LIMA (Dispatches) – As Peru races from one political crisis to another, the country has exploded in protest, with at least seven dead in the past week and smoke from fires and tear gas hanging over the city’s streets. A way out seems far away.
Peru’s former president Pedro Castillo, who was ousted in an impeachment trial last week and arrested by the security forces, has called his successor and former vice president, Dina Boluarte, a usurper.
Demonstrators, many of them Castillo supporters, have for days demanded Peru hold new elections rather than allow Boluarte to stay in power until 2026, when Castillo’s term would have ended. Some protesters also called for Congress to be shuttered and for Castillo to be released.
Castillo, a former teacher and peasant farmer, had gained huge support in rural and mining areas that brought him into office in 2021. However, his administration was mired in allegations of corruption and he faced three impeachment trials.
Protests involving hundreds or thousands of people have been held since last week in cities in Peru’s interior and capital Lima, at times turning violent.
Peru has been one of Latin America’s economic stars in the 21st century, with strong growth lifting millions out of poverty. But political turmoil increasingly threatens to derail its economic stability; rating agencies warn of downgrades, deadlocks affecting major mines in the world’s leading industry.