Everything You Need to Know About Peru’s Political Crisis (Washington Post - 12/19/2022)

Everything You Need to Know About Peru’s Political Crisis (full article) 

Analysis by Stephan Kueffner | Bloomberg

In recent years, Peru has been no stranger to political turmoil. It currently is on its sixth president in seven years — or should still be on its fifth, according to the crowds whose protests led to a declaration of a state of emergency in mid-December. They took to the streets after a day in which President Pedro Castillo declared congress dissolved only to be swiftly impeached by it and jailed after he tried to flee to the Mexican embassy. Now Peru’s conflicts are causing rifts across Latin America as left-wing governments announced support for Castillo while others recognized his successor. Behind the crisis lies a deep urban-rural divide between the elite hub of the capital Lima and impoverished regions, and a fragmented political system in which weak presidents now routinely face impeachment by unruly congresses, jail time for corruption or both.

1. How did we get here?

The politically inexperienced Castillo, who represented a small radical-left party, Peru Libre, narrowly scraped into office in elections in 2021 and never established a firm hold on power in the face of stiff opposition from a congress dominated by conservatives. Many of his problems were self-inflicted: He changed his cabinet members about 80 times in his brief time in office, less than 17 months. He also faced mounting accusations of corruption and several members of his inner circle were forced to resign after prosecutors brought charges against them. The chaos provided congress with multiple reasons to try to unseat him, although two impeachment votes failed before a third effort was prepared early in December.


2. What did Castillo do? 

Hours before facing his third impeachment trial on Dec. 7, Castillo ordered Peru’s congress dissolved, the courts restructured, a nightly curfew imposed and said he would rule by decree for nine months before convening an assembly to write a new constitution.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/everything-you-need-to-know-about-perus-political-crisis/2022/12/16/e12509ee-7d8f-11ed-bb97-f47d47466b9a_story.html

Tags: #Peru #crisis #protests

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