By: Clarice Benney*

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the KCL Latin American Society or El Cortao.

“Hemos vuelto a la normalidad,” (“we have gone back to normal”) was the response of one of Peru’s most famous poets of the 20th century, Martín Adán, when asked about the 1948 coup by Manuel Odría. Adán was well known for his eccentricities, but now, 70 years later, do these words appear more perceptive and far-reaching than he was perhaps given credit for at the time?

2020 has been a tough year for Peru: they have had one of the highest death rates from Covid-19 in the world, and are now watching their political system implode. In September, Peru’s president of the congress, Manuel Merino, was given “leaked” audio files which allegedly revealed a conversation with the then-president, Martín Vizcarra, in which his aides discuss how to cover up a misuse of public funds.

This might appear, on the surface, to be a clear cut case of right and wrong, but the political context makes it much harder to make this distinction. Vizcarra ran as Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s running mate in the 2016 elections, when their party, Peruanos Por el Kambio (PPK, ‘Peruvians for Change’) narrowly defeated Keiko Fujimori, the Fuerza Popular party’s nominee. Kuczynski resigned in 2018 due to charges of corruption, and Vizcarra took his place.

Vizcarra enjoyed popular support with his anti-corruption agenda and vowed to not run for re-election at the end of his term in 2021, but he was consistently challenged by Congress, of which opposition parties made up the majority. In September 2019, Vizcarra dissolved the Peruvian Congress and issued a decree for a new election in January 2020, but the result of the new elections once again saw opposition-led parties making up the majority. When Vizcarra dissolved Congress, his popularity rating rose from 49 to 80%, and he was seen by many as being ‘thwarted’ by Congress in his attempts to fight corruption.

With this in mind, Congress voted on whether or not to impeach Vizcarra in September 2020, but the motion failed, with only 32 members voting in favour of impeachment. However, they voted again in November, and this time the result was 105 in favour, 19 against, and 4 abstentions.

When Congress removed Vizcarra and replaced him with Manuel Merino, President of the Congress and a member of the opposition, Peruvians took to the streets to protest. And it is this detail, the national outcry and action, that challenges the idea of “[un] vuelto a la normalidad.”

This civil unrest shows that the idea of a ‘milagro peruano’ (‘Peruvian miracle’) had not just been put aside, but shattered. Alberto Fujimori’s time as president from 1990 to 2000 saw the introduction of neoliberal policies, as in many other Latin American countries. The impact on Peruvian life was that many informal sectors were legalized, and foreign investment saw China become the country’s largest trading partner. In this period, whilst Peru’s natural resources were exploited for foreign gain, the country experienced high growth rates and the national poverty rate was cut in half between 2002 and 2011.

But by focusing on the positive statistics, issues surrounding political corruption continued. Alberto Fujimori may have generated economic prosperity, but he is now in prison on the grounds of human rights abuses for his role in the Grupo Colina death squad during his battle with leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. Following him was Alejandro Toledo Manrique, who was credited with ‘opening up tourism’, but is currently under house-arrest for corruption charges; then Alan García Pérez who comitted suicide when prosecutors came to his couse to bring him to face corruption charges; and Ollantana Humala Tasso, awaiting a corruption trial.

What we are seeing now on the news is a harrowing awakening: politics in Peru has reached a point where it cannot be ignored. In an already fragile democracy, a president and Congress working against each other was the ultimate destabilizing blow, but at this point a new guiding force has come into play: the people.

On November 16th it was declared that during protests, a violent reaction from the police killed two people, injured 100 and led to the disappearances of other protesters. The hashtag, “Merino no es mi presidente” (“Merino is not my president” that had flooded social media following his appointment was swapped for “El Perú está de luto” (“Peru is in mourning”). Merino resigned the same day.

Peru was faced with the same question once more: ‘whose turn next?’ For the moment it seems that the answer is Francisco Sagasti, a member of Congress from the ‘Partido Morado’. Sagasti was selected, as he was one of the 17 members of Congress who voted against Vizcarra’s impeachment for a second time in November, which acknowledges the people’s unhappiness with Congress’ decision to hold the vote at all, and their discontent towards Congress’ self-indulgent agenda.

When thinking about protest culture and examples in Latin America you might think of students in Chile protesting, triggered by an increase in the subway fare, people in Bolivia challenging political fraud, or women in Argentina demanding the legalisation of abortion. Until now, protests in Peru rarely made headlines. Do they not face the same issues? Are citizens really more satisfied with public spending and government in their country than others in the region?

The answer is no. Protests and strikes in Peru are not uncommon; it’s national protesting that occurs much more rarely. 40% of the newly formed middle class in Peru are in an unstable position. Mining has been a great driver of economic growth in Peru, but it simultaneously endangers the wellbeing of the communities it purports to benefit by contaminating water supplies and destroying environmental balance. The at-risk rural communities that fall into this category report feelings of even higher uncertainty for the future. Combine this with a lack of political representation and ever-changing parties and people, and you create an environment where protests are so constant that they lose their weight: turning up becomes apathetic. In order to restore activism in protesting there needs to be organization, and a sense of purpose. It is this presence in the recent political protests that singles them out and contests the ideal that ‘hemos vuelto a la normalidad’. With elections due in 2021, this could be the beginning of a new political era in Peru.

Note:

Jack Brian Pintado Sánchez, 22, and Jordan Inti Sotelo Camargo, 24, are young men who were tragically killed when participating in protests — my thoughts are with their friends and family.

Clarice is a student studying Spanish at Cambridge University. She is currently on her ‘year abroad’ and working with the NGO Latin American Foundation for the Future (LAFF) as Communications Coordinator. LAFF operates in Cusco, Peru and so Clarice is particularly interested in Peruvian current affairs, as well as protest culture in Latin American and grassroots activism.

*About LAFF:

Latin American Foundation for the Future (LAFF) is a UK registered charity operating in Cusco, Peru to increase access to quality education and personal development opportunities. LAFF believes that one of the best ways to create positive long term change is to support local grassroots organisations so that community leaders drive the change. To find out more about what we do, check out our website.

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