Political Instability and Turmoil: A Peruvian Recipe for Disaster
Peru is a country ridden with political instability, but what is behind the latest violent protests?
By Dominique Garreaud
Peru has had six presidents in the past five years, with the shortest stint at the job lasting only five full days. It is a country ridden with political instability with seemingly no way out of it. The past two electoral cycles (one solely to pick a new set of congresspeople and another one for presidential and new congress elections) have promised deep changes and a future of government stability, but with people calling for the resignation of the current president, it is evident this hasn’t happened.
In the past few weeks, these calls for resignation have devolved into deadly violence. Clashes between the police and protesters have been taking place all around Peru, with over forty people dead from both sides. This violent unrest started at the beginning of December, after then-President Pedro Castillo was removed by Congress after his failed attempt at a coup. He was then replaced with his vice president, Dina Boluarte, who Castillo’s supporters call a traitor for betraying her promise to leave with Castillo if he were ousted. Castillo, who has been accused of corruption in multiple investigations, had previously survived two impeachment attempts before trying to dissolve Congress and is now being detained in prison while being investigated for rebellion against the country.
Though this dramatic ousting was seen as something positive by many, especially in the capital of Lima, it also elicited feelings of deep anger amongst those in the rural Peruvian provinces, as they saw themselves in Castillo: poor, with indigenous roots, and from a farming family. With 30 percent of the country officially deemed poor or extremely poor by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, the roots of injustice and inequality run deep, and those who feel forgotten or systematically neglected by the government are calling for change. The public is demanding for Boluarte to resign, new presidential elections to be held sooner rather than later, and the establishment of a Constitutional Assembly to change the 1993 Constitution that is currently in place.
Although Boluarte has held several press conferences indicating she has no intention of resigning, she, and other congresspeople have made attempts at congressional approval for early elections to be held as soon as October of this year. This has been met with a strong “no” from Congress, where it seems that the majority of congresspeople are trying to hold onto their jobs and paychecks instead of putting the country’s needs first. They have now shelved three different bills for early elections, citing various technicalities as the reason for these bills not moving forward and sometimes not even reaching the point of debate on the Congress floor. This debate cannot be taken up again until July, and the interim months will only fuel even more discontent among those hoping for early elections to put an end to the chaos.
Despite what many analysts predicted — that Congress would eventually pass an early elections bill and that the calm after the storm would follow — protests and roadblocks in the southern Andes have not stopped. The copper rich area, home to historic touristic sites like Machu Picchu, is an important driver of Peru’s constant economic growth. Although the area’s economy heavily relies on tourism, the government has decided to indefinitely close the popular Incan citadel in the midst of the chaos “to protect the safety of tourists and the population in general” after over 400 tourists had to be evacuated from the historic site. Even now, the roadblocks around the country and especially those concentrated in the south have no end in sight, as some of these protesters see the continued protests as the only solution for Congress’ constant failure to meet their early elections demand.
Peru has been ensnared in this political crisis for the past eight or so years, with constant promises that the next government will finally take the country out of this crisis only for that hope to be dashed time and time again. Further, congress is fragmented, with a terribly set multi-party system that constantly births new political groups, making it all but impossible for parties to agree on anything. Currently, there are thirteen different voting blocs, with the largest party holding only 24 out of the 130 available seats. Easily reaching any type of majority is a non-existent concept in Peru’s heavily broken system, stifling any chance of progress before it can even begin.
This protest is the direct result of years of an inefficient democratic system, a murky and often confusing Constitution and a deeply divided country. Peru needs a complete reform of its political system. This is not a shocking statement. After the turmoil of having six presidents and dozens of different Minister Cabinets in just five years, most Peruvians would agree that the system is broken and must be fixed. However, the problem arises when talks about changes in the Constitution come. The current 1993 Constitution, which has already been revisited various times, is terribly ambiguous and gives excessive powers to Congress. But should a Constitutional Assembly be called, and who would lead it? There are no apparent answers to these important questions, with those on the right scared that the left would be in charge and turn Peru into “a Venezuela-like" country, while those on the left don’t want the right to take the lead given that they would probably make it even more beneficial for the private sector and not listen to other demands.
There doesn’t seem to be clarity on how this situation will resolve itself. Either Congress finally agrees and early elections are called for, or the deadly, violent protests continue to unravel with no clear vision as to where that would take the country other than into further chaos. It is a sad time to be Peruvian and see your country fall deeper into what seems to be an unsolvable situation. I can only hope for my beautiful yet complex home country to find some type of stability soon, with less division and a more efficient democratic system as the ingredients for a better and brighter future.
Dominique Garreaud is a Master of Public Policy candidate at the Max Bell School at McGill University. Originally from Peru, her interests lie in education, gender, and social services policy.