Demonstrators demand the release of students arrested at a university in Lima on January 21. Photo: Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images
Anti-government protests in Peru are entering their second month, with growing concerns among human rights groups and political observers that the deadly police crackdown on protesters is leading to a democratic backslide in the country.
Game Status: About 60 people have died and more than 700 have been injured in the past month as protests spread from rural areas to the whole country.
- The situation prompted authorities to shut down Machu Picchu on Saturday, confining tourists to one of the world’s most visited sites and disrupting a key source of income for the country.
- This weekend, police entered the largest public university to disperse protesters and arrest students who police said entered the building illegally. The National University of San Marcos denounced it as abuse of authority.
Catch up fast: The protests began in early December after former President Pedro Castillo was ousted and arrested for trying to dissolve Congress during an impeachment vote.
- Dina Boluarte, who was vice president, replaced him – but Castillo’s supporters want her to step down, accusing her of conspiring with Congress, which they also want to dissolve and make way for immediate elections.
- Boluarte has said “if we made mistakes in trying to achieve peace and tranquility then I apologize for it” and that she will not step down “in response to a tiny group that is making the country bleed”. .
- Boluarte has also claimed that the ammunition linked to the deaths did not come from the police or armed forces.
What you say: The government’s refusal to withdraw police forces points to a “dangerous shift towards authoritarianism,” dozens of Peruvian political scientists and academics wrote in a letter published yesterday in several Peruvian newspapers.
- That makes dialogue unlikely, political scientist Paula Távara Pineda of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru told Axios Latino.
- “Unless the government takes real action… I fear that we will have no way of moving forward in this conflict and that uncertainty about what comes next will only increase,” she adds.
- The protests have also spread to those angry at the police actions, not just Castillo’s supporters, says Távara Pineda.
Many of those killed are between 15 and 30 years old during the protests, according to the country’s human rights ombudsman.
- Many died from bullet or gunshot-like wounds to the head and chest, according to a review of autopsy reports by health news platform Salud con Lupa.
- Edgar Stuardo Ralón Orellana, the Inter-American Commission’s envoy to Peru, said last week that investigations into potential possibilities should begin immediately excessive use of force by the government.
- Police have not responded to allegations of excessive use of force.
The big picture: What is happening in Peru is an indication of the growing disenchantment with government institutions seen across Latin America, analysts say.
- Protesters in Peru say the current Congress is not representative of the people – especially indigenous communities – and that the nation needs a new constitution.
- Only 1 in 5 Latin Americanss says democracy is working and trust in congressional bodies and branches of the judiciary has fallen, according to the first regional poll conducted by Latinobarómetro in 2020 and 2021.
- This could “pave the way for authoritarian populists who rail against a failed establishment” to seize power in the region, warns a recent article in Johns Hopkins’ Journal of Democracy.
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