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Demonstrators have returned to the streets in Peru to protest the unpopular interim government of President Dina Boluarte and to demand early elections. According to government authorities, some 21,000 people participated in the protests. The marches have called for Boluarte’s resignation, dissolution of the Congress, early elections, and a new constitution. Boluarte is facing a disapproval rating of about 80 percent. Disapproval of the Congress is at least 85 percent, with one poll putting the rate at 91 percent. Another poll found more than half of Peruvians believe the economy is in worse condition than it was six months ago. The latest marches come more than seven months after the country plunged into a political crisis following the removal of President Pedro Castillo from office. A fierce crackdown against protests in the early months left at least 49 people dead between December and February. The latest protests were mostly peaceful, according to local news reports, although police—24,000 deployed across the country—used tear gas to disperse demonstrators. Several groups descended on the capital city in what conveners called the “Third Takeover of Lima.” According to Diana T’ika, an activist from Puno, an epicenter of previous rounds of protests and repression, the unifying cry of these demonstrations—despite differences of opinion and distinct demands—has been “Fuera Dina” (Out with Dina), as well as rejection of the Congress. “The consensus has increased that we cannot have a murderer in government,” T’ika told La Mula. The demand for the closure of Congress has also gained momentum, she added. Many are also calling for justice for the victims of state repression. Social organizations have said the struggle against Boluarte will continue, and more demonstrations are planned for the coming days. “Dina Boluarte must resign as president of the Republic,” Gustavo Minaya, secretary general of the General Confederation of Workers of Peru, told Infobae. “The citizens have already taken from her all possible legitimacy, so she has to step aside.” |
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In solidarity,
NACLA staff |
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Did you check out NACLA's Mid-Year Impact Report last week? If you missed the update on all we've accomplished so far in 2023, you can read it here. We're so grateful to our readers, contributors, guest editors, and team members for making our work possible. And there's more where that came from! For the rest of 2023, NACLA will continue publishing progressive analysis and reporting on the Americas, with the goal of helping to further movement struggles throughout the hemisphere. To bolster these efforts, we’ve set a goal of raising $12,000 during the month of July. Will you help us keep our momentum in the second half of 2023 by donating today? |
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#NACLAFoto of the Week Peruvians protest in Lima to demand an end to violence, the resignation of interim President Dina Boluarte, and fresh elections, February 4, 2023. After a lull in nationwide protests in recent months, protesters have again responded to a call for national action. Photo credit: Candy Sotomayor *To be featured in our weekly photography column, please submit a hi-res photo and a short caption to info@nacla.org. |
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- Another journalist has been killed in Mexico. Nelson Matus Peña, editor of Lo Real de Guerrero, was shot dead in the outskirts of Acapulco just a week after La Jornada correspondent Luis Martín Sánchez Iñíguez was found dead “with signs of violence” in the northern state of Nayarit. Matus had previously survived an assassination attempt, according to Artículo 19. The Committee to Protect Journalists notes Lo Real de Guerrero “published several stories without a byline covering violent incidents and deadly shootouts in Acapulco” in the days before Matus’s death. According to some counts, 15 journalists were killed in the country last year alone.
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In El Salvador, total Covid-19 deaths were more than three times the government’s official count, reports La Prensa Gráfica. The Ministry of Health reports 4,299 Covid-19 deaths, but internal information obtained by La Prensa reveals there were a total of 15,959 Covid-related deaths documented between March 2020 and January 2023. Ruth Eleonora López, a lawyer with the human rights organization Cristosal, told The Guardian that President Nayib Bukele’s “full control over the access to information” is part of the problem. “This allows the government’s narrative to be the only narrative,” she said. Communications professor Ricardo Valencia wrote on Twitter: “Little is real in an autocracy.”
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- In Texas, troopers have been directed to “push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande” and “not to give water to asylum seekers even in extreme heat,” the Houston Chronicle reports. The orders were detailed in an email, obtained by the Chronicle, that a Texas Public Safety Department trooper sent to a superior urging a change in policy. The email describes multiple harrowing instances of border crossers encountering razor wire “traps” in the river, such as a 19-year-old woman stuck on the wire while suffering a miscarriage. As a Chronicle editorial puts it: “Cruelty is the point.”
- A month ahead of Guatemala’s August 20 runoff election, elites are still trying to sideline Semilla party candidate Bernardo Arévalo, the progressive and surprise second-place finisher set to face off against Sandra Torres in the second round. The Public Prosecutor’s office has continued work to investigate and suspend Semilla, but the Constitutional Court and Supreme Electoral Tribunal have backed the original results. Read last week’s newsletter for more on the latest from Guatemala.
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The United States has been working to build support in the UN Security Council for the deployment of an international security force to Haiti. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols said as much to Jon Lee Anderson, who has a new New Yorker piece on the intense gang violence in Haiti. The United States and allies including the Core Group have backed interim Haitian leader Ariel Henry, even though he is highly unpopular and largely seen as illegitimate in Haiti. Another quote in Anderson’s article from an unnamed senior government official working in the region highlights how cynical it all is. “Everyone agrees it has to be a Haitian solution,” the official said, “because if it is delivered from abroad everyone will say, ‘The white man has spoken,’ and it would be doomed not to last.” The United States has refused to back a proposal from Haitian civil society for an interim transition government billed as a Haitian solution. As Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper and Mark Schuller, guest editors of the Spring 2021 issue of the NACLA Report, argue, “the situation in Haiti is directly connected to U.S. Empire.”
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From the NACLA Report: Available open access for limited time. |
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North American Congress on Latin America
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