The Peruvian Parliament will meet again on Wednesday after once again postponing its decision on the organization of early elections, while a new demonstration against President Dina Boluarte took place in Lima.
“The plenary session is suspended and will resume on February 1 at 11 a.m.” (4 p.m. GMT), Parliament announced on its Twitter account on Tuesday evening.
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 claimed 48 lives 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.
“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 leftist deputy Edgar Tello.
Ms. 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 confidence of the country by responding to this long-awaited request of the Peruvian people. Vote for Peru by advancing the elections to 2023 and say to 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 functions” by calling for a new large demonstration in the capital for this Tuesday afternoon.
Hundreds of people marched through the city center approaching some 200 meters from Parliament.
Around 8:00 p.m., scuffles broke out with tear gas shots, when a large part of the demonstrators had already dispersed.
“Ms. Boluarte is believed to have flouted her principles and disrespected the people (by not resigning when Castillo was impeached). A disloyal person cannot stay in government,” Nelson Calderon told AFP. a 30-year-old student.
“Even if we advance the elections, the only demand of the people remains the resignation of Mrs. Dina Boluarte. What does an early election change if the people do not want Dina Boluarte? The people no longer want to speak with a person who murdered his own people,” he added.
Fanny Yucra, 25, from Moho, also in the Puno region, said 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.
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.
Hundreds of people protested again on Tuesday in the south of the country. Thus, in the Andean town of Juliaca (Puno region, border with Bolivia) where 18 people were killed in clashes with the police on January 9, peasants in traditional dress marched to cries of “the united people do not will never be defeated”.
In Cuzco (south), the country’s tourist capital, near the famous Inca site of Machu Picchu, demonstrators also marched through the city, forcing businesses to close.
01/02/2023 13:26:17 – Lima (AFP) – © 2023 AFP