by ANDAHUAYLAS, Peru (AP) — Peruvians’ anger at their government is nowhere more visible than in Andahuaylas, a remote rural Andean community where the poor have struggled for years and where voter support helped get the president elected now. ousted Pedro Castillo, himself a peasant like them.
Such is their fury that their protests continued on Monday despite the deaths of four people, including two young protesters over the weekend, including 17-year-old Beckham Romario Quispe Garfias.
As thousands poured into the streets, Raquel Quispe recalled her brother as a talented athlete tired of feeling invisible in the eyes of politicians. He was named for English football great David Beckham and Romario, the Brazilian football phenomenon turned politician.
Clouds above her, she stood outside the hospital where her body was being kept, and with anger seething in her voice, sometimes betrayed by tears, she summed up what prompted him and others to protest after Castillo’s expulsion the last week: an exclusionary democracy.
“For them, those who are there in Congress, the only valid opinion is that of Peruvians who have money, of wealthy people,” said Quispe, an early childhood education teacher.
“They do what they want. For them… the vote of the provinces doesn’t count, it’s useless. But the vote of the people of Lima is taken into account. This is an injustice for all of Peru”.
About 3,000 people gathered in the streets on Monday to protest, mourn and pay their respects in front of the white coffins of the young people who died over the weekend. Throughout the community, stones were scattered on roads still marked by simmering fires. An airstrip used by the military remained blocked, the marks of black smoke still on a nearby building.
Protesters in rural communities, including Andahuaylas, continued to call for the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and to schedule general elections to replace her and all members of Congress. They also want authorities to free Castillo, who was arrested Wednesday when he was ousted by lawmakers after he tried to dissolve Congress ahead of an impeachment vote.
While protesters also gathered in Lima, the capital, demonstrations were especially heated in rural areas, strongholds of Castillo, a former teacher and political newcomer from a poor Andean mountain district.
Protesters went a step further on Monday by blocking access to an international airport in southern Peru for several hours and occupying its runway. Demonstrations in Arequipa, where the airport is located, left one protester dead, Defense Minister Alberto Otarola told lawmakers during a session of Congress focusing on civil unrest. Another protester was killed in the state that includes Andahuaylas, lawmakers said.
The escalation also came after Boluarte caved in to protesters’ demands hours earlier, announcing in a nationally televised speech that he would send Congress a proposal to push the election forward to April 2024 – a reversal of his earlier claim that it should remain president for the remaining 3 1/2 years of his predecessor’s term.
Boluarte, in his address to the nation, also declared a state of emergency in areas outside Lima, where the protests were particularly violent.
“My duty as president of the republic in the current difficult moment is to interpret … the aspirations, interests and concerns … of the vast majority of Peruvians,” said Boluarte announcing that he will propose early elections to Congress.
Boluarte, 60, was quickly sworn in on Wednesday to replace Castillo, hours after he stunned the country by ordering the dissolution of Congress, which in turn fired him for “permanent moral incapacity”. Castillo was arrested on rebellion charges.
Boluarte’s cabinet members appeared before Congress on Monday to account for the protests. Far-right lawmaker Jorge Montoya has called for adequate measures to end the unrest, telling supporters of Castillo now that he has been removed that “the chapter is closed”.
“These are not acts of protest, they are acts of terrorism that need to be severely punished,” Montoya said. “You can’t defend a situation that’s at the extremes.”
In Andahuaylas, about 80% of voters who voted in last year’s runoff supported Castillo. His proposals included rewriting the country’s constitution, which was drafted and last approved in 1993 under the government of Alberto Fujimori, the disgraced former president whose daughter, Keiko, lost the presidency to Castillo. .
Rosario Garfias was among those demonstrating outside the hospital where the body of her 17-year-old son was being held. She expressed her heartbreak over her son’s death, speaking in Quechua, one of Peru’s indigenous languages.
“My mother is making a complaint in her language. I know a lot of people don’t get it, Congress doesn’t get it either,” said her daughter, Raquel Quispe. “She’s saying that she…she’s in deep pain because they killed him, like in a slaughterhouse. And my mother, like my family, is demanding justice for my brother.”
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Garcia Cano reported by Lima.
