Peru’s new president, Dina Boluarte, has announced plans to move forward with general elections amid deadly protests over the ousting of her predecessor Pedro Castillo after he attempted to dissolve congress.
In a televised address early on Monday, Boluarte said she would submit a bill to bring general elections forward two years, to April 2024. But her proposal is unlikely to placate surging protests as Castillo supporters call for Peru’s widely loathed congress to be closed and early elections.
Boluarte’s announcement came after days of violent unrest across the country. In the city of Andahuaylas, clashes between Castillo supporters and police lead to two deaths – a 15- and 18-year-old – and four injured – among them a 19-year-old who is in a serious condition.
The two adolescents died “possibly as a result of gunshot wounds”, the head of Peru’s human rights ombudsman’s office, Eliana Revollar, told national radio. Boluarte announced a state of emergency in the zones of “high social conflict” in the southern regions of Apurímac, Arequipa and Ica, where protesters angry at what they see as a coup plot by congress to oust Castillo have blocked roads and stalled two airports.
Protests were widespread in rural strongholds of support for Castillo, a former schoolteacher and political novice from a poor Andean region, who was removed from office and detained on charges of “rebellion” on Wednesday after he announced he would shutter congress and rule by decree – just hours before he was due to face an impeachment vote. On Sunday, congress stripped Castillo of presidential immunity as he faces charges of “breaching the constitution”.
The demonstrators accuse Boluarte – Castillo’s vice-president who was sworn in just hours after he was ousted – of betraying the former leader and usurping the presidency. Protesters in the capital, Lima, joined thousands across the country clashing with riot police who used teargas and baton charges to push them back.
“We don’t agree with the way our president was ousted, with lies and trickery,” said Laura Pacheco, a Castillo supporter protesting in San Martín square in downtown Lima.
“[Boluarte] doesn’t deserve to be president, she hasn’t been elected by the people. We are defending our democratic rights, we don’t want to be governed by a usurper,” she added.
Lucía, who did not want to give her last name, was among hundreds of horn-blaring, flag-waving protesters calling for Boluarte and the deeply unpopular congress to go.
“We want the congress to be shut down, we want new elections for Peru, where the people can choose who governs them,” she said
“Castillo tried to shut down congress because that’s what the people wanted. It’s a vipers’ nest!” she added, highlighting the widely held view that the unicameral congress is a venal hub of vested interests and corruption.
While virtually all the protesters called for the shutdown of congress, some held placards calling Castillo a “national hero” – not because of his inept government but because he attempted to close the hated chamber, which has been consistently more despised than the roster of unpopular former presidents.
Some 86% of Peruvians disapprove of congress, more than the 61% disapproval rating for Castillo, according to a November opinion poll by the Institute of Peruvian Studies. The same poll indicated that the vast majority of Peruvians, 87%, would prefer fresh general elections and a renewed congress in the event that Castillo was ousted.
“The crisis has not abated,” said Fernando Tuesta, a political science professor at Lima’s Pontifical Catholic University and former head of Peru’s electoral authority.
“Despite the proposal to bring forward the elections, the government of Dina Boluarte, already weak, has to deal with an unreliable congress, a cabinet with holes in it and, above all, it has to know how to placate the demonstrations, which are growing angrily,” he said.
“If it’s not handled well, [Boluarte] may become the centre for the attacks,” he added.
Boluarte, who had initially expressed her wish to remain in office until 2026 when Castillo’s term officially ends, expressed her condolences to the families of the teenage victims. “I deeply regret the death of our compatriots in Andahuaylas, Apurímac, my homeland,” she said in her national address.
More than 20 journalists have been attacked during several days of protests, according to Peru’s national association of journalists, either due to “excessive use of force by police officers to aggression, insults and attempted stripping of journalists’ work equipment by demonstrators”, the association said in a statement.
