Far-left protesters wreaked havoc across Lima, Peru, and other regions of the South American nation on Monday after the impeachment and arrest of former communist president Pedro Castillo.
The protesters have blocked roads, seized airports, and attacked the Peruvian national police for the past three days, leaving at least seven dead civilians — including two minors — and over 100 policemen injured so far.
Castillo — who the region’s leftist governments of Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia have openly expressed their support for — was impeached on December 7 after he attempted to dissolve the nation’s Congress and rule by decree, a strategy known in Peru as a “self-coup” (autogolpe). Congress was scheduled to vote on Castillo’s ouster hours before he attempted to dissolve it.
Castillo came to power in 2021 after a controversial election full of fraud claims in which he defeated his rival, conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori, by a narrow margin of less than 0.5 percent.
Dina Boluarte, Peru’s vice president under Castillo, assumed the presidency, becoming the nation’s sixth president in six years.
Shortly after his impeachment, Castillo was arrested by his own security escort before he could arrive at the Mexican embassy in Lima to request political asylum from the Mexican government.
Following Castillo’s impeachment and arrest, far-left protesters and pro-Castillo rioters took the streets of Peru to demand his return to power and Boluarte’s resignation, the closure of Peru’s Congress, and new elections immediately. The protesters have also called for a general indefinite strike against Boluarte’s government.
On Monday, a group of protesters in the city of Arequipa disrupted operations in the city’s international airport, burning tires and taking control of the airport’s landing track. The assault damaged the aiport’s infrastructure and endangered the lives of passengers and crew, who were evacuated by Peru’s airport authority.
The international airport located in the southeastern city of Cusco was closed on Monday after protesters attempted to take control of it. The rioters have also attacked the headquarters of the local television channels Canal N, América Televisión, and Panamericana Televisión, as well as local radio stations.
Óscar Arriola, the head of the National Police of Peru’s Counter-Terrorist Directorate (DIRCOTE), announced on Monday via an radio interview that members of the Marxist terrorist organization Shining Path who were released from prison and members from the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, another guerrilla terrorist group, have been participating in the riots.
Boluarte conceded the protesters’ electoral demands and called to bring forward the nation’s next general elections for April 2024 instead of 2026, when they would normally had taken place. Boularte also declared a state of emergency as a result of the ongoing protests and riots.
Pedro Castillo, currently in police custody, published a handwritten letter via Twitter on Monday in which he claims he was “kidnapped” while branding Boularte an “usurper” and urging his sympathizers not to fall into the “dirty game” of Boularte’s general elections.
Querido pueblo peruano, grandioso y paciente: pic.twitter.com/4IbZbhnM5D
— Pedro Castillo Terrones (@PedroCastilloTe) December 12, 2022
“I speak to you in the most difficult moment of my government, humiliated, in solitary confinement, mistreated and kidnapped, but thus clothed in your confidence and struggle, in the majesty of the sovereign people, but also infused by the glorious spirit of our ancestors,” Castillo’s letter read.
Castillo also claimed that he will not renounce his “high and sacred functions” as president, closing his letter demanding a constituent assembly for Peru and for his immediate release from captivity. He is legally not the president of Peru as of last Wednesday and thus cannot resign.
On that same Monday, a group of four leftist Latin American governments composed of Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia released a joint statement backing the now impeached Marxist president, expressing their “deep concern” over Castillo’s removal from power and his detention.
In the letter, they claim that Castillo has been a “victim of undemocratic harassment” since the day of his election in 2021. The leaders demand that the Peruvian authorities respect Castillo’s human rights and grant him judicial protection under the Organization of American States’ American Convention on Human Rights.
“Our governments call on all the actors involved in the previous process [Castillo’s impeachment and arrest] to prioritize the will of the citizens that was pronounced at the polls,” the statement from the foreign leaders demanded. “It is the way of interpreting the scope and meanings of the notion of democracy contained in the Inter-American System of Human Rights. We urge those who make up the institutions to refrain from reversing the popular will expressed with free suffrage.”
Prior to the release of the joint statement, Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first far-left president, commented on Castillo’s removal from power, claiming that the now deposed president had “allowed himself to be led to political and democratic suicide” after Castillo failed to rally his electorate in his defense. Petro conceded that Castillo’s attempt to overthrow Congress was a mistake.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed incorrectly on Tuesday that Castillo is still Peru’s president and that his removal from power must be reversed because he was “elected by popular vote.”
Venezuela’s authoritarian socialist regime claimed that the United States is behind Castillo’s impeachment and subsequent arrest.
Castillo was elected as a member of the Free Peru party, whose political platform espoused Marxist beliefs and openly praised Russian communist thinker Vladimir Lenin.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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