Five keys to the Peruvian political crisis

“Peru is not going through a good time“, has finally admitted the president peter castle. Recognition has had something redundant. The political crisis has intensified in Peru in recent days due to a combination of internal factorsespecially due to the very fragile presidential administration and the first effects on the economy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The rise in fuel prices in a country that is an importer of much of the oil has only lit the fire that Peru lacked: that of social unrest. The cost of living has increased due to the impotence of the authorities. A 30% of Peruvians are poor and the informal economy involves almost 89% of the population. Demonstrations have begun, roadblocks.

Unrest has become widespread in different regions. The farmers, who demand preferential prices for the purchase of fertilizers, and the carriers, have been the first to protest. Then other social sectors have joined. So far they have six people lost their lives. Castillo and his team traveled to Huancayo, 300 kilometers from Lima, one of the most conflictive scenarios, to give a signal of normality in the activities of the Government, but the tension has not been reduced and new problems are predicted in the streets. “The only way out for now is resignation,” said the main authority in Congress, María del Carmen Alva.

Castillo is a provincial union leader who Free Peru, an orthodox leftist party, led as a candidate for the presidency. He agreed to the Pizarro Palace after winning the right-wing Keiko in the second round by a few thousand votes. Fujimori. His meager victory anticipated numerous difficulties: he took office on July 28 of last year without a parliamentary majority and with the latent threat of being dismissed. Initially, Castillo tried to run a more left-leaning program.

But the successive internal disasters, with the resignation of four prime ministers and successive changes in different strategic areas of the State, have turned the rural teacher into just a tightrope walker who, with daring pragmatism, has rearmed the Government with ministers from other ideological backgrounds, including antagonistic. The left has practically turned its back on him.

Instability has become the norm for Castillo in these months. In December he avoided a motion of censure, promoted by the conservative forces. He had the same fate days ago because the right-wing benches did not reach enough votes to remove him. But the crisis that has opened up this week, with the declaration of the state of emergency in the capital and the neighboring district of Callao, an extreme measure that was annulled hours later due to its immense unpopularity, sowed more doubts about the possibility of his remaining in power.

A recent survey by the consulting firm Datun reveals that the 60% of those interviewed demand his immediate resignation. Only 19% of Peruvians approve of the presidential figure. “He no longer raises his head,” the newspaper assured on its front page Peru 21 and that perception is shared by all the media.

The fronts multiply for Castillo. The prosecution is investigating him for alleged influence peddling. As if that weren’t enough, the prosecutor specializing in corruption cases, Karla Zecenarro, has just requested the preventive detention of three nephews, who are fugitives. On the back of the former secretary general of the presidency, Bruno Pacheco, there is also an arrest warrant for another allegedly malicious act. Some analysts believe that if the former collaborator speaks in court it could hasten the much-heralded fall of the president.

“Well, in Peru everything is possible. I say again that this is nothing new in the country. We have had five presidents and three Congresses in five years,” said the Prime Minister, Aníbal Torres, whose fate also hangs in the balance after an unusual vindication of Nazism and fascism.

“Without infrastructure, the country cannot develop. The communication routes are like the veins, the arteries in the human being to be able to survive and advance. I will give you an example: Italy and Germany were the same as us. But on one occasion, Adolf Hitler he visited northern Italy and (Benito) Mussolini showed him a motorway built from Milan to Brescia. hitler saw thatwent to his country and filled it with highways and airports and made Germany the first economic power in the world”.