Peru faces a new day of mobilizations against the government of Dina Boluarte this Friday, the third since protests began throughout the country on Wednesday to demand the resignation of the president.
The protests include roadblocks, demonstrations in various regional capitals and in Lima, where nightly vigils are also held. In the Puno region, the international bridge of Ilave, linking Peru and Bolivia, was cut.
Although the mobilizations on Wednesday had some follow-up and there were clashes with the police in Lima and Huancavelica that left six detainees and eight injured, on Thursday the protests were punctured. However, coinciding with the weekend, the incidents could be reproduced, especially in Lima and late at night.
Although the protests have a national scope, they have been called under the name of Toma de Lima by the National Unitary Command of Struggle (CNUL), an organization that brings together trade union, peasant, student or indigenous associations from all over the country and whose members have been arriving in the Peruvian capital in recent days with the aim of forcing the resignation of Boluarte.
The president tried on Thursday to calm things down before the protests grew and during an act she offered a “broad invitation to dialogue to everyone” so that “we can reach that natural dialogue as people who respect each other.” However, the CNUL leaders rejected the offer and insisted that Boluarte must resign.
In addition to the resignation of the president, the CNUL also calls for the release of former leftist president Pedro Castillo, the dissolution of Congress, the convening of a constituent assembly and the immediate advancement of elections, which are currently scheduled for April 2024.
The vast majority of protesters are supporters of Castillo, a rural teacher and union leader who won the 2021 elections thanks to the significant support received in the peasant and indigenous spheres.
On December 7, Castillo was dismissed by Congress after attempting a self-coup with which he intended to dissolve parliament, suspend the judiciary, and convene a constituent assembly to draw up a new magna carta of a progressive nature, as promised during the electoral campaign.
Justice issued 18 months of preventive detention for Castillo, who is in a special prison in Lima. Subsequently, Betssy Chávez, Castillo’s last prime minister, was also imprisoned, accused of complicity in the self-coup attempt.
After the removal of the leftist leader, Dina Boluarte, who until then was his vice president and who had been elected along with Castillo in the 2021 elections, assumed power. Boluarte immediately turned against Castillo and decreed a state of emergency to try to stop the protests that took place throughout the country for several weeks and caused 18 deaths at the hands of the police and the military, deaths for which the protesters who are returning to the streets these days are calling for n that the president is judged.
