[News] Tens of thousands on the streets of Peru in national strike

Fri Jan 20 15:47:22 EST 2023

peoplesdispatch.org
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/19/tens-of-thousands-on-the-streets-of-peru-in-national-strike/>
Tens of thousands on the streets of Peru in national strike
Peoples Dispatch - January 19, 2023
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

National strike in Cusco. Photo: Wilson Chilo / Wayka

Tens of thousands of Peruvians from across the country arrived in the
capital Lima to take part in a national strike called for today, January
19, to reject the legislative coup
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/12/08/coup-in-peru-president-pedro-castillo-overthrown-by-conservative-congress/>
against former president Pedro Castillo and demand the immediate
resignation of the de-facto president Dina Boluarte.

Peasant and Indigenous communities together with members of numerous social
organizations and trade unions from all regions of Peru traveled in
caravans to reach Lima. The caravans were organized
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/17/peruvian-movements-organize-caravan-to-lima-to-intensify-protests/>
as a part of the second ‘*Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos*’ or ‘March from the
Four Corners’ to bring the voices of the excluded masses of deep Peru to
the seat of power.

The organizations have called to hold marches from different parts of Lima
to the center of the city against the Boluarte government under the banner
of ‘*Toma de Lima*’ or ‘Taking of Lima.’ The marches are especially
organized to condemn the brutal police and military repression the de-facto
government has unleashed against peaceful protests as well as to demand
justice for the victims.

At the same time, the organizations have called for the intensification of
demonstrations and roadblocks throughout the national territory as a part
of the national strike.

Indigenous and trade union leaders have said that with the strike they hope
to bring about substantial changes in the country’s political system, so
that “what happened to Castillo, doesn’t happen to another popular leader.”

Since December 7
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/12/12/five-killed-by-police-during-anti-coup-protests-in-peru/>,
thousands of Peruvians have been taking to the streets and organizing
roadblocks in different parts of the country to demand Castillo’s release,
Boluarte’s unconditional resignation, dissolution of the right-wing
dominated unicameral Congress, fresh general elections, and establishment
of a Constituent Assembly to change the country’s 1993 Constitution.

Thousands of Peruvians from rural indigenous areas are arriving to the
capital city today to demand the fall of the coup regime.

This is Day 13 of the general strike. The Boluarte dictatorship will likely
respond with more repression. pic.twitter.com/JqU7I6Kr2i
<https://t.co/JqU7I6Kr2i>

— Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) January 17, 2023
<https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1615423560251543573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

The Boluarte government has been responding to these social demonstrations
with violent repression. On Wednesday, January 18, the police shot and
killed two more protesters in the Macusani city, in the Puno department,
after the residents tried to occupy a police station in the city. Following
the death of a community member, angry protesters set fire to a compound
inside the station.

According to reports from local media, at least 52 protesters have been
killed in violent repression of anti-coup protests by public security
forces.

Recently, the delegation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR), which came to Peru to evaluate the situation of human rights
violation in the country following the massacre in Puno, highlighted that
these protests are authentic as opposed to the claims of the Boluarte
regime that they are organized by “terrorists” and sponsored by
international actors.

“From the testimonies, we did not find anything that would say that the
people are responding to some type of other organization, but an authentic
manifestation of discontent due to the abandonment that region (Puno),”
said Stuardo Ralón, the first vice president of the IACHR and rapporteur
for Peru.

Ralón added that he also perceived “an environment of generalized
stigmatization, in which it is intended to indicate that all the people who
may be expressing their disagreement could be classified as terrorists,
making them targets to be eliminated,”

The pro-democracy protests from the countryside have received the support
of the citizens in Lima, various celebrities, universities and progressive
political parties.

The residents of Lima together with social movements have arranged large
supplies of food for the people coming from a long journey.

Peruvian singer Yarita Lizeth has donated her tour bus to the protesters
traveling to the capital from Puno.

Students from the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM) and the
National University of Engineering (UNI) expressed their support for the
protests and have joined the struggle, in addition to offering their
university as a place where delegations could stay.

The left-wing Free Peru party that sponsored Castillo’s presidential
candidacy in 2021, in a statement
<https://twitter.com/VLADIMIR_CERRON/status/1615930107222261761?s=20&t=APkoDA9Mg3GaX5V8sbAvRw>
on January 18, has endorsed the popular struggle.

“Free Peru stands in solidarity with and adheres to the struggle of the
people, whom they tried to restrict with a declaration of a state of
emergency, however, as is historically known, when there is an illegitimate
government, civil disobedience is an indicator of its imminent fall,” said
the party.

“The most important thing is to guarantee the referendum for the
Constituent Assembly, otherwise we fall into the vicious circle with a new
President, a new Congress, a new Board of Directors, but the old
Constitution that defines power relations in favor of the rich to the
detriment of the people,” it added.

The progressive New Peru political movement has also demonstrated its
support.

“From New Peru we join the National Strike on Thursday 19, demanding the
resignation of Dina Boluarte and the Board of Directors of Congress,
together with the mobilized people we demand a radical solution to the
crisis and the cessation of the criminal repression of this murderous
government,” tweeted
<https://twitter.com/NuevoPeruMov/status/1615425479623774233?s=20&t=61vRH2WwGDYkDartCQ4Wow>
the party.

“We want to put an end, not only to the dictatorial and murderous regime of
Dina Boluarte, but also to this false democracy where the economic powers
that control the Congress and the Executive branch trample on the popular
will,” it wrote in another tweet
<https://twitter.com/NuevoPeruMov/status/1615871724708368385?s=20&t=n_u9y6QVNnBVn-45V_-QWw>
.

Peru’s current constitution was written and imposed in 1993 under the
far-right dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori (July 1990–November 2000).
Popular and progressive sectors have argued that it enshrined an
exclusionary and neoliberal order in the country, which only favors the
oligarchy.

Cerca de 300 juliaqueños fueron despedidos entre lágrimas y aplausos de la
ciudadanía. Además donaron la suma recolectada de S/ 60 mil y productos
perecibles para las delegaciones. #VocesComunitarias
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/VocesComunitarias?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
2/3
 @PachamamaRadio_ <https://twitter.com/PachamamaRadio_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
pic.twitter.com/T1qMpBh8bH <https://t.co/T1qMpBh8bH>

—  Wayka (@WaykaPeru) January 17, 2023
<https://twitter.com/WaykaPeru/status/1615468455159029760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
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