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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://popularresistance.org/peru-the-political-crisis-worsens/">popularresistance.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Peru: The Political Crisis Worsens<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Carlos Noriega, Orinoco Tribune.- July 12, 2022<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_l5jrofwf0" alt="image.png" width="392" height="261"><br><p><font size="1">Above Photo: President of Peru, Pedro Castillo. File photo.</font></p>
<p>The crisis in Pedro Castillo’s government is worsening. Less than a
month before the rural teacher and trade unionist who came to power as
candidate of the left completes his first year in the presidency, the
right wing, which from the first day of the government has bet on a
coup, accelerates its plans to remove him from office abusing the power
of the Congress that it controls.<span id="gmail-more-20720"></span></p>
<p>The instability of the government is accentuated by the destabilizing
maneuvers of the right wing, which in its coup plans has the support of
the big media, but one cannot deny the responsibility of a presidential
administration that has moved away from its proposals for change, is
now inoperative and lacks direction, is stained by allegations of
corruption, accumulates errors and controversial ministerial
appointments, and is weakened from within by sectarian attitudes and
divisions in the governing party.</p>
<p>In a new offensive against the government, the parliamentary right
wing is trying to disqualify the president and the vice president, Dina
Boluarte, removing them from their posts in order to take power. If both
fall, the head of the government would be assumed by whoever at that
time holds the presidency of the Congress. Currently that position is in
the hands of the legislator of the Acción Popular party, María del
Carmen Alva, very close to Fujimorismo and other ultra-right sectors,
although in the last week of this month the parliamentary board of
directors must be renewed, which will undoubtedly remain in the hands of
the right wing, thus the coup promoted by the extreme right would be
consummated.</p>
<p>As part of this plan, a few days ago, the Congressional Oversight
Commission, presided by the pro-Fujimori parliamentarian Héctor Ventura,
approved a report accusing Castillo of constitutional infringement for
refusing to testify before that commission in a corruption
investigation, and for the meetings he held at the beginning of his term
in the house of a friend, outside the official agenda and without
informing about those meetings. The accusation claims that in those
meetings there were businessmen who later won bids.</p>
<p>Videos show lobbyist Karelim López, under judicial investigation for
her intervention in the bidding process for the construction of a bridge
in which there have been complaints of payment of bribes, entering the
house where Castillo was receiving visitors. The president denies having
met her in that place. The parliamentary commission report claims that
Castillo heads a criminal organization to give public works tenders to
certain businesspeople and lobbyists.</p>
<p>The president denies the charges. The parliamentary commission admits
in its report that it does not have proof of Castillo’s guilt, but only
indications and suspicions that must be investigated. Those are already
being investigated by the prosecutor’s office, but the commission went
out of its way to accuse Castillo.</p>
<h3>Treason</h3>
<p>Before this latest accusation, another constitutional complaint was
presented in Congress against the president for the absurd charge of
treason for having declared in an interview his sympathy for
facilitating Bolivia’s access to the sea, a declaration in which there
was no mention of ceding sovereignty, and which did not lead to any
government decision. An accusation that reveals the desperation of the
right wing to find any reason to remove Castillo.</p>
<p>The coup-plotting right wing knows that it does not have the 87
votes—two-thirds of the 130-member unicameral parliament—to remove
Castillo from office alleging “moral incapacity,” something it has
already tried unsuccessfully on two occasions; so now it resorts to the
strategy of impeachment for an alleged constitutional violation to
disqualify him from office and remove him from the presidency.</p>
<p>In order to approve the constitutional accusation, 87 votes are not
required, but only a simple majority of 66 votes, which the ultra-right
wing headed by Fujimorismo that promotes the parliamentary coup hopes to
achieve in this new case. The risk for Castillo is high.</p>
<h3>Vice President Boluarte in the spotlight</h3>
<p>If the right wing succeeds in removing Castillo, it will need to get
rid of the vice-president as well in order to take power. That is why
Boluarte has been subjected to a constitutional complaint accusing her
of having held a position as Minister of Development and Social
Inclusion in the board of directors of the Apurímac Departmental Club,
formed by migrants from Apurímac region who live in Lima, as is her
case, when the Constitution prohibits a minister from holding any other
position except teaching.</p>
<p>The vice president has defended herself by pointing out that when she
was appointed minister, she resigned from her functions in the
aforementioned club, and that the subsequent steps that she took
regarding the organization were exclusively for administrative
regularization to transfer her position. In Congress, it is not the
arguments that are important, but the strength of the votes and the
obsession of the right wing to overthrow the Castillo government.</p>
<p>While the right wing is advancing in its aim of closing the circle of
the parliamentary coup, the ruling party is divided. The secretary
general of the ruling party Peru Libre (PL), Vladimir Cerrón, publicly
asked Castillo to resign from the party, accusing him of working to
break the ruling party’s parliamentary bloc to form his own political
group and for not fulfilling his campaign promises.</p>
<p>Under Cerrón’s demand, Castillo resigned from PL last week. The Peru
Libre bloc has got divided multiple times in this first year of
government. Of the 37 parliamentarians with which the party began, only
16 legislators remain in PL loyal to Cerrón. Those who resigned have
dispersed, forming other blocs that support the government. Castillo is
promoting the formation of a new party, the Partido Magisterial.</p>
<h3>Cerrón’s actions</h3>
<p>The rupture of Cerrón and Peru Libre with Castillo became evident
this week when Cerronist parliamentarians voted together with the right
wing to censure Interior Minister Dimitri Senmache, who has had to leave
office less than two months after assuming charge. He was accused,
without evidence, of having facilitated the flight of former Transport
Minister Juan Silva and a nephew of Castillo, who are under judicial
investigation and preventive arrest on charges of corruption in public
works tenders. Senmache is the fourth minister removed by Congress in
less than a year of government.</p>
<p>Cerrón plays to the radicalism of the left, but on more than one
occasion he has become an ally of the parliamentary ultra right, joining
the ultra conservatives in their actions against policies of gender
equality and now to weaken the government. Cerrón’s sectarianism has
blocked government alliances with other progressive sectors that would
have strengthened it and has contributed decisively to its isolation.</p>
<p>The secretary general of Peru Libre wanted the government only for
his party, and now that he has lost positions in the Executive branch,
he has removed Castillo from the party and has voted together with the
coup leaders to dismiss a minister, which has been a hard blow to the
government. The votes of Cerronismo against the interior minister are a
warning to Castillo of what could happen to him if he does not give in
to their pressure to give more power to Cerrón and PL.</p>
<p>The president is now more isolated and weakened—a process that seems
to be advancing without remedy—while the right wing in the Congress
accelerates its coup plans, which threatens not only Castillo but even
democracy, if that ultra-right wing achieves its goal of capturing all
power.</p>
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