouncing the repression in Peru, which they describe as “a massacre”.

This Wednesday Manufacturing Minister Sandra Bellande resigned, a decision to exacerbate the crisis of a lopsided government. This is the eighth ministerial change in the government in less than two months. Of the seven ministers who were replaced earlier, four resigned after questioning the government’s crackdown on bloody protests.