[News] Peru: One Country, Two Cultures

[Anti-Imperialist News]

resumen-english.org
<https://resumen-english.org/2023/01/peru-one-country-two-cultures/>
Peru: One Country, Two Cultures
By Juan Guaján, Resumen Latinoamericano on January 28, 2023.


In these days, the Peruvian brothers and sisters are leading important
demonstrations. It is a transition between the power of those who identify
themselves with the culture of the conquistadors and who still continue to
govern, and those who symbolize a new model capable of giving their place
to the identity and culture of the descendants of the original peoples.

But… Peru is not just any country. From what -today- are its lands, in
pre-Columbian times, the Inca empire -the most important of our America-
spread, whose extension went deep into territories that today are part of
our country. The Viceroyalty of Peru, of which we were a part, had its
headquarters there.  The liberating forces of the Army of the Andes arrived
to its capital – Lima – who’s Chief – José de San Martín – sealed, together
with Simón Bolívar, the South American independence and was declared
Protector of Peru.

Its indigenous population is, together with the Bolivian and Ecuadorian,
one of the most important in the region. The Quechua and Aymara languages
are spoken throughout the Andean area, forming a link between peoples that
today recognize different nationalities.

Its peasantry, especially in the Sierra, is organized in some 5 thousand
communes that control 15% of its territory and 20% of the national
population, but coastal policies do not reach them.

In a similar way to what happened two centuries ago, the Andean region
continues to be the scenario where the central aspects of cultural
predominance for the coming times are being played out.

In the 19th century, all of Our America subject to Spanish rule achieved
political independence, but fell under the domination of those who had the
power of the ports and control of international trade. The triumphs of that
independence were shipwrecked there, but not the will to recover them.

Today’s Peru, with 7 presidents in the last 5 years, is a sample of an
unresolved historical crisis. On the one hand, the Peru of the poor, the
indigenous Peru, the Peru of the highlands and the jungle. There, for the
last 5 centuries, Peru has suffered contempt and genocide from the other
Peru, the white Peru, the coastal Peru, the Peru of Lima, where the power
is located. In both the indigenous presence is important, being even
greater than that of the mestizos, but the latter – in the highlands and in
the jungle – are mostly integrated to the indigenous interests and culture.
This clashes with the power and the values of progress and individual
advancement of the white people of Lima.

The recent coup d’état, is one of these “institutionalist coups” with
strong parliamentary protagonism (Haiti 2004; Honduras 2009; Paraguay 2012;
Brazil 2016 and Bolivia 2019) imprisoned Peruvian President Pedro Castillo
weeks ago. This new Condor Plan or rebirth of the National Security
Doctrine put an end to a weak and vacillating government, elected by the
poor people. But this new Coup unleashed the anger contained for centuries
against the elites who govern from Lima, without attending to the demands
and culture of these submerged peoples.

These same peoples sheltered the heroic action of Tupac Amarú and his
attempt at independence. From the defeat of that effort and from the unity
desired by our first patriots were born the countries of Our America that
we know today, which -in a few years- gave themselves their liberal
constitutions that still endure.

The obscene inequality that separates these two realities that coexist
under the name of Peru explains what is going on now in the streets; the
attempt of the poor people to reach Lima and occupy it.

Justifying and naturalizing this fracture, the usurper President Boularte
has said that “Puno (one of the most critical areas) is not Peru”.

We will never know the number of fallen fighters who are paying with their
lives the price of this attempt to rescue sovereignty.

Power has already made public its policy: Repression. The people have
theirs: Resistance. The attitude of solidarity of the indigenous peoples of
the highlands and jungle, maintaining the logistics of the thousands of
demonstrators, is moving. Also noteworthy is the attitude of the young
people who opened the doors of the University to welcome the demonstrators.
No less exciting is the gesture of Bolivian indigenous communities that
bring food to their brothers of the Tahuantinsuyo (where “tahuan” is 4 and
“suyo” means region). That is, the 4 original regions of the Inca Empire
and that the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation tried to reunify (1836/1839).

There are many governments, some of them of progressive thought, that do
not want to see this drama of the Peruvian people. They claim to do so in
the name of democracy, which is founded on legal and institutional
principles of western origin that have endorsed and endorse the genocide of
the indigenous people.

It is impossible to know the final destiny of the struggle that the
Peruvian people are waging today. But there is no doubt that it is a link
in those transitions that our peoples are beginning to go through in search
of their second and definitive independence and for a new social model,
where the values of solidarity and collaboration are superior to the
selfishness and profit that today rule in our societies.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano
<https://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2023/01/28/peru-un-pais-dos-culturas/>
– Buenos Aires
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