From July 26-29 protests took place in Lima, Peru against the government of Dina Boluarte and Congress.
The protests were made up of delegations from the Andean regions where 49 people were killed between December 2022 and January 2023 following the coup against Pedro Castillo. The coup was orchestrated by the parliament of the far right, in alliance with the business oligarchy and military-police forces.
One of the demands of the protests was punishment for those responsible for the massacres in Puno, Ayacucho, Apurímac, Cusco, and Junín. Marches were organized from the working-class neighborhoods of the capital city toward the city center, and were watched over by hundreds of police. Four people were detained.
On one hand, the charge of genocide against Boluarte was dismissed, while on the other, on July 30, the Attorney General’s Office denounced the president for aggravated homicide and serious injuries to victims.
Voices in defense of territory and agriculture, guardians of the Amazon, were heard in the marches toward the center of the capital city. These protests take place in a context of the onslaught of mega-mining in campesino communities, along with an emergency in Indigenous communities due to organized crime violence and the lack of security provided by the state.
In the capital city, the rejection of legislative maneuvers to control the electoral institutions was echoed in the protests. In the following months, congress will rule on the constitutional counter-reforms being pushed to dominate the judicial institutions and the next electoral process scheduled for 2026.
The authoritarian officials, with Fujimorism in charge, are pushing for the elimination of the National Board of Justice (JNI), in charge of naming judges, prosecutors, and the head of the National Office of Electoral Process (ONPE). Likewise, they intend to modify the election of the presidency of the National Jury of Elections (JNE) and the ONPE, to subject electoral authorities to impeachment and political trials which threaten their autonomy.
Photos: Fran Florián
