Protesters in Peru fight indifference, demand new elections

Jarek Tello is outfitted with a megaphone and clipboard as he navigates a crowd of protesters in the capital’s city center on a recent afternoon. His mission? Gather enough signatures to push Congress to move up national elections, currently scheduled for 2026. 

The lawyer and activist for Peru’s centrist Purple Party knows it’s a big ask: If elections are moved up, current members of Congress would lose their seats. But like many protesters here today, Mr. Tello argues that holding early elections is the only way to save Peru from an increasingly powerful clique of legislators that many believe is undermining the nation’s democracy.

Peru has churned through six presidents in the past seven years. But the nation’s political crisis worsened at the end of 2022, when Congress impeached then-President Pedro Castillo, a left-wing teacher with Indigenous roots who upended Peru’s conservative establishment when he won the 2021 election. Mr. Castillo’s removal came just hours after he illegally attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree in the face of a corruption probe.

The impeachment complied with Peruvian laws, but it unleashed protests in some parts of Peru’s Andean highlands. Mr. Castillo’s initial victory was celebrated in these areas as a historic moment of recognition for the nation’s long-ignored impoverished and Indigenous communities. His removal felt like yet another slight against these groups and has diminished the government’s ability to operate in these regions.

Some 80% of Peruvians want early elections, according to a July poll by the Institute of Peruvian Studies, a research group. As the crisis endures, legislators’ refusal to entertain requests for new elections has generated resentment – including in the capital – toward political elites, which in turn is making the nation harder to govern, experts say. Protests and roadblocks are expected to continue.

“Congress is only defending its own interests,” Mr. Tello says. “What we are trying to do with this petition is to force [legislators] to respond to the will of the people.”

A lack of incentives?

In cities such as Juliaca and Ayacucho, the protests following Mr. Castillo’s impeachment were met with brutal force from police who used firearms on demonstrators and even shot bystanders, turning public opinion squarely against newly appointed interim President Dina Boluarte. According to Peru’s human rights ombudsperson, 49 people were killed by gunfire in protests that took place between December 2022 and February 2023. The demonstrations also hurt the economy and forced the government to close some of Peru’s famous archaeological sites.

Although the intensity of the protests has diminished, roadblocks continue periodically in the south of the country, and several marches were held at the end of July in Lima, coinciding with the celebration of Peru’s Independence Day. 

Protesters say they are outraged with the lack of progress shown by investigations into the killings, which have not resulted in any convictions so far. But increasingly, citizen frustration is directed toward what feels like a democratic backslide prompted by Peru’s increasingly powerful Congress, which only has an approval of 6%, according to the July poll.

“Members of Congress are making laws for their own benefit and stopped representing us a long time ago,” says Antonia Quisocapa, an Indigenous leader from the region of Puno who traveled to Lima to protest last month. She says President Boluarte should resign: “She’s got her hands full of blood.”

Over the past six months, Peru’s Congress has struck down motions filed by Ms. Boluarte to hold early elections and advanced a law that would enable legislators to remove the judges who preside over Peru’s electoral system. Congress has levied questionable corruption charges against three of the seven magistrates that run the National Judiciary Council, which is in charge of appointing judges to courts nationally.

Rosa María Palacios, an influential columnist and lawyer, describes these moves as an “assault” on Peru’s democracy that is eroding checks and balances. “Congress is using its powers abusively and in a totalitarian manner,” she says.

There are few incentives for Peru’s Congress to approve a law that would activate early elections, says Ms. Palacios. Legislators are constitutionally barred from reelection here, which means if elections come early, they would be putting themselves out of work.

The latest effort to move up elections fizzled in February, as legislators disagreed over whether a referendum over a new constitution should also be included in an early election.

Ms. Boluarte, whose term goes until 2026, initially advocated for early elections. But, during a press conference that followed one of the July protests, she said that laws governing elections were out of her hands, suggesting Peruvians should instead complain over social and economic issues that her government could take action on. 

But she could force new elections to take place – if she resigns. She has dismissed that as an option, saying she has a responsibility to fulfill her constitutional mandate and finish her presidential term. Ms. Boluarte was never voted into the presidential office. She was Mr. Castillo’s vice president and was sworn in after he was impeached. She had promised in gatherings with Mr. Castillo’s supporters that if the president were ever to be removed, she would resign.

“I think they’ve seen that they can ride out the pressure,” says Will Freeman, a political scientist at the Council on Foreign Relations who researches governance in Peru. There are other incentives for the president and many of Peru’s members of Congress to hold on to their seats, he says.

“They definitely don’t want to be investigated” for the human rights violations “that have been happening over the past six months,” Mr. Freeman says. “That also explains the whole push to control institutions.” 

No guarantee

Peruvians – particularly outside big cities – have become increasingly skeptical of all levels of government over the past six months, says Glaeldys González Calanche, a Peru expert at the International Crisis Group. It’s harder for officials from the central government to implement health and security policies in partnership with regional administrations or municipal governments. On several occasions, government officials have had to leave villages or cancel meetings after locals pushed them away with rocks and sticks. Meanwhile, mayors from some towns in the south of Peru – where most of the killings of protesters occurred – have been reprimanded by their own voters for meeting with Ms. Boluarte and forced to make public apologies. 

“Some people don’t believe that officials [from the central government] are real authorities any longer,” Ms. González says. “What we’re afraid of is that criminal groups could benefit from this chaotic situation.” 

But many Peruvians have become “indifferent” to the political situation, particularly in a nation where political protest has historically been stigmatized and linked to leftist rebel groups, says Ms. Palacios, the lawyer. The latest round of protests in Peru’s capital were much smaller than previous ones; an estimated 20,000 people demonstrated together on July 20.

“If you come out here to protest over the deaths of civilians, they start to accuse you of being a terrorist,” says Ms. Palacios, who says a group of about 20 government supporters with megaphones recently showed up outside her home screaming insults at her for hours over her criticism in columns and on national radio programs of the Boluarte government.

Despite the lack of response to public frustration, some Peruvians are still hopeful they can pressure politicians to hold elections before 2026. Peru’s struggling economy could work in their favor.

The Peru Constitution allows citizens to present topics for congressional debate after gathering 76,000 signatures.

Mr. Tello, the lawyer for the Purple Party, and volunteers are setting up booths in the street several times a week and attending protests where they gather signatures for a petition calling for early elections. They’re even taking down the ID numbers and fingerprints of those who sign, to ensure that the petition can be legalized and, they hope, generate a public conversation among legislators.

So far, the group, which is also backed by a construction workers union, has gathered 37,000 signatures. Members are hoping to reach 76,000 by October.

“The success of this petition is not guaranteed,” Mr. Tello says. “But we will put this issue on the table once again and force legislators to confront it.”