Racism, polarization and poverty at the heart of protests in Peru

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The explosion of unrest that has claimed at least 44 lives in Peru began high in the Andes and spread to the capital Lima as indigenous people expressed their fury at racism, polarization and growing poverty.

Indeed, analysts say the upheaval caused by the ousting of then-President Pedro Castillo on December 7 is not a passing political crisis but rather a symptom of deep structural problems such as the division between the rural poor and Peru’s urban elite.

The anger felt by thousands of Indigenous people began when Castillo, a former rural school teacher, was arrested and charged with rebellion after he attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

Castillo’s 17-month presidency had been chaotic.

He was frustrated by a hostile legislature preventing him from passing laws and forcing him into several cabinet reshuffles, and also faced several corruption investigations.

Although his successor, Dina Boluarte, is from the same left-wing party and had previously served as Castillo’s vice president, protesters resent him for not stepping down and accuse him of being a traitor to their cause.

– Racism

“The causes of unhappiness are racism, contempt, lack of respect and the poor quality of daily life,” political analyst Mirko Lauer told AFP, referring to indigenous peoples.

“It is an old and complex discontent. These are people who carry the rage and the pain of having been victims of the feudal system, of having been sometimes separated from their families because of internal migrations, of having been victims radicalism and reactionism.

“Discontent is not a political program, but a cry from the heart.

For historian Antonio Zapata, identity played a crucial role in the unrest.

Rural villagers believed that in Castillo, who hails from the Andean region of Peru and has indigenous roots, they had one of their own ruling the country.

He represented rural Peru and now protesters are “saying ‘our historic opportunity has been taken away from us'”.

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One of their main demands – alongside Boluarte’s resignation and new elections – is the dissolution of congress because they accuse it of not allowing Castillo to govern.

“This population thinks it’s unfair that those who blocked Castillo are allowed to govern,” Zapata told La Republica newspaper.

The demonstrators are thus demanding the creation of a body to rewrite their constitution, which establishes the economy as the anchor of development but which they accuse of social inequalities.

Amending the constitution was one of Castillo’s main campaign promises.

– Polarization

“Polarization is one of the causes of protests (but) it’s not ideological,” said Carlos Melendez, a political scientist and professor at Diego Portales University in Chile.

He says the polarization comes from the clash between “the Lima establishment” and the poor southern provinces.

The Andean and Amazonian regions of Peru have benefited the least from the economic boom of the past 30 years.

The establishment is made up of the formal economy, right-wing parties, security forces, media groups, upper and middle classes and the industrialized north coast, including Lima.

On the other side is a coalition “which has its own powers, such as the illegal economy (smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal mining), which straddles the radical left, the trade unions and the political arm of the Maoist guerrillas of the Shining Path,” Melendez told AFP.

– Poverty

“We had a great phase of growth that began to end in 2016, coinciding with the turbulent politics that began that year with the war between Congress and the executive branch, then came the pandemic and poverty a increased by 10%,” said economist Augusto Alvarez Rodrich. AFP.

During the economic boom, poverty fell from 40% to 10% in three decades, before rising to 26% in 2022.

This figure is higher in the Andean regions and this explains “the malaise that exists in the country, where we have a faceless protest movement, without leadership”.

The protests are also an expression of dissatisfaction with the elites.

As Lauer points out, both left and right populism is built on hatred of elites.

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