(Lima) The Peruvian Parliament, widely discredited in public opinion, refused on Friday to advance the general elections, while the country is shaken by a serious political crisis, with demonstrations severely repressed which left 18 dead, and that 5000 tourists are stranded in the famous Machu Picchu area.
The failure of the bill, introduced by a party that was once in opposition to the president deposed on December 7, Pedro Castillo, places the new president Dina Boluarte in a difficult situation, and risks exacerbating the demonstrators including two of the main demands were an immediate general election and the dissolution of Parliament.
The proposal to advance the ballot from April 2026 to December 2023 only won 49 votes (87 were needed for a 2/3 majority of the 130 deputies). Its approval would have shortened the mandate of the deputies.
Mme Dina Boluarte – former vice-president who succeeded Mr. Castillo – had pledged to advance the elections to try to stem the dispute.
“The next step is the resignation of Dina Boluarte, and a democratic transition,” said leftist MP Ruth Luque, who abstained, adding that she preferred a referendum on a “Constituent Assembly”.
“Mme Boluarte must resign because of the death toll,” said centrist MP Susel Paredes, who voted in favour.
In the event of the resignation of the President, her constitutional successor is the Speaker of Parliament, José Williams. If he renounced, the presidency would fail the president of the Supreme Court who, on the other hand, would then have to organize new elections.
The president met Friday for the second time in less than three days the Council of State, which includes the heads of the three powers: executive, legislative and judicial.
According to a tweet from the Department of Foreign Affairs account, the President spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who “reiterated US support for Peru” and “offered to continue supporting the democratic institutional process” in Peru.
From neighboring Colombia, left-wing president Gustavo Petro said it was a “scandal” to see “a president chosen by the people in preventive detention”.
The demonstrations, which also demand the release of Mr. Castillo and the resignation of Mr.me Boluarte, continued on Friday in particular in Arequipa (South), Huancayo (Center), Cuzco (South-East), Ayacucho (South) or Puno (Bolivian border).
PHOTO SEBASTIAN CASTANEDA, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Ousted Peruvian President Pedro Castillo
The death toll is now 18, according to the Ministry of Health. Several victims were killed by bullets fired by the police and the army. According to a human rights NGO, 147 people were arrested.
“Tense shots”
On December 7, the ousted president of the radical left Pedro Castillo, 53, ordered the dissolution of Parliament, which shortly after voted, by a large majority, his dismissal for “moral incapacity”.
He had been arrested while trying to find refuge in the Mexican Embassy.
Overwhelmed, the government declared a state of emergency on Wednesday throughout the territory which authorizes the intervention of the army.
“The state of emergency does not protect the right to life”, worried to AFP the Defender of the People [médiatrice] Eliana Revollar, who lamented “eight deaths in one day [jeudi] in Ayacucho.
Thursday, the demonstrators had tried to invest the airport but had been repelled by the army.
The soldiers “were surrounded by the crowd. They were ordered to threaten to shoot, then to shoot in the air but later there was heavy shooting,” she said.
In addition, six deaths were recorded following events related to roadblocks, including the impossibility of reaching a hospital.
Some 500 people were injured. According to the Defense Ministry, more than 300 of them are law enforcement personnel.
Helicopters in Machu Picchu
Five airports were closed Friday morning in the south of the country, Andahuaylas, Arequipa, Puno, Ayacucho and Cuzco, the country’s tourist capital.
PHOTO PAUL GAMBIN, REUTERS
Cusco’s Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport, the country’s third busiest, had been closed since Monday as protesters tried to break in as protests in the city of Cusco continue, according to the mayor.
The airport of Cuzco, the country’s tourist capital, reopened in the afternoon, allowing the start of the evacuation of tourists, according to images released by the Ministry of Defense.
In the morning, Darwin Baca, mayor of Machu Picchu, told AFP that “5,000 tourists” were stranded in Cuzco.
At least 622 tourists, including 525 foreigners, are stranded on the site itself, according to a census of the municipality. The train, stopped since Tuesday, is the only modern way to get to the citadel from Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire, 110 km away.
The army will send a helicopter on Saturday which will provide “four humanitarian flights for the transfer of tourists” from Machu Picchu to Cuzco, according to the municipality, which specifies that priority will be given to families with “children and vulnerable people”.
Some 200 tourists, mainly North Americans and Europeans, left the area on foot, following the railway line to reach Ollantaytambo, 30 km away, where buses were waiting for them.