Authoritarianism is Gaining Ground in Peru

By Luis Pásara

English translation by Yenni Castro (Valestra Editorial)

After delivering a message to the country announcing the dissolution of the Congress and the reorganization of the judicial system, Castillo was arrested by his own bodyguards, the Congress declared the vacancy of the office and Vice President Dina Boluarte swore in. A wave of protests has followed, mainly in the south but also reaching Lima, demanding Boluarte's resignation, the closure of the Congress, and the call for a constituent assembly.

The repression with which the new government responded has resulted in dozens of deaths, which prosecutors are slow to investigate. Investigative journalism has shed light on some cases revealing how the army and police have shot to kill. An investigation by IDL Reporters probed how several civilians were killed in Ayacucho on December 15 by gunfire from combat rifles. While the deaths have occurred mostly throughout the interior of the country, the homicide of Victor Santisteban took place in Lima and videos about it have circulated, one of which shows a policeman firing a tear gas canister at point blank range directly at the victim while he was not engaged in any wrongdoing. A United Nations communiqué (AL PER 1/2023) points to what appears to be the forced disappearance of Nelson Calderón López, arrested during the protests' repression.

Dina Boluarte has defined herself as "a left-wing provincial woman" but she admits that she doesn't understand the protests. In her third month, her government has been shaping in practice as authoritarian by responding harshly to the protests demanding an end to it. Although her words portray her as a partisan of shortening her mandate and calling for general elections, it seems clear that the president intends to remain in office up to 2026.

Backed by most of the media, the three right-wing parties currently represented at the Congress have frustrated the electoral advance and support the repression. The Avanza País party proposed to grant amnesty to military and police officers responsible for the deaths caused by the acts of repression of the protests. In words of one of its leaders, Aldo Borrero: "One of our main concerns is the Peruvian National Police and our military [...] we have proposed to the President an amnesty for all the police and military in the time range when demonstrations have taken place. We cannot abandon them".

The national justice system must judge the crimes that the forces of law and order may have committed during these weeks of repression. If their decisions are found to be acquittal, they could be taken to the Inter-American System of Human Rights. In anticipation of this possibility, a representative of another right-wing party, Renovación Popular, the retired Admiral Jorge Montoya, has approached President Boluarte in writing requesting that the Peruvian State withdraw from the contentious jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The text states that national sovereignty "cannot be subjected to the arbitration of a foreign entity", given that, as he claims, the members of the IACHR Court are "appointed through obscure procedures maneuvered by leftist NGOs". He added that, with the withdrawal of the American Convention on Human Rights — a measure already adopted by dictator Alberto Fujimori in 1999— the death penalty could be reintroduced in Peru.

Backed by right-wing support, the government toughens up

While barely referring to —"that agitation"— the protests, but without referring to the deadly toll resulting from the government's actions, Mario Vargas Llosa has expressed his support to Boluarte's administration. "You have been exerting your position in a very valuable way [...] Allow me to congratulate you for that too", he wrote in a letter sent to the president.

So, the right wing appears sponsoring Boluarte's government and the hard-handed measures such as the declaration of a state of emergency in the regions with the most active protests, the modification of the Regulations of the Armed Forces that authorizes its troops to shoot to the body (R.S. 013-2023-DE), or the bill that aims at a drastic increase of the penalties for those who commit any crime on the occasion of their participation in acts of protest during the states of emergency.

When questioned about the violent police repression of the protesters, Education Minister Manuel Becerra said about the Aymara women who participate in the protests carrying their babies on their backs: “Not even animals are like those women”.

Contributing to the authoritarian course, the decision of the Constitutional Tribunal —politically appointed by Congress in May— “makes judicial control over the decisions of Congress practically impossible,” according to a statement issued by the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. The Tribunal's recent resolution “grants the Congress of the Republic an all-encompassing power by removing it from the necessary and legitimate judicial control, and thus represents a rupture of the balance of powers. It is, in short, an unacceptable setback for democracy and a sign of an authoritarian advance in the country”.

There is almost no speculation about a possible military coup, since in the current situation the military, fully backed by the government of Boluarte, does not need to take power to execute the actions it deems necessary to “guarantee internal order”. Conversely, taking over the government would bring them, in addition to international rejection, full responsibility in a rather complicated situation. However, if Boluarte's government were to collapse, the actors, including the military, would be forced to make their calculations anew.

The approval rating of Boluarte's government stood at 15% of those polled by the Institute of Peruvian Studies in February (while that of the Congress that supported her was at 4%). The same survey indicates that slightly more than two thirds of those interviewed want new elections to take place this year. The board of directors of the National Assembly of Regional Governments (ANGR by its Spanish acronym), along with the board of directors of the Association of National Universities of Peru (AUNAP by its Spanish acronym) have suggested to Boluarte the need for her to resign from office and thus force the call for elections. The U.S. diplomacy has supported the early elections.

A growing confrontation between two irreconcilable sectors is noticeable in the social networks, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to reach an agreement. The first considers that the presidential vacancy against Pedro Castillo was a coup d'état, thereby ignoring the fact that Castillo's dismissal occurred because just a few hours before he announced that he was shutting down the Congress and intervening in the justice system that was investigating him for corruption. Nevertheless, according to an IPSOS poll, 51% of those interviewed in February considered that Castillo was removed by a coup d'état.

The other sector argues that the protests and demonstrations that have been going on for over a hundred days are the result of communist agitation and extremism, supported by Evo Morales and, in some more delirious versions, by Venezuelan and Cuban agents. Displaying the utmost disregard for the ethnic affiliation of the protesters, many messages call for shooting the protesters as a drastic measure to put an end to the protests that have blocked roads and carried out attacks on public and private premises.

If there is no major change in the current situation of the country, it could be heading, with this government or the one that replaces it, towards the establishment of an authoritarian regime that will only be able to reinstate the order demanded by the extreme-right-wing sectors at a very high cost in terms of human lives. Perhaps a vigorous reaction from the international community could halt it.

About the author 

Luis Pásara is a senior fellow of the Due Process of Law Foundation and an honorary member of the Iberoamerican Institute of the University of Salamanca.

Follow our newsletter

This article is included in the 12th edition of our newsletter. To receive the next issue in your email, click here.