Democracy and Discontent: Crisis in Peru
Protestors participate in a national strike on January 19 in Lima, Peru. EFE/Paolo Aguilar.
Source for photo: Left Voice
On December 7th of 2022, President Pedro Castillo of Peru, facing impending impeachment proceedings, moved to formally dissolve the nation’s Congress. Immediately following Castillo’s live broadcast to the people of Peru laying out his intentions, Congress convened and voted 101 of 130 seats in favor of the President's removal. Castillo was subsequently arrested on charges of “rebellion and conspiracy” and his Vice President, Dina Boluarte, was sworn in as the new President. Boluarte has since distanced herself from Castillo and has even formally left the Free Peru Party in which they were both members when they ran for office. The weeks following the events have agitated pervasive political and social tensions in the country and have resulted in popular uprisings, as well as harsh government crackdowns. To date, nearly 60 people are estimated to have died in ongoing clashes between police and protesters.
The crisis in Peru is a reflection of longstanding institutional instability and growing discontentment about social, political, and economic inequities. Dr. Evelyne Huber, an expert on Latin American politics and Professor of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill, urges that one must “see the whole context” of what is happening – historically and contemporaneously.
Institutionally, Dr. Huber pointed to Peru’s “extreme instability since redemocratization.” The main issues at stake for the country’s political strength is the lack of effective and disciplined political parties and the extreme stratification of power between certain groups within civic and political society. Referring to the work of notable Political Scientist Steven Levitsky, Dr. Huber says that “Peru doesn’t have political parties worthy of the name,” which has meant that the “Peruvian Congress has been totally ineffective.” Unlike in many other multi-party systems, Peruvian political parties are much more fragmented and lack necessary party discipline to form coherent and productive governing positions. For example, Castillo’s party is the largest faction in the legislative body (plurality of 32 out of 130 seats), but is inexperienced in governing and has therefore been unable to achieve much of his policy agenda. We further looked at the current breakdown of the Peruvian Congress. In the body, there are 10 parties represented – one party has 3 seats, while there are only 5 parties with more than 10 seats. This produces weak ties and “alliances of convenience,” as Dr. Huber put it, leaving little possibility in Congress for reasonable negotiations and compromise. As she more succinctly explained, it becomes a “game of blocking each other rather than governing.”
The structural distribution of power between the executive, Congress, and the judiciary also creates an unstable foundation for the Peruvian political system. For one, broad interpretations of impeachment articles in the constitution effectively make Congress much more powerful than the executive. Over the last thirty years, this disparity has resulted in three unsuccessful impeachment attempts, four successful impeachments, and a number of contested presidents. In 2020, for example, Peru had three presidents in the span of one week. Castillo himself even faced three impeachments during his tenure, with the third successfully removing him from office. Still, some contend that Castillo’s actions are reminiscent of past coups and authoritarianism in Peru, such as the 1992 self-coup by Alberto Fujimori that resulted in a decade-long dictatorship. Making matters worse, Dr. Huber says that the Peruvian judiciary is highly politicized. In 2018, leaked telephone recordings revealing corruption by the highest-ranking judicial officials ignited wide-spread protests. She contends that this prevents the judiciary from being a legitimate deciding force in the country, and, instead, “it’s a naked power struggle between a president and an obstructionist Congress, and a power struggle within Congress.”
For Dr. Huber, these issues are indicative of larger problems of unequal representation in the Peruvian political system. With respect to Castillo, “He campaigned, and was perceived by the masses, as representing the long neglected indigenous and poor parts of the country.” While Peru’s economic circumstances have improved in recent years, the poorer Andean region with its large indigenous population has largely been left out of the gains, and the Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem. Now, following Castillo’s arrest, protests have fallen along those same longstanding divisions between the poor and indigenous and the centers of wealth in Lima.
Castillo’s argument for attempting to dissolve Congress is that the body represents business and elite interests at the expense of the majority of Peruvians. While offering no endorsement of Castillo’s action, Dr. Huber does agree that the makeup and actions of Peru’s Congress is characterized by this division – “From the very beginning, the conservative forces in the legislature were hell bent on making him fail. They obstructed everything.” For example, a major campaign promise that Castillo ran on was rewriting the constitution that many disadvantaged Peruvians feel is biased. Many Peruvians object to the present constitution, primarily because it was enacted during the tenure of former dictator Alberto Fujimori. Moreover, the constitution is seen as a more market-based approach to governance, favoring privatization that many poor Peruvians contend has resulted in extreme price hikes. The move towards a new constitution was rejected by a congressional commission – with eleven voting against and six voting in favor.
Additionally, the country’s media landscape exacerbates and reinforces the divide between the political elite center of Lima and the rest of Peru. In reference to an Al Jazeera quote asserting that establishment media in Peru – which is largely elite owned and controlled – is nakedly at odds with the protesters, “adding fuel to a raging fire,” Dr. Huber agreed. While it is important to note that American and Western media is replete with its own issues of elite ownership and corporate capture, this issue is particularly problematic in Peru. The organization Reporters Without Borders has warned that the country’s lack of government regulation and extreme consolidation poses a threat to press and information freedoms.
Now, two months after Castillo’s arrest, discontent and escalating violence in Peru continue. Polling has shown that around 59 percent of Peruvians support the protestors and nearly three quarters support the resignation of the new president, Dina Boluarte, demanding new elections. While Boluarte has attempted to ease discontent by supporting protesters calls for new Congressional elections, she has also met protests with heavy-handed repression. Although international human rights standards prevent the use of lethal methods to control protest demonstrations, the Peruvian government has repeatedly used indiscriminate live ammunition on protestors. In another move denounced by international human rights organizations, police raided and arrested nearly 100 student protestors at the National University of San Marcos in Lima.
At the moment, the future of Peru remains tenuous. The deep fault lines running through the country’s social fabric are the result of years of political consolidation by some segments of the population. At the same time, the rural poor and indigenous peoples of Peru have overwhelmingly been left out of the political conversation. The most recent events are a continuation of this growing discontent. Moreover, in a remarkable show of “cross-class and cross-country solidarity,” residents in Lima have raised funds and opened their homes to protestors coming to the capital.
What is becoming increasingly apparent is that the current structural issues plaguing Peru are at the heart of the crisis and require immediate attention. Not only does the instability of its institutional structures demand reform, but they must occur under the consultation of the long-repressed masses of Peru’s socially disadvantaged. So far, Boluarte and Congress appear to be unwilling to change course. Instead, their actions have only hardened deep-seated divisions, adding fuel to an already engulfed status quo.