[News] Peru’s Oligarchy Overthrows President Castillo

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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*Peru’s Oligarchy Overthrows President Castillo * 
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*By Manolo De Los Santos*

June 6, 2021, was a day which shocked many in Peru’s oligarchy. Pedro 
Castillo Terrones, a rural schoolteacher who had never before been 
elected to office, won the second round of the presidential election 
with just over 50.13% of the vote. More than 8.8 million people voted 
for Castillo’s program of profound social reforms and the promise of a 
new constitution against the far-right’s candidate, Keiko Fujimori. In a 
dramatic turn of events, the historical agenda of neoliberalism and 
repression, passed down by former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori to 
his daughter Keiko, was rejected at the polls.

 From that day on, still in disbelief, the Peruvian oligarchy declared 
war on Castillo. They made the next 18 months for the new president a 
period of great hostility as they sought to destabilize his government 
with a multi-pronged attack that included significant use of lawfare. 
With a call to “throw out communism,” plans were made by the oligarchy’s 
leading business group, the National Society of Industries, to make the 
country ungovernable under Castillo.

In October 2021, recordings were released 
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that revealed that since June 2021, this group of industrialists, along 
with other members of Peru’s elite and leaders of the right-wing 
opposition parties, had been planning a series of actions including 
financing protests and strikes. Groups of former military 
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personnel, allied with far-right politicians like Fujimori, began to 
openly call for the violent overthrow of Castillo, threatening 
government officials and left-leaning journalists.

The right-wing in Congress also joined in these plans and attempted to 
impeach Castillo on two occasions during his first year in office. 
“Since my inauguration as president, the political sector has not 
accepted the electoral victory that the Peruvian people gave us,” 
Castillo said in March 
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2022. “I understand the power of Congress to exercise oversight and 
political control, however, these mechanisms cannot be exercised by 
mediating the abuse of the right, proscribed in the constitution, 
ignoring the popular will expressed at the polls,” he stressed. It turns 
out that several of these lawmakers, with support from a right-wing 
German foundation, had also been meeting 
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regarding how to modify the constitution to quickly remove Castillo from 
office.

The oligarchic rulers of Peru could never accept that a rural 
schoolteacher and peasant leader could be brought into office by 
millions of poor, Black, and Indigenous people who saw their hope for a 
better future in Castillo. However, in the face of these attacks, 
Castillo became more and more distanced from his political base. 
Castillo formed four different cabinets to appease the business sectors, 
each time conceding to right-wing demands to remove leftist ministers 
who challenged the status quo. He broke 
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with his party Peru Libre when openly challenged by its leaders. He 
sought 
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help from the already discredited Organization of American States in 
looking for political solutions instead of mobilizing the country’s 
major peasant and Indigenous movements. By the end, Castillo was 
fighting alone, without support from the masses or the Peruvian left 
parties.

The final crisis for Castillo broke out on December 7, 2022. Weakened by 
months of corruption allegations, left infighting, and multiple attempts 
to criminalize him, Castillo was finally overthrown and imprisoned. He 
was replaced by his vice president, Dina Boluarte, who was sworn in 
after Congress impeached Castillo with 101 votes in favor, six against, 
and ten abstentions.

The vote came hours after he announced on television to the country that 
Castillo was dissolving Congress. He did so preemptively, three hours 
before the start of the congressional session in which a motion to 
dismiss him for “permanent moral incapacity” was to be debated and voted 
on due to allegations of corruption that are under investigation. 
Castillo also announced the start of an “exceptional emergency 
government” and the convening of a Constituent Assembly within nine 
months. He said that until the Constituent Assembly was installed, he 
would rule by decree. In his last message as president, he also decreed 
a curfew to begin at 10 o’clock that night. The curfew, as well as his 
other measures, was never applied. Hours later, Castillo was overthrown.

Boluarte was sworn in by Congress as Castillo was detained at a police 
station. A few demonstrations broke out in the capital Lima, but nowhere 
near large enough to reverse the coup which was nearly a year and a half 
in the making, the latest in Latin America’s long history of violence 
against radical transformations.

The coup against Pedro Castillo is a major setback for the current wave 
of progressive governments in Latin America and the people’s movements 
that elected them. This coup and the arrest of Castillo are stark 
reminders that the ruling elites of Latin America will not concede any 
power without a bitter fight to the end. And now that the dust has 
settled, the only winners are the Peruvian oligarchy and their friends 
in Washington.

/*Manolo De Los Santos* is the co-executive director of the People’s 
Forum 
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-12-08/sr5dcm/1211494935?h=OO01xW0PmuLsMNC-8O2Umxg08lh-Um0CZL8lsZuJpkY> 
and is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research 
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-12-08/sr5dcq/1211494935?h=OO01xW0PmuLsMNC-8O2Umxg08lh-Um0CZL8lsZuJpkY>. 
He co-edited, most recently, /Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War/ 
(LeftWord Books 
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/catalog-product-view-id-22050/sr5dct/1211494935?h=OO01xW0PmuLsMNC-8O2Umxg08lh-Um0CZL8lsZuJpkY>/1804 
Books 
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/iremos-venezuela-vs-hybrid-war/sr5dcx/1211494935?h=OO01xW0PmuLsMNC-8O2Umxg08lh-Um0CZL8lsZuJpkY>, 
2020) and /Comrade of the Revolution: Selected Speeches of Fidel Castro/ 
(LeftWord Books 
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/catalog-product-view-id-22524/sr5dd1/1211494935?h=OO01xW0PmuLsMNC-8O2Umxg08lh-Um0CZL8lsZuJpkY>/1804 
Books 
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ected-speeches-of-fidel-castro/sr5dd4/1211494935?h=OO01xW0PmuLsMNC-8O2Umxg08lh-Um0CZL8lsZuJpkY>, 
2021). He is a co-coordinator of the People’s Summit for Democracy 
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-12-08/sr5dd7/1211494935?h=OO01xW0PmuLsMNC-8O2Umxg08lh-Um0CZL8lsZuJpkY>./

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