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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/19/tens-of-thousands-on-the-streets-of-peru-in-national-strike/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Tens of thousands on the streets of Peru in national strike <br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Peoples Dispatch - January 19, 2023<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><img src="cid:ii_ld4zntq40" alt="image.png" width="392" height="221"><br><p>National strike in Cusco. Photo: Wilson Chilo / Wayka
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<p>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 <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/12/08/coup-in-peru-president-pedro-castillo-overthrown-by-conservative-congress/">legislative coup</a> against former president Pedro Castillo and demand the immediate resignation of the de-facto president Dina Boluarte.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/17/peruvian-movements-organize-caravan-to-lima-to-intensify-protests/">organized</a> as a part of the second ‘<i>Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos</i>’ or ‘March from the Four Corners’ to bring the voices of the excluded masses of deep Peru to the seat of power.</p>
<p>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 ‘<i>Toma de Lima</i>’ 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>Since <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/12/12/five-killed-by-police-during-anti-coup-protests-in-peru/">December 7</a>,
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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Thousands of Peruvians from rural indigenous
areas are arriving to the capital city today to demand the fall of the
coup regime. </p>
<p>This is Day 13 of the general strike. The Boluarte dictatorship will likely respond with more repression. <a href="https://t.co/JqU7I6Kr2i">pic.twitter.com/JqU7I6Kr2i</a></p>
<p>— Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1615423560251543573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>According to reports from local media, at least 52 protesters have
been killed in violent repression of anti-coup protests by public
security forces.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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,”</p>
<p>The pro-democracy protests from the countryside have received the
support of the citizens in Lima, various celebrities, universities and
progressive political parties.</p>
<p>The residents of Lima together with social movements have arranged
large supplies of food for the people coming from a long journey.</p>
<p>Peruvian singer Yarita Lizeth has donated her tour bus to the protesters traveling to the capital from Puno.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The left-wing Free Peru party that sponsored Castillo’s presidential candidacy in 2021, in a <a href="https://twitter.com/VLADIMIR_CERRON/status/1615930107222261761?s=20&t=APkoDA9Mg3GaX5V8sbAvRw">statement</a> on January 18, has endorsed the popular struggle.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>The progressive New Peru political movement has also demonstrated its support.</p>
<p>“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,” <a href="https://twitter.com/NuevoPeruMov/status/1615425479623774233?s=20&t=61vRH2WwGDYkDartCQ4Wow">tweeted</a> the party.</p>
<p>“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 <a href="https://twitter.com/NuevoPeruMov/status/1615871724708368385?s=20&t=n_u9y6QVNnBVn-45V_-QWw">tweet</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">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. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VocesComunitarias?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VocesComunitarias</a> 2/3<br> <a href="https://twitter.com/PachamamaRadio_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PachamamaRadio_</a> <a href="https://t.co/T1qMpBh8bH">pic.twitter.com/T1qMpBh8bH</a></p>
<p>— Wayka (@WaykaPeru) <a href="https://twitter.com/WaykaPeru/status/1615468455159029760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
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