The political crisis in Peru cannot be solved with bullets

CESAR ROBLES

Lima

The declaration of emergency for 30 days at the national level that the government of Dina Boluarte resolved and that allows the entry of the Armed Forces to "support" the National Police in its task of providing guarantees and security to the population, the only thing that has generated It is an escalation of the conflict and a worsening of the political crisis in Peru.

The protests have increased throughout the country, and only on Thursday left eight young people dead and 52 injured in the Ayacucho region, in the south of the country. Deaths caused by bullet impact and that have forced the Regional Health Directorate to declare a Red Alert to the entire health system in the region. 

The Ombudsman, Eliana Revollar, has requested that the causes of the deaths be investigated, since there are indications of indiscriminate use of force by members of the Army. For its part, the regional government of Ayacucho has demanded the resignation of the president, Dina Boluarte, and the ministers of the Interior, César Cervantes, and Defense, Luis Alberto Otárola, whom they blame for the deaths and injuries.

In the north of the country the situation is also critical. In the province of Virú, in the La Libertad region, agricultural export workers have blocked highways, paralyzing vehicle traffic to the capital. There is no pass in any of the directions, and the residents and workers are unaware of the government and its representatives in the face of the call for dialogue raised by the Executive.

Two government ministers submitted their resignation this Friday, six days after taking office, due to the "disproportionate" response to the demonstrations, in which at least 21 people have already died, 12 of them in the last two days.

“The death of compatriots has no justification. State violence cannot be disproportionate and cause death”, wrote the Minister of Education, Patricia Correa, on the social network Twitter.

The Minister of Culture, Jair Pérez, said in a letter released by the local media that the victims in the protests make his stay in government “unsustainable”.

There is a political crisis in full swing in Peru and with few signs of finding a way out in the institutional framework that manages to harmonize the demand of the street, with the interests of the political representation expressed in the Congress of the Republic.

While the street demands #QueSeVayanTodos!, the Executive has already proposed a proposal to cut the mandate and advance elections for April 2024, something that does not convince even the Congress of the Republic itself, whose representatives have indicated that they want to stay until 2026 .

The plenary session of Congress rejected on Friday a project to advance general elections in the country to December 2023.

Unfortunately, it is also necessary to recognize that there is no unified direction or visible leadership that takes on the indignation of the street and transforms it into viable political proposals. Spontaneity and indignation have surpassed all the nuclei or organized movements that are trying to lead a protest that is already getting out of control.

Finally, another important piece of information is the role that the media and information in the capital are playing, promoting violent and repressive solutions, promoting messages from radical and fascist sectors of militarism in Congress, which incite and promote the use of repression. and the violence of the armed forces to pacify the country.

Allowing political problems to be fixed by bullets is simply not having an adequate reading of the country's problems. Bullets cannot solve a problem that is clearly political and that is already claiming the lives of 21 compatriots, most of them young people under 23 years of age. Quite a tragedy.

Cesar Robles He is a Peruvian journalist.