You Might Even Think The 'International' Right is Working Together...

 A Political Snapshot of Peru

In 2022-2023 Peruvian indigenous, peasants, trade unions and leftists protested against the ultra-conservative government of Dina Boluarte, which had overthrown the prior, somewhat ‘progressive’ government led by Pedro Castillo.  Castillo’s government lasted for 1 year, 4 and a half months, a short period common to presidencies in Peru. The battles on the streets of Lima went on for days between government forces and protesters.  In June 2023 the Peruvian Supreme Court said that the Constitution did not give legal protection to protests.  Right.  Castillo is still held in 'preventive detention' in a house in San Ysidro, near Lima.

Lima - founded by conquistadores

As you can see, ‘voting’ and bourgeois democracy are just a smoke-screen in Peru, as in so many other countries.  In 2024 Human Rights Watch said: “In 2024, the Peruvian Congress passed laws and adopted other decisions that undermined judicial independence, weakened democratic institutions and hindered investigations into organized crime, corruption, and human rights violations.”  Sound familiar?  

Severe corruption in Peru is ongoing.  President Boluarte is under investigation along with 67 of 130 members of Congress.  “Corruption is a major factor driving the deterioration of public institutions, deficient public services, and environmental destruction in Peru” according to HRW.  It’s all about the money for these ‘dedicated public servants’ and their wealthy puppet-masters.

The National Board of Justice, like our Supreme Court, is the highest legal body.  2 members were removed in March 2024 by the Congress for political reasons.  A committee of the Congress advocated eliminating the National Board of Justice entirely, but this proposal is on hold.  The Peruvian Attorney General was barred from investigating crimes, and replaced by the national police in October 2024. So ‘justice’ is being politicized.    

Peru had an increasing homicide rate in 2024 by a third, with extortion becoming another increasing crime.  Boluarte has instituted a State of Emergency in parts of Peru and some neighborhoods in Lima. This has not worked.  Boluarte blamed Venezuelan immigrants and asylum seekers for the increase, without proof.  She specifically names Tren de Aragua. Sound familiar?

Investigations of atrocities committed by the government during the Sendro Luminoso period, 1980-2000, have slowed to zero.  At least 600 cases could be voided, as the Congress ruled for a new ‘statute of limitations’ of 2003 and up.   Nor have the 49 deaths of protesters in 2022-2023 been investigated, which would involve Boluarte and her cabinet, as their military forces were responsible.  Would there be pardons?

Journalists have been investigated for exposing corruption by being accused of corruption. Journalists and prosecutors have also been threatened by a right-wing, fascistic group called Resistencia.  A bill to control and sanction any NGO that receives funds from outside the country has been advanced in the Congress.  Other countries, like Russia, do this.

1/2023 protest in Lima

28% of Peruvians live under the poverty line.  Lack of electricity and health facilities are most common among indigenous communities in the highlands, mountains and Amazon.  A national strike was called in October 2024 over high levels of crime affecting citizens.  In April 2025 transport workers in Lima went on strike too, also over crime against transport workers.  The Congress had softened laws against organized crime previously, so the protests were also against the Congress.    

A new Forestry Law passed by this self-same Congress will allow large-scale deforestation.  This primarily affects the Amazonian environment, where illegal logging, illegal gold mining using mercury, cattle ranching and some coca growing are already butchering the jungle and water for profit. Indigenous water and forest defenders have been killed. Recently ‘artisanal’ miners in the northern mountains have been attacked by corporate-linked goons and criminals who don’t want competition. 

Boluarte’s administration promulgated a decree declaring trans-sexuality a ‘mental health’ problem, but they have put that on hold.  Abortion is only legal if child-birth will result in the death of the mother.  A fetus that was the product of a rape of a 13 year old girl was forced to term.  Sexual violence is common in schools against young students.  No one has been convicted of these many sexual assaults, though a some teachers were suspended. 

That is the sorry reality behind the tourist veil of Peru.  Machu Picchu, llamas and alpacas, colorful Quechua dress, condors, mountains, cerviche, Incan art, Pisco sours, Lake Titicaca, cathedrals, plazas and centuries of impressive pre-colonial architecture all are marketed to gringos, but the reality for the people is not quite that.  What is obvious is that all of the reactionary ideas and tactics pushed by the Peruvian ruling class are being used or tried by other reactionary governments throughout the world, even in the U.S. It is a sign of the decay of world capitalism, which more and more can no longer promise wealth, democracy, safety or freedom except in words.

***The author will be visiting Peru, including the Casa Museo Mario Vargas Llosa in Arequipa and the Museo Jóse Carlos Mariategui in Lima.  He will also visit Cuzco, which has links to deceased Trotskyist peasant leader Hugo Blanco and the Confederación Campesina del Perú. Blanco was a representative of the Partido Unificado Mariateguista in the Peruvian Congress for a time. Blanco recently died in July, 2023 in Uppsala, Sweden.

Prior blogspot reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 19 year archive, using these terms:  “Peru,” “Mariategui, “Llosa,” “Blanco,” "Latin America."  

May Day books has many volumes about struggles in other countries than the U.S., including a Latin American section. 

Kultur Kommissar / May 11, 2025