(Lima) The Peruvian Parliament once again postponed its decision on the organization of early elections on Tuesday, while a new demonstration against President Dina Boluarte was organized in Lima.
“The plenary session is suspended and will resume on 1er February at 11 a.m.,” the Parliament’s Twitter account announced. The parliamentarians had already postponed the session originally scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Dina Boluarte and the right-wing Fuerza Popular (Popular Force) party advocate bringing forward the ballot scheduled for April 2024 to October 2023, hoping that this will calm the protest which has left 48 people dead since December 7.
The parliament, which has already rejected a proposal for early elections on Saturday, has been dithering since Friday. On Monday, more than seven hours of discussions were not enough, and on Tuesday the deputies preferred to postpone the decision again.
PHOTO ANGELA PONCE, REUTERS
The President of Peru, Dina Boluarte
“The crisis in Peru is due to the failed neoliberal model […] what must go hand in hand with these early elections is the popular consultation for a Constituent Assembly,” said left-wing deputy Edgar Tello.
Boluarte had put pressure on Parliament on Sunday evening, launching during an address to the Nation: “Ladies and gentlemen of Parliament, you must understand your historical responsibility. Tomorrow (Monday) you have the opportunity to gain the trust of the country by responding to this long-awaited request of the Peruvian people. Vote for Peru by advancing the elections to 2023 and tell all of Peru with the greatest responsibility that we are all leaving”.
The demonstrators demand the resignation of Dina Boluarte, but also the dissolution of Parliament, largely discredited in public opinion, general elections and a Constituent Assembly.
The unrest erupted after the dismissal and arrest on December 7 of leftist President Pedro Castillo, accused of having attempted a coup d’etat in order to dissolve the Parliament which was preparing to oust him from power. Vice-President Dina Boluarte, whom the protesters consider a “traitor”, then replaced him.
Gerónimo Lopez, of the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), accused the deputies on Monday of “clinging” to “their duties” by calling for a new major demonstration in the capital for this Tuesday afternoon.
Several hundred people had begun to gather in the city center around 4 p.m.
“It is estimated that M.me Boluarte flouted his principles and disrespected the people (by not resigning upon Castillo’s impeachment). A disloyal person cannot stay in government,” Nelson Calderon, a 30-year-old student, told AFP in downtown.
“political interests”
“Even if we bring forward the elections, the only demand of the people remains the resignation of Mr.me Dina Boluarte. What difference does an early election make if the people don’t want Dina Boluarte? The people no longer want to speak with a person who murdered their own people,” he added.
Fanny Yucra, 25, from Moho, also in the Puno region, assures her that politicians “only see their political interests, not those of Peruvians. We will continue with the protests until the end”.
Thousands of protesters have left the Andes for several days to demonstrate in the capital, believing that they were not heard in their regions.
PHOTO GUADALUPE PARDO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Soldiers stand along the Pan American Highway in Barrio Chino, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, the day after security forces lifted an intermittent roadblock erected by anti-government protesters.
The crisis reflects the huge rift between the capital and the impoverished provinces that backed Native American Pedro Castillo and saw his election as revenge for what they felt was Lima’s contempt.
A small demonstration had already taken place in the morning near the airport. A first protester died in Lima on Saturday during protests downtown.
Hundreds of people protested again on Tuesday in the south of the country. Thus, in the Andean city of Juliaca (Puno region, border with Bolivia) where 18 people were killed during clashes with the police on January 9, peasants in traditional dress marched to cries of “the united people will never be defeated”.
In Cuzco (south), the country’s tourist capital, near the famous Inca site of Machu Picchu, protesters also marched through the city, forcing businesses to close.