The insurrection attempted by Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters in Brazil may have captured international headlines, but Latin America’s real drama is being played out in Peru, where the ousting of Marxist leader Pedro Castillo has put the country on the path to racially-fuelled meltdown.
After riots, blocked roads, and the sight of terrified tourists being helicoptered out of Machu Picchu before Christmas, Castillo’s indigenous supporters have moved from the interior to the capital Lima, through which they have rampaged, clashing with police who responded with tear gas. Peru’s ombudsman said at least 13 civilians and four police officers were injured in the Lima protests on Thursday.
The protests are Peru’s worst political violence in more than two decades and highlight bitter divisions between the country’s urban elite, largely concentrated in Lima, and the poor in remoted or rural areas.
“This has been brewing for a very long time,” according to Chris Sabatini, a Peru expert and senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House. “This is all about Peru’s geographical-racial divide. When you look at Peru’ now, you see that politics has become a blood sport.”
Castillo was elected as Peru’s first indigenous head of state in July 2021, having vowed to end the “racial regime” imposed on Latin Americans by the conquistadors. But his government was soon mired in levels of corruption and incompetence that were exceptional even by the standards of Latin America, as he burned through 80 ministers in 18 months.
He quit his Free Peru party in December after internal rows. Soon after, facing his third impeachment vote, he took a leaf out of the book of former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori and declared he would ignore parliament and rule by decree. But unlike the hard-right Fujimori, he didn’t have the security forces on his side and he was soon whisked off to prison.
His arrest ignited protests and violence from his indigenous supporters, even though another member of Castillo’s leftist Free Peru party, Dina Boluarte, assumed the presidency.
“The protests are also against Boluarte because she’s white ,” says Sabatini. “That’s how racially divided this country has become.”
Making things worse is the fragmented state of the country’s politics. There are ten significant groupings in the one-chamber congress plus a large number of “Toyota parties” – so called because most could fit all of their representatives in a small hatchback.
Much of the indigenous population’s anger stems from the perceived leaching of wealth from the money-spinning mining enterprises in the remote areas into the pockets of the elite in Lima. Mining has fueled the country’s impressive economic growth in the past two decades. But indigenous communities say they have seen little benefit.
Political fragmentation is also apparent in rural and remote populations, with over 300 active political parties in the country’s interior.
And there is evidence of extremist and criminal activity among the protests. Some reports suggest that members the Shining Path are active. The Maoist-terror group was supposed to have hung up its guns and machetes after the capture of its founder Abimael Guzman in 1992. But some remnants linked to drug traffickers, remain. Other reports suggest Bolivian indigenous groups in border disputes with Peru are involved.
Boluarte was defiant on Thursday night in a televised speech alongside key government officials in which she thanked police for controlling the “violent protests” and vowed to prosecute those responsible for violence. Boluarte says she supports a plan to hold elections for president and Congress in 2024, two years before originally scheduled.
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The president also criticised the protesters for “not having any kind of social agenda that the country needs,” and raised questions about their financing.
Many observers say Boluarte is right in refusing to give in to protesters’ demands for an immediate election. If she stands her ground she might help the cycle of instability that has seen six Peruvian presidents in five years.
But there is little doubt the country’s outlook is bleak.
Protesters on Thursday told AP they would not be cowed. “This isn’t ending today, it won’t end tomorrow, but only once we achieve our goals,” said 61-year-old David Lozada looking at a line of riot police in central Lima. “I don’t know what they’re thinking, do they want to spark a civil war?”
Some people now think that a regional initiative involving neighbouring countries facing similar problems, such as Chile, or some sort of international political mediation will be needed to end Pru’s downward spiral. And it can’t come quickly enough.
“Peru is at a tipping point,” says Sabatini. “It could be on the verge of persistent, localised civil unrest.”