There is no doubt that a popular insurrection is taking place in Peru, led by the most exploited sectors of the proletariat and the peasantry, coming from the poorest region of the country: the South. This process is leading the government and the regime to a colossal crisis, to which they are responding with brutal repression, reminiscent of the times of the dictatorship.
By: Americo Gomes
This has already made the National Congress, after having already advanced the elections to 2024, is discussing a new anticipation, for October 2023. The current president Dina Boluarte is a puppet in the hands of the right that controls Congress and can even be discarded, as an attempt to stop the mobilization process.
The State of Emergency was decreed, with raids on homes and the headquarters of political organizations, with selective and arbitrary prisons. And now Puno, the most combative city in the country, is militarized.
impasses
Despite the progress of the mobilizations, there is a certain impasse, because, on the one hand, despite the almost 60 deaths, the government is not even remotely capable of quelling the protests. On the other hand, the proletariat, the urban and mining working class did not enter en masse in the process, which prevents a categorical victory of the workers.
This is because the main leadership, the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), made up of Stalinists and Neo-Stalinists, has shamefully betrayed the movement, refusing to call a general strike and not joining the mobilizations and marches, with force , despite the sympathy and solidarity that exist at the base of the entity. In short, despite formally assuming the movement’s claims, the CGTP has a criminal policy and seeks to negotiate with the government.
The degree of politicization is impressive, perhaps the highest in the entire American continent: they want to overthrow the government and, in fact, change the political regime that prevails in the country. For this reason, their main demands are “Out with Dina Boluarte” and the election of a Constituent Assembly, which replaces the current Congress and makes a new Constitution, so that all the anti-democratic and privatist rubble of the “Fujimori Era” is thrown away. .
Repression: brutal violence against indigenous people and peasants
The most impressive aspects of this insurrection are the government’s repression and the combativeness of the workers and peasants. Something that even the figures reveal: 58 dead (one of them a policeman) and nearly 1,700 injured, including 1,100 civilians (against 580 policemen).
The deaths occurred mainly in the interior, where racism, prejudice and discrimination diminish the value of the lives of the descendants of indigenous peoples. Mainly Aymara and Quechua.
Poverty and misery in the South
Most of the protesters (who continue to arrive in the capital Lima every day) come from the south of the country, from regions that for centuries have been marked by inequality, isolation, oppression and discrimination.
Regions like Cusco, Apurimac, Huancavelica, Puno and Cajamarca, where socioeconomic indices are always more unfavorable for workers. In 2021, the poverty rate in Peru was 25.9%, but, considering only the South, it jumped to 39%. On a national scale, 70% of Peruvian workers are precarious; but in the cities of the South the rates are always higher: 94.8% in Huancavelica; 90.6% in Apurimac and 90.4% in Puno.
“We are going to the end to overthrow Dina”
On this basis, the social outbreak fermented that led to violent confrontations, such as those that occurred in Juliaca, where the repression apparatus killed eleven people; or in Bairro Chino, where workers, mainly precarious from agribusiness, injured 57 police officers.
In addition to the confrontations, the combativeness of the population is also expressed in resistance, even with the worsening of living conditions caused by the blockades, which have led to a lack of gasoline and medicines and an increase in [de precios] and food shortages. But even so, most say that he will not stop fighting until Dina and Congress are overthrown.
Transnationals: mnational mobilization hits mining companies
The so-called “Indefinite Strike” (indefinite stoppage) blocked some 100 roads, affecting sectors such as mining, tourism and agribusiness. The Ministry of Economy speaks of losses of around US$ 554,000 million. Machu Picchu was closed and the city of Cusco, where 80% of the population lives from tourism, also witnessed the closure of hotels, restaurants and shops, losing US$10 million due to the protests.
Protesters have set up roadblocks; attacks on airports, telephone and electrical towers; invasions of mining companies and attacks on judicial buildings.
The blockades are reaching the heart of the national economy: the mining companies, which are located in the Andes and in the south of the country. Although the miners did not join the fight, as an organized class, the ethnic identification with the protesters is total.
Mining is the pillar of the Peruvian economy and represents 60% of exports. It was privatized by the Fujimori government and received a series of tax breaks from all subsequent governments, including Castillo’s.
Even so, the sector contributes 20% of tax revenues and 15% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in addition to causing immense social and socio-environmental conflicts. The sector employs around 250,000 workers, not counting precarious workers and those who work in illegal mining.
The blockades are affecting companies such as Minera Las Bambas, paralyzed for more than 50 days in 2022, and 15 days in 2023. “The mine has not been able to take its production to the ports, since the route by which the ore is transported is interrupted, so exports are significantly affected,” the company announced.
Minera Antapaccay suspended all operations after Espinar protesters stormed its facilities on January 19 and set fire to machinery, transport trucks and facilities. The premises of the Huisamarca (Cusco) and Utunsa (Apurimac) units were also attacked.
The three largest mining corporations in the world are present in Chile: BHP, Río Tinto and Glencore. The big imperialist multinationals believe that copper will play a fundamental role in the near future, as a cheaper conductor to store and transport new sources of energy.
In the capital: the takeover of Lima by workers, peasants and indigenous peoples
There are thousands of workers and peasants, mostly young, who move from the south to the capital for the “Take of Lima.” They have carried out daily marches, as well as staged clashes with the police, to the point that the police apparatus has announced the abandonment of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets.
Who knew the Chilean “First Line” (the “front line” of activists who defended the mobilizations of police repression in 2019) and now sees that of Peru, notices important differences between them. In Chile, it was made up mostly of urban youth. In Peru they are the peasants and the most exploited sectors of society.
For this reason, one of the great manifestations of solidarity of the inhabitants of the periphery of Lima is to bring food and water to the demonstrators, who do not have anything to eat during the long periods that they spend in the capital, sleeping in lodgings, inside universities, unions, NGO offices, and in plazas.
Every day hundreds of meals arrive for the protesters, produced by the workers of Lima, many made with inputs collected in donations from factories and universities.
Salida: uA regime in crisis and the proposal of the workers
The government’s crisis is very big and it was evidenced in the vote in Congress on whether or not to advance the elections. Dina Boluarte went so far as to say: “We failed. We have to go out”. The far-right Fujimori party supports the proposal and defends the interests of the big mining companies.
But the majority in Congress rejected the proposal on the first vote, led by Dina and Castillo’s party, “Peru Libre,” which claims to be Castroist. This party voted for Castillo’s removal, then participated in the marches against Dina, and now votes against advancing the elections.
The departure of the working class
Faced with this situation, the Socialist Workers Party of Peru (PST) joins the mobilizations and demands presented by the movement, emphasizing that a Constituent Assembly is necessary to remove the undemocratic rubble of Fujimorismo; but, above all, for the mining industry to be nationalized, carrying out expropriations without compensation, and placing them under the control of the workers and, with this, making it possible to recover the country’s natural resources.
This will only be achieved with a government of the fighting organizations of the working class and the poor people.
Urgent: lPeruvian workers need all international solidarity
Events in Peru acquired an international dimension. Lula (Brazil), Gabriel Boric (Chile) and Gustavo Petro (Colombia) demonstrated in favor of the removal of Castillo, claiming that the institutions of bourgeois democracy should be preserved.
As the repression grew, Petro changed his position and Boric was forced to make statements against the repression, which angered the Peruvian government. Peru has already withdrawn its ambassadors from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Bolivia.
Lula is the only one who remains firm in his initial declaration, to continue supporting the government of Dina Boluarte, while it exercises violent repression against the Peruvian working class. In addition, it is in Brazil that the Peruvian government comes to look for the bombs that Boluarte uses against the protesters.
In this sense, the protests held at the embassies of Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador were very important, demanding that the Latin American governments, and especially Lula, listen to the demands of the Peruvian people and join the demand for Dina’s resignation.
International solidarity is already helping the struggle of the Peruvian people and may be decisive for their victory.
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
February 3