In the last week, Peru faced a huge turn of events and it is unfortunately currently still an ongoing issue. The former president of Peru Pedro Castillo was arrested and removed from office and all his powers. The reason for this was because he attempted to dissolve the legislature, basically resign everyone in congress and leave him with all the power to decide on things. This was huge because he was already facing charges for conspiracy and corruption. Castillo had multiple cases against him including corruption, the theory was that he was using his power and how big he was to profit from public works. Meaning he would charge and get paid a certain amount from public works that is supposed to go to the government. This is what ultimately led to him attempting to change everything around in this coup. This ultimately led to him being taken down and leaving Dina Boluarte as the president, who is also the first female Peruvian president. This has all led to the whole country being affected. Riots break out in his defense and against him as well, leading to others just taking advantage of the situation and looting stores and taking things. Many acts of violence are being spread around the country at the moment and 6 people have died in the last couple of days. Families of loved ones are going through this, people who own these places are being destroyed, and it just worsens the economy and healthiness of the country as a whole. “After years of democracy, Peru is in the midst of a constitutional collapse that can’t be called anything but a coup” (The Associated Press). That quote pretty much summarizes what crisis Peru is currently facing as the president attempted to take power and form something very similar to dictatorship. This isn’t the only political crisis Peru has faced in the last couple of years, Peru has had issues with other former presidents that didn’t serve full terms. There have now been 5 different presidents in the last 6 years, leaving Dina Boluarte as our current president who still isn’t in the clear to the people as she just started her term and is already facing controversy due to this whole situation. This crisis reminds me of some of the lessons and topics we discussed and viewed throughout the semester. As we read Latin America since Independence by Alexander Dawson throughout class I discovered many new things on how things were run when a new revolution began in these countries. This reminded me when we read about dictators in some of these countries and how they dealt with it. First part was about Brazil and how a dictator was bringing down their own country. “Dictatorial powers also allowed the regime to drive down the minimum wage. By 1970 a third of Brazilian workers had seen their income drop by 50%” (Dawson 235). This shows how this type of ruling doesn’t really help out the country or the economy and actually makes it drop down so low probably to its poorest. All the money is being taken and spent by the dictator that the people don’t really have a chance to prosper. Then it spoke about the situation that happened in Argentina “By the end of 1975, guerrillas had killed 137 soldiers. The Montoneros attacked the police academy and detonated a bomb next to the army headquarters” (Dawson 237). These readings we read throughout the semester are very similar to what is going on in Peru right now. A country in Latin America facing a political crisis trying to rebuild as a whole while facing violence and protests.
Works Cited:
Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Article: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/07/1141307938/peru-president-dissolves-congress-pedro-castillo