[News] Latin America Rejects Coup In Peru, While US Supports Unelected Regime

[Anti-Imperialist News]

popularresistance.org
<https://popularresistance.org/latin-america-rejects-coup-in-peru-while-us-supports-unelected-regime-killing-protesters/>
Latin America Rejects Coup In Peru, While US Supports Unelected Regime
By Ben Norton, Multipolarista - December 22, 2022
------------------------------
[image: image.png]
At least 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the
coup in Peru, backing President Pedro Castillo.

*The unelected regime, which has killed dozens of protesters, has the
staunch support of the US and the region’s right wing.*

More than a dozen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have
condemned the coup in Peru and backed democratically elected President
Pedro Castillo.

Meanwhile, the US government has staunchly supported the coup regime, which
has suspended civil liberties, imprisoned Castillo for 18 months without
trial, and unleashed extreme violence on Peruvian protesters, killing
dozens and wounding hundreds.


At least 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have publicly
expressed support for Peru’s President Castillo, including:

*Mexico (the second-most populous country in Latin America
<https://www.statista.com/statistics/988453/number-inhabitants-latin-america-caribbean-country/>),
Colombia (the third-most populous country), Argentina (the fourth-most
populous), Venezuela (the sixth-most populous), Bolivia, Nicaragua,
Honduras, Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and
NevisSaint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines*

On the other side, Peru’s unelected coup regime has the strong support of
the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil’s far-right Jair Bolsonaro
administration and the right-wing governments in Ecuador, Uruguay, and
Costa Rica.

Chile, led by liberal President Gabriel Boric, is the only country with an
ostensibly left-of-center government that has joined the US and the
region’s right wing in backing the coup in Peru.

Peru’s coup regime also has the support of Washington’s Organization of
American States (OAS), which acts as an instrument of US foreign policy
<https://multipolarista.com/2021/11/19/nicaragua-oas-us-coup/>.
Peru’s US-Backed Coup Regime Imposes Brutal Authoritarian Rule, Bringing
Back Elements Of Fujimori Dictatorship

Since Castillo was overthrown in the December 7 coup
<https://multipolarista.com/2022/12/10/peru-coup-president-pedro-castillo/>,
Peru’s unelected de facto leader Dina Boluarte has cracked down harshly,
sending the military and police to kill protesters.

State security services have raided the offices
<https://twitter.com/Laantigona/status/1604145126703599619> of social
movements, labor unions, and left-wing political parties and arrested their
leaders, targeting the Campesino Confederation of Peru, the Peruvian
Socialist Party, and the leftist party Nuevo Perú.

Numerous activists have reported that the coup regime is planting weapons
<https://twitter.com/NuevoPeruMov/status/1604138175403679744> and other
materials in order to falsely accuse protesters of “terrorism.”

This witness at Peru’s Peasant Confederation says police raided their
office, detained them, and planted weapons and other materials that do not
belong to them

Peru’s coup regime and oligarch-controlled media are trying to frame
protesters as “terrorists”https://t.co/am8L9ztYiY

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 17, 2022
<https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604199322274365440?ref_src=twsrc^tfw>

Peru’s US-backed coup regime has also brought back war criminals who worked
in the far-right dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s.

The man appointed chief of Peru’s notorious National Directorate of
Intelligence (DINI), Juan Carlos Liendo O’Connor, previously served in the
feared National Intelligence Service (SIN) in the Fujimori dictatorship.
Liendo O’Connor’s boss was sentenced to 35 years in prison
<https://larepublica.pe/politica/gobierno/2022/12/20/gobierno-nombro-como-jefe-de-la-dini-a-exoficial-del-sin-de-vladimiro-montesinos-juan-carlos-liendo-dina-boluarte-julio-salazar-monroe/>
for
murdering and disappearing left-wing activists.

Today, Liendo O’Connor, the coup regime’s new intelligence chief, is
borrowing the same tactics used by the Fujimorista dictatorship. He
demonizes protesters as “terrorists,” thereby justifying the use of
violence against them.
US State Department Reiterates Support For Peru’s Violent Coup Regime

While Peru’s coup regime is killing protesters, suspending civil liberties,
and bringing back war criminals from the Fujimori dictatorship, the United
States is praising it for supposedly defending “democracy.”

Coup leader Boluarte held a friendly call with US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken on December 16. Her office boasted that he “reiterated the support
of the United States.”

La presidenta de la república, @DinaErcilia
<https://twitter.com/DinaErcilia?ref_src=twsrc^tfw> Boluarte, dialogó
telefónicamente con el Secretario de Estado de @LaCasaBlanca
<https://twitter.com/LaCasaBlanca?ref_src=twsrc^tfw>, @SecBlinken
<https://twitter.com/SecBlinken?ref_src=twsrc^tfw>, quien le reiteró el
respaldo de los Estados Unidos al gobierno que lidera.
pic.twitter.com/dMn11CInxv <https://t.co/dMn11CInxv>

— Presidencia del Perú  (@presidenciaperu) December 17, 2022
<https://twitter.com/presidenciaperu/status/1603937971576705025?ref_src=twsrc^tfw>

The State Department confirmed this call in a readout
<https://www.state.gov/secretary-blinkens-call-with-peruvian-president-boluarte/>,
stating, “The United States looks forward to working closely with President
Boluarte on shared goals and values related to democracy, human rights,
security, anti-corruption, and economic prosperity.”

Washington did not mention the dozens of protesters who have been killed
and hundreds more who have been wounded by Boluarte’s unelected coup regime.

CIA agent turned State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington spoke
with the coup leader to “reinforce our partnership and emphasize U.S.
support for a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous Peru.”

. at SecBlinken <https://twitter.com/SecBlinken?ref_src=twsrc^tfw> spoke with
Peruvian President @DinaErcilia
<https://twitter.com/DinaErcilia?ref_src=twsrc^tfw> today to reinforce our
partnership and emphasize U.S. support for a peaceful, democratic, and
prosperous Peru. https://t.co/kdztJZjGw1

— Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) December 18, 2022
<https://twitter.com/StateDeptSpox/status/1604491333389127682?ref_src=twsrc^tfw>

14 Countries In Latin America And The Caribbean Condemn Peru’s US-Backed
Coup Regime

Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia published a joint statement
supporting President Castillo, who they recognized was democratically
elected by the people of Peru.

“For the world, it is not news that President Castillo Terrones, since the
day of his election, was victim of anti-democratic harassment,” they wrote.

The government of Mexico’s left-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
(AMLO) even announced a formal “pause” in its diplomatic relations
<https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/nacional/2022/12/14/el-presidente-pone-pausa-en-relacion-con-peru/>
with
Peru’s unelected regime.

Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia released a joint statement
supporting Peru’s elected President Pedro Castillo, saying he is victim of
“anti-democratic harassment,” following a US-backed coup.

Gustavo Petro recognized it was a “parliamentary coup”
https://t.co/pxyxM1hHpU

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 13, 2022
<https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1602782388270014468?ref_src=twsrc^tfw>

Colombia’s President Petro
<https://multipolarista.com/2022/12/19/colombia-petro-coup-peru-castillo/>
denounced
the ouster of Castillo as a “parliamentary coup.” He added that the putsch
is a warning for all elected left-wing leaders in Latin America.

Petro declared that “the Latin American oligarchy doesn’t want
progressivism,” and “what they can’t win at the ballot box, they are trying
to topple.”

. <https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604842136469639168?>

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the
left-wing economic and political bloc that consists of 10 countries in
Latin America and the Caribbean, released a similar statement supporting
Castillo.

“We reject the political trap created by the right-wing forces of that
country against the Constitutional President Pedro Castillo, forcing him to
take measures that were later used by his adversaries in parliament to oust
him from office,” ALBA wrote.

“We repudiate the repression by the law enforcement agencies against the
Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at
the polls,” they added.

ALBA members include Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and the Caribbean
nations of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis,
Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

. <https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1603777209352835073?>

Honduras also emphasized its “energetic condemnation of the coup d’etat
<https://multipolarista.com/2022/12/13/honduras-coup-peru-pedro-castillo/>”
against Peruvian President Castillo, stating that he represents the
“sovereign will of the people.”

“Coups d’etat should not be carried out,” declared the left-wing Honduran
government of President Xiomara Castro, who restored democracy in 2021
after 12 years of right-wing coup regimes sponsored by the United States.

. <https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1602697725870489601?>

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro made a powerful speech
<https://mppre.gob.ve/2022/12/08/peru-victima-plan-golpista-oligarquias/>
denouncing
the coup in Peru, stating:

One sees what the Peruvian people are suffering. They elect a teacher,
President Pedro Castillo, and since the first moment of the election, they
don’t want to recognize his victory, they ignore the victory.And at the end
they were forced by reality to recognize his victory as president, and once
he was sworn in on July 28, 2021, they begin to conspire to launch a
parliamentary coup.And so begins the attack and the wearing away, votes of
condemnation against his ministers, permanent harassment.…They led him to
the extreme of trying to dissolve the congress of Peru.And all the
circumstances that we have seen are the oligarchic elites who don’t allow a
humble teacher to rise to the presidency of Peru and try to govern for the
people.

Maduro said this is a message “that the extreme right is sending to the
popular and progressive movements: ‘We are not going to let them govern.’”

. <https://twitter.com/CancilleriaVE/status/1601246692828844032?>
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