Posted on by Matthew Baigorria Module 4 assignment: Latin America in the media

Peruvian President’s One After the Other

Peru has recently had a bad history with presidents. In 2020, Manuel Merino was impeached and removed by congress claiming that Merino suffered a permanent moral incapacity and then three candidates were chosen in less than a week until finally Present Sagasti was elected by congress to lead the country as interim president until the election year arrived and then in 2021, Pedro Castillo was elected president to the surprise of many as this was seen as a sign of resurgence for left leaning politicians as Castillo prided himself as being a man that believes in labor rights. There was much turmoil in the election of Castillo as the vote between himself and his competitor was very close. Throughout his reign as president ist was filled with the media accusing him of corruption and congress fighting against him, similar to how Merino’s presidency was until he was impeached. Castillo on December 5th used his powers as president to propose the removal of congress to the surprise of many and to raise his own powers permanently changing the government and was using his power in an attempt to brute force his new policies into fruition. Congress immediately disavowed him and attempted to impeach him and succeeded. Castillo was then arrested by Lima police forces for corruption and his attempt to damage the Peruvian government.”In a stunning turn of events, Castillo was detained by police in the capital city Lima after lawmakers impeached him in Congress.“(CNN 2022) Now Castillo’s vice president, Dina Boluarte, is immediately voted in as president by congress. As you can infer Peru’s government is filled with corruption. What the article doesn’t explain is that the people know that congress, politicians and the presidents are corrupted and that there is a massive loss of faith from the Peruvian people and that this is becoming the standard in Peru. When I asked my father what he thought of this as he lived in Peru for all of his young life, he said that he wasn’t surprised and that when he went back to Peru in November that nothing had changed at all from since he was a kid there and that its been the same and will most likely remain the same until corruption in the upper echelons of the Peruvian government is gone. My father lives in New York City and the comparison between NYC and Peru is night and day as the big apple is suspect to tons of changes every year. He believes that since he was a kid in the 1970s to now, Peru hasn’t changed. To someone like me who’s lived in New York all his life the thought is crazy to me. Latin America is rife with corruption with either the government itself not upholding its ideals or the military attempting to make a grab for power. An example of a military regime making a grab for power was in Brazil in the 1960s when the military overthrew President Goulart. For example, “limiting freedom, removing elected officials, purging the civil service and judiciary. Martial law in turn became an opportunity to target unions, dissident intellectuals, anyone on the left.”(Dawson 235). I could overhear this news on the television tomorrow about any Latin American country and I would sadly not be surprised. The people of Peru or countries similar to Peru are hardy people who have grown used to news like this and find comfort in our rich culture, work, and the best food in the world, this is fact.

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