Families carry photos of victims killed by the armed forces in Juliaca, Peru February 9, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS/Pilar Olivares)
On December 7, 2022 a right wing coup removed Perú’s President Pedro Castillo Terrones from power, but the people have protested against the coup regime ever since. Black Agenda Report presents this on the ground report from Perú.
Report From Lima, Perú
National Strike, day 40:
On December 7, 2022 a right-wing coup removed Perú’s President Pedro Castillo Terrones from power. The predominantly poor indigenous rural and Amazonian communities resoundingly and overwhelmingly voted for Castillo, rejecting outright the neoliberal regime installed by the previous governments. Violence not seen since the Alberto Fujimori dictatorship (1990-2000), has been led by the Peruvian Armed Forces, under orders of coup-leader Dina Boluarte, the Fujimorista Fuerza Popular Party, and other political factions.
It’s been over 67 days since the parliamentary coup led by the right-wing forces of Fuerza Popular with their puppet Dina Boluarte, now commonly referred to as “usurper assassin,” at the helm. I write this as at least 77 of our compatriots have been massacred and hundreds more wounded or disappeared. There have been more deaths than days in this dictatorship. The violence unleashed since the December coup against democratically elected president Pedro Castillo has been predominantly targeted at the indigenous rural campesino provinces in “el Perú profundo” (deep Perú), who overwhelmingly voted for the first indigenous campesino president in the republic’s history. Last Saturday January 28th was the first registered death in Lima, a compañero and union leader from the southern province of Huancavelica - ¡Victor Santisteban Yacsavilca, presente! Many more have been injured, including another compañero from Huancavelica, Rolando Marcas Arango, who remains in a coma from a head injury sustained that same night. The people have suffered bodily harm, including those of us in the independent press who have risked our lives to film as they detain and brutalize protesters and the medics brigades who save lives daily. Yet, there has been an aggressive campaign waged by the oligarchy-run Limeña press to malign peaceful protestors as “terrorists” being financed by either Bolivia, illegal mining companies, or any other boogeyman. The press doesn’t tell you that the real terrorists are the ones behind the coup: the Fujimori/Montesinos regime and the US/Western interests.
Among the demands on the streets is a referendum for a constituent assembly to change the Fujimori dictatorship era constitution that chains Perú to the rapacious neoliberal model that has enriched US and Western corporations, the local oligarchy and its corrupt bloody politicians while leaving Perú the fourth most unequal country in the world. The masses have been mobilized and are now increasingly organized with a political project that will upend this system that many see as a continuation of the Monroe Doctrine and Spaniard colonization. Juliaca in the Puno region suffered the largest massacre in one day, which Puñenos themselves say point to the brutality with which this terrorist state will go to make sure the rich lithium reserves of that region (projected to be one of the largest in the world) remain in private hands. This year many of the state contracts with private companies are due to expire, which Pedro Castillo intended to shift to state control, or at least predominantly to state hands. This alone made him an enemy of the Peruvian oligarchy, its fascist and liberal parties, and the Yankee empire at the head, which quickly went to work to undermine his presidency.
The day before the coup took place, Lisa Kenna, CIA veteran and US Ambassador to Peru, met with Defense Minister Gustavo Bobbio Rosas, as the Fujimorista Fuerza Popular controlled Congress prepared its third impeachment against Castillo. In an attempt to thwart the single digits approved Congress, Castillo hoped to dissolve that body with the backing of the armed forces, legally allowed under the current Constitution. Unfortunately, every organ of political power, from the military to his Vice President, betrayed him and more importantly, trampled on the will of the people. The masses on the ground concede we should have never let up and stayed on the streets organizing and making sure that the President followed our demands. Since the US backed parliamentary coup, Lisa Kenna has been busy meeting with all the top officials of the Boluarte regime and private mining companies and investors to maintain US and Western hegemony in the region that SOUTHCOM Commander General Laura Richardson described as “off the charts with rich resources.”
This is exactly what the indignant and organized masses see as the looting of our lands and death of our peoples for the sake of transnational corporations and the pan European colonial imperialist project. And it is what the masses are organizing to defeat, despite the brutal repression, infiltration of organizations, and blood spilt. The steadfastness on the ground will not let up until we see justice for our fallen martyrs and we actually take control of our lands.
Clau O'Brien Moscoso is an organizer with the Black Alliance for Peace in the Haiti/Americas Team. Originally from Barrios Altos, Lima, she grew up in New Jersey and now lives between both countries.
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