Turmoil in Peru

[Bill Ryan]

Serious political problems aren't just confined to the US.


https://theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/15/two-killed-as-huge-pro-democracy-protests-continue-in-peru

Interim Peru president faces calls to quit after two protest deaths

15 Nov, 2020

Nationwide fury mounts over brutal clampdown against pro-democracy demonstrations

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em2PQxdXIAAcJqy?format=jpg
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2ba256d7168e958160f9d341037f09e6552ff8f6/0_0_3267_2228/master/3267.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&
A police cordon faces protesters in San Martin de Lima square on Saturday night.
(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/15/two-killed-as-huge-pro-democracy-protests-continue-in-peru#img-1)
The interim president of Peru, Manuel Merino, is under mounting pressure to step down amid nationwide fury over the killing of two protesters in a brutally heavy-handed police clampdown on huge pro-democracy demonstrations.

News of the death of two men in their 20s from gunshot wounds sparked spontaneous pot-banging protests and vigils in neighbourhoods across the Peruvian capital into the early hours of Sunday morning.

The victims – identified (https://twitter.com/FiscaliaPeru/status/1327865011524472835) as Jack Brian Pintado Sánchez, 22, and Jordan Inti Sotelo Camargo, 24 – were the first deaths in nearly a week of unrest over the controversial removal of Martín Vizcarra as president and his replacement by a de facto government, regarded by many Peruvians as a coup.
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b797fa50062da8e8c52f03caec211e4729b417a7/0_54_2700_1621/master/2700.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&

“They say he was injured with a bullet in the heart, he died like that and was brought in as corpse,” Sotelo Camargo’s father told local journalists at the entrance of the Lima hospital where his son’s body had been taken, calling on Merino to take responsibility.

Peru’s human rights coordinator reported that more than 40 people were missing following Saturday’s march amid multiple reports of heavy-handed police repression against largely peaceful demonstrators. The health ministry reported that more than 90 people were being treated for injuries.

Images from the protests on Saturday showed hundreds of riot police using batons and shields against largely peaceful protesters, teargas cannisters and buckshot being fired directly at crowds or individuals and tanks using water cannon. There were even reports of teargas being fired from helicopters flying overhead in downtown Lima, from where protesters reported street lights being switched off and mobile phones blocked during the march.

Daily protests mounted during the week, culminating in nationwide demonstrations demanding the resignation of Merino, the former Speaker of congress who was sworn in as president on Tuesday, with tens of thousands of people (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/13/peru-protests-impeachment-president-martin-vizcarra) filling the streets of Lima and dozens of towns and cities.

“There was irrational, abusive use of force in Lima. I demand that the president of the republic shows his face and gives explanations to the country,” said Peru’s human rights ombudsman, Walter Gutiérrez.

Erika Guevara, Americas (https://www.theguardian.com/world/americas) director for Amnesty International, said: “We demand impartial investigations into the human rights violations in the protests in Peru including the deaths of two young students. Who committed these crimes and their senior officials must be investigated at the highest level.”

“Two young people have been sacrificed absurdly, stupidly, unjustly by the police,” Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian author and Nobel laureate, said in a video message. I believe it is imperative that the repression – which is against all Peru – ceases, because it is all Peru which is protesting.”

The current speaker of congress, Luis Valdéz, called a multiparty meeting for Sunday morning to discuss Merino’s resignation, according to the Twitter account (https://twitter.com/congresoperu/status/1327827284947034112) of the Peruvian congress.

The abrupt replacement of the popular president by Merino, a little-known politician with a questionable track record, has caused uproar across the Peruvian capital, sparking some of the largest demonstrations in more than a decade.

George Forsyth, the politician leading the polls as a presidential candidate for the elections next year, demanded Merino’s immediate resignation, saying in a tweet that his “hands were stained with blood” (https://twitter.com/George_Forsyth/status/1327819808944087043). He said congress should choose a new president from the 19 lawmakers who voted against Vizcarra’s impeachment over unproven bribery allegations. Out of 130 members of congress, 105 voted to remove the centrist leader (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/10/impeachment-kicks-out-president-martin-vizcarra-of-peru) on Monday.

The former president expressed his sadness over the deaths. “I deeply regret the deaths caused by the repression of this illegal and illegitimate government,” Vizcarra wrote. “My condolences to the families of these civil heroes who, exercising their right, went out in defence of democracy and in search of a better country. The country will not allow the death of these brave young people to go unpunished.”

Police detained at least 30 protesters on Saturday amid multiple reports of heavy-handed repression against largely peaceful demonstrators. The health ministry reported that more than 30 people were being treated for injuries.

Images from the massive protests on Saturday showed tanks, hundreds of riot police and clouds of teargas being used against protesters, as well as helicopters flying overhead in downtown Lima.

See also:


Peru's president Martín Vizcarra ousted in impeachment vote (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/Peru's president Martín Vizcarra ousted in impeachment vote)
Peru's new president accused of coup after ousting of predecessor (https://theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/10/peru-coup-accusations-head-of-congress-made-president-predecessor-ousted)

[Gemma13]

Anyone know if this is legit and where the court ruling is? Apologies if not right thread - please move if needed.


https://www.sgtreport.com/2021/01/peruvian-court-rules-that-bill-gates-george-soros-and-rockefeller-family-created-coronavirus-pandemic/

Soros and Rockefeller family “created” coronavirus pandemic

January 29, 2021

by Ethan Huff, Natural News:

Three of the evilest entities on the planet were charged in a Peruvian court the other day of conspiring to create the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) for world domination.

Bill Gates, George Soros, and several members of the Rockefeller family were deemed responsible for the advent and spread of the Chinese virus, which has killed tens of thousands of small businesses and forever changed the world for the worst.

The Chicha and Pisco Criminal Appeals Chamber decided that the ever-dreaded Chinese germs were the product of “criminal elite around the world” – mostly multi-billionaires with global depopulation on their minds.

These defendants had tried to appeal, but Judges Tito Gallego, Luis Legia, and Tony Changarei issued a delay, justifying it due to the “unpredictable” nature of the “pandemic.”

It was only predictable for ordinary people, however, as the alleged creators of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) “who have been involved in it and continue to manage it with particular secrecy in their environment” are entirely unaffected.

In fact, Bill Gates has never once been seen wearing a face mask, nor is he willing to take the vaccines he is now pushing everyone else to get for their “safety” and “protection” against the WuFlu.

“No world government, individuals or legal entities, nor the defense of the accused can claim that this pandemic has the quality of ‘foresight,’ except for the creators of the new world order, such as Bill Gates, Soros, Rockefeller, etc.,” the magistrates wrote in their resolution, which was posted to the LP Law portal.

One does not have to read much between the lines to see that these Peruvian judges get it. The plandemic is nothing more than a scam that was hatched by the worst kinds of criminals this world has ever seen; those with lots of money and a penchant for genocide.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Gates et al. funded and created the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) for nefarious purposes – or as the court put it, the Chinese virus was “created by a criminal elite that rules the world.”

The document specifically names billionaire financier and globalist agitator George Soros, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and the entire Rockefeller family as criminals who are guilty of “managing” and “continuing to direct” the virus straight into the “new world order.”

If only our own criminal justice system would take the same approach, then perhaps we could finally put an end to all the lockdowns, mask-wearing and superstitious paranoia that has brainwashed millions of our own people. Even better, we could finally try Gates et al. for their many crimes against humanity and punish them accordingly.

Meanwhile, in lieu of justice, Gates is already planning for the next plandemic, warning those who actually listen to what he has to say that this is war.

“We can’t afford to be caught flat-footed again,” the whiny geek is quoted as saying. “To prevent the hardship of this last year from happening again, pandemic preparedness must be taken as seriously as we take the threat of war".

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1589452586972631040

1589452586972631040

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1599086060348342273

1599086060348342273

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1600538420073435139
1600538420073435139

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1600547105835294722

1600547105835294722

[Ravenlocke]

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/climate-and-environment/2022/12/04/2228478/drought-peru-andes-proves-fatal-alpacas-potato-crops

Drought in Peru Andes proves fatal for alpacas, potato crops

PUNO, Peru — A drought in the Peruvian Andes has ravaged alpaca flocks and withered potato crops, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency on Saturday for 60 days in more than 100 districts.

Hardest hit are rural communities in the Arequipa and Puno departments in Peru's southern region, where the government decreed a state of emergency "due to imminent danger from water shortage."

The national weather service, Senamhi, described the drought as one of the worst in the past half century, exacerbated by the offshore La Niña weather phenomenon in the central Pacific Ocean.

"November 2022 was one of the driest (months) in the last 58 years in various weather stations in the Andean region," Senamhi reported.

Andean hamlets for Quechua- and Aymara-speaking indigenous groups have faced critical losses of crops and livestock herds.

"For lack of forage and water, the alpacas are dying. My alpacas have died," Isabel Bellido, an alpaca farmer, told AFP from her mountain home in Lagunillas near Puno, a regional capital at 4,200 meters in elevation some 850 kilometers southeast of Lima.

Carlos Pacheco, a veterinarian and expert in llamas and alpacas, said a worst-case scenario would be for the drought to endure.

"The animals are already underweight, and there is no pasture," he said.

At high altitude in the Andes, temperatures can drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius, and cause mass deaths of sheep and alpacas, vital to the subsistence of dwellers in mountain hamlets.

Divine supplication

In the winter of 2015, an estimated 170,000 alpacas died from extreme cold and drought in Peru.

Local press reports say hundreds of alpaca crias, or babies, and lambs have already died this year.

Shallow lakes have dried up, leaving only scattered puddles, as in the case of the Parihuanas Lagoon near Lagunillas.

In the neighboring Santa Lucia district, the Collpacocha Lagoon has completely disappeared, leaving only a cracked mud lake bed.

Near Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable inland sea in the world at 3,812 meters in elevation, the inhabitants of the Aymara-speaking village of Ichu appeal to a higher authority to end the drought.

They have taken out the venerated Catholic figure of Our Lady of the Cloud in a procession through the fields to plead for the first time in years for holy intervention to bring rain.

"We've planted our crops in the customary way but the potatoes aren't sprouting because of the intense heat. It is worrisome," said Daniel Ccama, a community leader in Ichu.

"Let the rains come Father Jesus. Don't punish us father," the procession participants chanted in their native Aymara.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/GraduatedBen/status/1600572719812198429

1600572719812198429

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1600570721012678656

1600570721012678656

https://kawsachunnews.com/breaking-president-pedro-castillo-arrested

BREAKING: President Pedro Castillo Arrested
December 7, 2022Peru
The President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has been arrested and is being held in the police station located on Avenida España in the city of Lima. This is following a vote by the majority right-wing congress to oust him in a legislative coup. The Military and the Police have declared their support for the congress, according to La Republica.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/business/status/1600569383050428429

1600569383050428429

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1600597429329530899

1600597429329530899

https://twitter.com/BREAKLINER1/status/1600597421523804160

1600597421523804160

[Lunesoleil]

Z3Rj6QY2j0I

A blow of retrograde Mars and it does not start again

wIlExw7DIIY

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1601240703627325440

1601240703627325440

https://twitter.com/Spriter0000/status/1601273009435648000

1601273009435648000

https://twitter.com/DailyWorld24/status/1601124809932681216

1601124809932681216

[Nasu]

1600569383050428429

Is it just me, or is it quite the coincidence that Dina Boluarte replaced the current president, given her WEF ties and associations?…….x…….. N

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/manolo_realengo/status/1601806135748608000

1601806135748608000

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/FiorellaIsabelM/status/1602696912729169923

1602696912729169923

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1602722715927986176

1602722715927986176

https://multipolarista.com/2022/12/13/protest-peru-coup-media-president-castillo/

Protesting farmer in Peru tells pro-coup media why she supports President Castillo: ‘He’s one of us’!

A farmer in Peru protesting the coup against democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo explained in a viral video why she supports the overthrown leader.

“All my life, those foreigners who have governed have discriminated against us,” the woman said.

“But today, it pains them that we are governed by a teacher, a farmer, who knows how to eat boiled potatoes, who knows how to eat humble things, like us, the farmers,” she said.


The video, which got thousands of shares on Twitter, showed a clip from Peru’s media network ATV noticias.

The presenter in the segment, Juliana Oxenford, was born in Argentina and is from a wealthy family of elite actors.

Oxenford has publicly defended the coup, attacking protesters as “vandals” and demonizing democratically elected President Castillo as a “dictator.”

A translated transcript of the conversation follows below:

PROTESTER: It is outrageous that you, as the Peruvian media, you do not support us.

We are supporting a President (Pedro Castillo) who was elected by the Peruvian people.

But no, excuse me, but you, you say that he has been these things that you are mentioning, so are you defaming him? Are you defaming our president?

PRESENTER: I would love to have the opportunity to have a conversation.

PROTESTER: I’m going to tell you something: All my life, all my life, those foreigners who have governed have discriminated against us. All of my life.

But today, it pains them that we are governed by a teacher, a farmer, who knows how to eat boiled potatoes, who knows how to eat humble things, like us, the farmers.

PRESENTER: I understand the request of those who suffer the most in this country, and maybe you are part of that group ma’am, I’m sorry.

PROTESTER: Who suffers? The ones who suffer, the ones who suffer, those who can’t bear the pain, are the right-wingers; it is the congress members. It is the congress members, but not us.

…

PRESENTER: I will never support a dictator.

PROTESTER: How much do they pay you? How much do they pay you to support the right wing?

PRESENTER: It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter how much they pay me! That is my own personal issue, not yours.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BTnewsroom/status/1602430064800448513

1602430064800448513

Protest also in Cusco


https://twitter.com/catrina_nortena/status/1602659623298801664

1602659623298801664

[Ravenlocke]

Given the serious acts of massacre of my people, I urge the National Police and the Armed Forces to lay down their arms in order to stop the bloodshed of my people. (1/2)

Lady
@DinaErcilia
: look at the place you occupy. I hold you and your entire circle that accompanies you responsible for the ferocious attack on my compatriots. I call on the people to remain alert and optimistic.

Sincerely,
@PedroCastilloTe
.
Constitutional President of Peru. (2/2)


https://twitter.com/PedroCastilloTe/status/1602723684128641026

1602723684128641026

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1602697725870489601

1602697725870489601

[Ravenlocke]

We join the clamor of defenders of life and Human Rights to demand that they stop the massacre of our indigenous brothers in #Perú who demand respect for their vote and a democracy that represents them. No government that stains its hands with the blood of the people is legitimate.



https://twitter.com/evoespueblo/status/1602660196551196672

1602660196551196672

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1602514525495885829

1602514525495885829


https://twitter.com/DenisRogatyuk/status/1601755614954553344

1601755614954553344

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1602397868492525597

1602397868492525597

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1603169894027079683

1603169894027079683

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1603170470479548418

1603170470479548418

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/upholdreality/status/1603188642146832384

1603188642146832384

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1602650514109472768

1602650514109472768

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/vijayprashad/status/1603159391649566720

1603159391649566720

https://twitter.com/manolo_realengo/status/1602351151168770053

1602351151168770053

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/12/14/the-us-egged-on-the-coup-in-peru/

The US egged on the coup in Peru

The move by Pedro Castillo to dissolve Congress ahead of a third impeachment motion seems to be the result of a pressure campaign with support from the US

On December 7, 2022, Pedro Castillo sat in his office on what would be the last day of his presidency of Peru. His lawyers went over spreadsheets that showed Castillo would triumph over a motion in Congress to remove him. This was going to be the third time that Castillo faced a challenge from the Congress, but his lawyers and advisers—including former Prime Minister Anibal Torres—told him that he held an advantage over the Congress in opinion polls (his approval rating had risen to 31 percent, while that of the Congress was just about 10 percent).

Castillo had been under immense pressure for the past year from an oligarchy that disliked this former teacher. In a surprise move, he announced to the press on December 7 that he was going to “temporarily dissolve the Congress” and “[establish] an exceptional emergency government.” This measure sealed his fate. Castillo and his family rushed toward the Mexican Embassy but were arrested by the military along Avenida España before they could get there.

Why did Pedro Castillo take the fatal step of trying to dissolve Congress when it was clear to his advisers—such as Luis Alberto Mendieta—that he would prevail in the afternoon vote?

The pressure got to Castillo, despite the evidence. Ever since his election in July 2021, his opponent in the presidential election, Keiko Fujimori, and her associates have tried to block his ascension to the presidency. She worked with men who have close ties with the US government and its intelligence agencies. A member of Fujimori’s team, Fernando Rospigliosi, for instance, had in 2005 tried to involve the US Embassy in Lima against Ollanta Humala, who contested in the 2006 Peruvian presidential election. Vladimiro Montesinos, a former CIA asset who is serving time in a prison in Peru, sent messages to Pedro Rejas, a former commander in Peru’s army, to go “to the US Embassy and talk with the embassy intelligence officer,.” to try and influence the 2021 Peruvian presidential election. Just before the election, the United States sent a former CIA agent, Lisa Kenna, as its ambassador to Lima. She met Peru’s Minister of Defense Gustavo Bobbio on December 6 and sent a denunciatory tweet against Castillo’s move to dissolve Congress the next day (on December 8, the US government—through Ambassador Kenna—recognized Peru’s new government after Castillo’s removal).

A key figure in the pressure campaign appears to have been Mariano Alvarado, operations officer of the Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG), who functions effectively as the US Defense attaché. We are told that officials such as Alvarado, who are in close contact with the Peruvian military generals, gave them the greenlight to move against Castillo. It is being said that the last phone call that Castillo took before he left the presidential palace came from the US Embassy. It is likely he was warned to flee to the embassy of a friendly power, which made him appear weak.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Sh1tUShouldKno/status/1603268285432111104

1603268285432111104

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1603242597211951104

1603242597211951104

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1603150139320934400

1603150139320934400

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1603298820103688192

1603298820103688192

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/2freescott/status/1603249180977176577

1603249180977176577

¤=[Post Update]=¤

The National University of San Marcos (
@UNMSM_
) has been taken over by its students. They reject terruqueo, they stand in solidarity with the victims of police violence, they demand a new Constituent Assembly. Students consider spending the night on campus and joining...

https://twitter.com/PatriciaNPino/status/1603352533933514752

1603352533933514752

[Ravenlocke]

...tomorrow to the protest in Lima. Earlier, the Philosophy Student Center published the following statement: they denounce the police violence, the stigmatization, they reject the state of emergency, they also show solidarity with the terruqued students. It is expected that...

https://twitter.com/Oswaldo_Bolo/status/1603229645867982849

1603229645867982849

[Michel Leclerc]

Venezuela (Maduro), Colombia (Petro), Bolivia (Morales), Peru (Castillo), Brasil (Lula) --> “socialist” populists in power ("socialist" meaning here : "defending the poor")
corrupt "parliamentary" coup against Castillo engineered by the US
Argentina in the waiting room of the BRICS..

<> Bill Gates smilingly hinting that the next (more dangerous) virus might surface in one of Brasil’s neighbouring countries...

[thepainterdoug]

Michele, I do not read the word in its application in the USA, as defending the poor. I read it as taking from those who earned it, and distributing to those who did not, not for the poor or "the peoples" best interest, but for the politicians who control their hunger for power and control by giving this "illusion" of care.

I am completely aware of the problem within what I said above because it's a no win situation from any side. It's a push and pull and always will be.
But the idea of the USA, Its constitution, Bill of Rights etc, ITS IDEA, not its government !! , is still the best of all bad systems for humans on earth as I see it.
It says, want freedom to sit and do nothing?, or work your tail off and have its earthly rewards? , go do it! Its your choice.

A real socialist leader should be of equal wealth and ownership of his average people, thus demonstrating, walking the walk.
Klaus Schwab wants us to eat bugs and own nothing, while he eats the best and owns everything.
Any true leader of humble means and such, as like a Ghandi, will be killed

kindly/ doug

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1602989153674678272

1602989153674678272


https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1602314951649001472

1602314951649001472

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1602736605399130113

1602736605399130113

[Ravenlocke]

Three days ago highways were blocked due to mobilization

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1602528643300859914

1602528643300859914

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Shooting at protesters from helicopters

https://twitter.com/camilapress/status/1602298479270830083

1602298479270830083

[Ravenlocke]

In the November 2019 coup, the humble people faced armed repression from the coup leaders in #Bolivia . In the congressional coup of #Perú , the humble people face the repression of the coup right-wing. The Great Homeland demands justice for our massacred brothers

https://twitter.com/evoespueblo/status/1602480508679507968

1602480508679507968

By violating the human rights of a humble people who demand respect for their vote, by persecuting leaders and trying to imprison a president with indigenous roots, the oligarchic and imperialist right tries to punish the excluded so that they never again dare to reach the government

That is the great struggle of our times. The struggle of the despised and vilified for the mere fact of being indigenous and the powerful and abusive who consider themselves superior and with the right to repress from the State

https://twitter.com/evoespueblo/status/1603423096928890880

1603423096928890880

[Michel Leclerc]

Michele, I do not read the word in its application in the USA, as defending the poor. I read it as taking from those who earned it, and distributing to those who did not, not for the poor or "the peoples" best interest, but for the politicians who control their hunger for power and control by giving this "illusion" of care.

(...)

kindly/ doug

Hello Doug. I hear you but I have been clear in my post in explaining that by writing "socialist" I meant "defending the poor" in the specific post. To make my point clearer to you, I then meant :

Venezuela (Maduro), Colombia (Petro), Bolivia (Morales), Peru (Castillo), Brasil (Lula) --> "defending the poor" populists in power

("Socialist" may have other meanings than the one Americans give to it. As I’m writing about South America, I think it is wiser to understand "socialist" in the South American way. It is not so far from what "defending the poor" means. You may consider that also the verb "earn" has at least two meanings and that is better not to juggle with them. There are people who do not earn what they earn, you know that.)

***

Forgive me for OFF TOPIC pointing the following out. I prefer to be called by my first name, not by an approximation. “Michele” (pronounce: Mikhaylay) is how my Italian friends call me. In other languages (in French on a par with "Michelle") Michele is the feminine form. For all practical purposes, I am a man, and "Michel Leclerc" is my real name. If it is difficult for people to understand that "Michel" is the male name in French, they may call me with the name of the archangel in their own language. My Spanish-speaking friends call me Miguel (Migell), the Dutch call me Michiel (pronounce: Mikheel), the German speakers Michael (pronounce: Mikha-el) and the English speakers Michael (pronounce: Mykel) or Mike (pronounce: Myke). I feel honoured when they do. So, dear Doug, back to you: let me be Michel, or (English) Michael or Mike, to you. That would earn you a smile ;-) .

[Michel Leclerc]

And Mashika can call me Михаил.

[thepainterdoug]

Dear Michel thank you for your reply , explanation and correcting me on your proper name. All good . I do need to understand the South American application of socialist. I am actually taking a trip to Patagonia in Jan . So I will keep your meaning and intention of the word. Thank you.

and you can just call me, irresponsible ;):cocktail:

[Michel Leclerc]

Dear Michel thank you for your reply , explanation and correcting me on your proper name. All good . I do need to understand the South American application of socialist. I am actually taking a trip to Patagonia in Jan . So I will keep your meaning and intention of the word. Thank you.

and you can just call me, irresponsible ;):cocktail:

Oh no Doug! You’re an artist and hence like me. You are responsive, as artists are, and therefore always responsible. Irresponsive, insensitive humans should go “and see a shrink”, or better maybe "do a primal", and even more better "do a latihan kedjiwaan".

Tell me if Doug is a good Christian name to call you by when I join you on your Patagonian trip. As far as I know, humans are rare there, and hence social (“socialist”?) by definition. ;-)

As to the idea of what "poor" is... I share with you, I think, the respect of and the aspiration towards “good work well done”. Sloppiness is not my bedfellow.. it is not accidental: to me, it comes from sloppiness of the intent, carelessness in spirit. (“Go and see a shrink" etc.).

But – in my experience – people who were genuinely poor were mostly humans who could not even pay for the one in-depth hour of advice that might have saved them – and hence were trapped in a treadmill of degrading experiences.

I am talking about our societies. Third-world societies may seem more cruel, but mostly a good talk with a good friend does not cost any money at all over there. (cf. medicalisation, psychiatry textbooks, nomenclature dictionaries etc.).

Back to topic. 5,000 miles more to the North of Patagonia...

[thepainterdoug]

Michel. thanks, not sure you know I was joking, quoting a well know phrase from a show song. Bill will certainly know

Patagonia trip, kinda top secret....

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1603862780813410304

1603862780813410304

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/jeff_kaye/status/1603502849039642624

1603502849039642624

https://multipolarista.com/2022/12/14/coup-us-ambassador-peru-cia/

Peru coup: CIA agent turned US ambassador met with defense minister day before president overthrown

The US ambassador in Peru, a veteran CIA agent named Lisa Kenna, met with the country’s defense minister just one day before democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo was overthrown in a coup d’etat and imprisoned without trial.

Peru’s defense minister, a retired brigadier general, ordered the military to turn against Castillo.

The coup set off mass protests all across Peru. The unelected regime has unleashed brutal violence, and police have killed numerous demonstrators.

Meanwhile, the US government has staunchly supported Peru’s unelected coup regime, which declared a nation-wide “state of emergency” and deployed the military to the streets in an attempt to crush the protests.


Most governments in Latin America have criticized or even refused to recognize Peru’s unelected coup regime, including Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Venezuela, Cuba, and various Caribbean nations.

The CIA has organized many coups against democratically elected left-wing leaders in Latin America, from Guatemala’s President Jacobo Árbenz in 1954 to Chile’s President Salvador Allende in 1973.

When the Donald Trump administrated nominated Lisa Kenna to be ambassador to Peru in 2020, the State Department released a “certificate of competency” that revealed that, “Before joining the Foreign Service, she served for nine years as a Central Intelligence Agency officer.”

This important fact is curiously absent from most of Kenna’s bios, including her page on the US embassy’s official website.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1603778314849640451

1603778314849640451


https://multipolarista.com/2022/12/15/alba-peru-castillo-coup-argentina-kirchner/


Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) supports Peru’s President Castillo against coup, denounces lawfare in Argentina


The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the left-wing economic and political bloc uniting countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, has forcefully opposed the coup d’etat in Peru and expressed its support for the country’s democratically elected President Pedro Castillo.

ALBA member states released a joint declaration stating that they “reject the political trap created by the right-wing forces of that country against the Constitutional President Pedro Castillo, forcing him to take measures that were later used by his adversaries in parliament to oust him from office.”

The alliance condemned the violent “repression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls.”

ALBA likewise denounced “the politically motivated judicial actions” that led to a judicial coup in Argentina, showing solidarity with former President and current Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The alliance said that Kirchner, like Castillo, is victim of “unconventional warfare strategies against democratically elected governments and leaders in the region using the politically motivated and legally unsubstantiated judicial processes (lawfare).”

The members of ALBA include Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and the Caribbean nations Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines​​​, and Saint Lucia.

Representatives of ALBA members met in La Habana on December 14 for the 18th annual summit.

Attending the conference were Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega, Bolivia’s President Luis Arce, Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Grenada Dickon Mitchell, Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Everly Chet Greene, and Finance Minister of Saint Lucia Wayne Girard.

They published a joint declaration calling for the “defense of national sovereignty without any foreign interference.”

“We reject the colonialist and interfering postulates of the Monroe Doctrine, used to justify destabilizing and interventionist practices in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the Bolivarian Alliance wrote.

ALBA nations stated:

[We] express our solidarity with the brotherly Peruvian people that has been subjected to a continuous institutional crisis, resulting in a series of events that threaten the stability and the welfare of the majority.

We reject the political trap created by the right-wing forces of that country against the Constitutional President Pedro Castillo, forcing him to take measures that were later used by his adversaries in parliament to oust him from office; we repudiate the repression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls and we call for dialogue, understanding and maturity of all political, economic, and social actors of the Republic of Peru, as well as we raise our voices to guarantee the fundamental rights of this brother people.

The alliance also declared that it rejects “the destabilizing plans and actions fueled by powerful external factors and national oligarchies that have managed or are attempting to disregard the will of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples, which has been democratically and legitimately expressed at the polls.”

In this vein, ALBA said:

[We] denounce the use of unconventional warfare strategies against democratically elected governments and leaders in the region using the politically motivated and legally unsubstantiated judicial processes (lawfare), to defeat political and ideological opponents while condemning manipulation for political and destabilizing purposes of human rights, the disinformation and propaganda campaigns; the malicious use of the information and communication technologies; and cyber attacks, among other methods undermining the sovereignty and will of the peoples.

In this regard, we express our firmest rejection of the politically motivated judicial actions against our fellow Vice President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a key leader of the integration processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

ALBA also called for Caribbean nations to receive “reparations for the damages caused by native genocide, colonialism and slavery.”

In the joint statement, the Bolivarian Alliance urged “to increase international solidarity with the brotherly people of the Republic of Haiti.”

And the alliance praised the peace talks being held between Colombia and the armed socialist militia the ELN.

The ALBA was founded in 2004 by Cuba and Venezuela, under the leadership of Presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1603538379823800320

1603538379823800320

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1603770592909574146

1603770592909574146

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1603553855240916993

1603553855240916993

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1603550871501119488

1603550871501119488

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1603548438490234880

1603548438490234880

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1603541475672850433

1603541475672850433



https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1603484447898230791

1603484447898230791

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1603571110376869888

1603571110376869888

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1603572620137418753

1603572620137418753

[Bill Ryan]

Here's the Peru situation as reported in neighboring Ecuador:


https://cuencahighlife.com/peru-cabinet-members-resign-as-protest-death-toll-rises-hundreds-of-foreign-tourists-are-trapped

Peru cabinet members resign as protest death toll rises; Hundreds of foreign tourists are trapped

https://cuencahighlife.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/peru4.png
Protesters block the runway at the airport in Ayacucho.

Pressure rose on Peru’s fledgling government Friday as two cabinet members resigned following deadly protests that have rocked the country since former President Pedro Castillo’s removal from office and arrest last week.

Education Minister Patricia Correa and Culture Minister Jair Perez announced their resignations on Twitter, citing the deaths of individuals during the unrest.

“This morning I presented my letter of resignation from the position of education minister. The death of compatriots has no justification. State violence cannot be disproportionate and cause death,” she said on her Twitter account.

Peru’s Congress also rejected on Friday a proposed constitutional reform that would have brought presidential elections forward to December 2023, one of the key demands of the protesters.

https://cuencahighlife.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/peru5.png
Demonstrators in southern Peru carry a sign reading “Closure of the coup Congress,” amid violent protests following the ousting and arrest of former President Pedro Castillo.

Peru has been through years of political turmoil, with multiple leaders accused of corruption, frequent impeachment attempts, and presidential terms cut short.

The cabinet departures now raise questions about the longevity of the government of President Dina Boluarte, the former vice president, who was sworn in on Dec. 7 after Castillo was removed from office by a congressional vote hours after he attempted to dissolve Congress.

Castillo’s ouster led to angry protests, with demonstrators calling for early elections, the closure of Congress, a constituent assembly, and the resignation of Boluarte.

Protests continued Friday, with key roads blockaded and five airports forced to close. At least 16 people have been killed in the protests so far, authorities have said.

The death toll could be as high as 20, Eliana Revollar, head of Peru’s ombudsman’s office, said in an interview with local radio RPP.

On Thursday, eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in Ayacucho, according to local authorities, after a Supreme Court panel ordered an 18-month pretrial detention for Castillo while he is investigated over charges of “rebellion and conspiracy.”

Castillo has denied wrongdoing and says he remains the country’s lawful president.

As protest spread, as many as two thousand foreign tourists are unable to leave the country. An estimated 300 tourists are stuck near the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu as roadblocks and the disabled railway have paralyzed travel. Late Friday, the government said it is dispatching a helicopter to bring medicine to tourists trapped in Machu Picchu and nearby Aguas Calientes who have exhausted their prescriptions.

The United Nations on Friday expressed “deep concern” over reports of deaths and detentions of minors involved in the demonstrations.

A criminal complaint has been filed with prosecutors specializing in human rights in the Ayacucho province of Huamanga in order to determine “responsibility for the serious violations” there, the ombudsman’s office said in a statement, without giving further details.

Boluarte’s government announced a state of emergency on Wednesday, granting police special powers and limiting freedoms including the right to assembly, but it appears to have had little effect in stemming the protests.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1603987519464521729

1603987519464521729

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1604145917199728640

1604145917199728640

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/AmautaNew/status/1603618653844361222

1603618653844361222

https://twitter.com/AmautaNew/status/1603618683179257857

1603618683179257857


https://twitter.com/AmautaNew/status/1603618692964659201

1603618692964659201

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604127610212347904

1604127610212347904

[url]https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604142568190939136
1604142568190939136


https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604143320997019648

1604143320997019648

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604147085892153345
1604147085892153345



https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604152247327268865
1604152247327268865

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604154792388894720

1604154792388894720

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604165370465714178

1604165370465714178

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604203976148262912
1604203976148262912

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604208034359787522

1604208034359787522

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604203383706988544

1604203383706988544

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604201429555609601

1604201429555609601

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604200677290479616

1604200677290479616

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604195895368912896

1604195895368912896



There are complaints about "sowing" evidence to the demonstrators and irregular intervention without the presence of prosecutors. In the photographs, 3 new machetes (with tags), a ski mask (only one) and thumbtacks.

https://twitter.com/Idlsciudadana/status/1604183686324297729

1604183686324297729

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/wallacemick/status/1604076490320134146

1604076490320134146

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604243249891520512

1604243249891520512

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604472275184803841

1604472275184803841

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1604313170490925056

1604313170490925056

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1604326764456644608

1604326764456644608

[Michel Leclerc]

Ouch, you were referring to the Patagonia Symphony in a minor op.853 by the Soviet composer Михаил Михайлович Михайловический... how could I have missed that innuendo...!

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/le_shipster/status/1604508586452717573

1604508586452717573

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1604318903622111232

1604318903622111232

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604516008882233344

1604516008882233344

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1605227434449801218

1605227434449801218

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1605194220696133632

1605194220696133632

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1605190506056646662

1605190506056646662

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1604964645638492185

1604964645638492185

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/TheRioTimes/status/1605129451834146818

1605129451834146818

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1605188417641484288

1605188417641484288

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/theotopsy/status/1605206058074796033

1605206058074796033

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1605594701075124225

1605594701075124225

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1605584777611993088

1605584777611993088


https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1605354717072220160

1605354717072220160

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ZoPepperC/status/1605578410947772416

1605578410947772416

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/12/20/we-are-here-to-support-our-president-peruvians-resist-the-coup/


“We are here to support our President”: Peruvians resist the coup
Hundreds of Peruvians have come to the capital Lima to protest the coup against Pedro Castillo and to demand fundamental changes in the political system

You’re probably wondering who paid me to be here,” a man in his 40s, from the southern Andean province of Ica, said to me. “Well, no one paid me to be here. We are doing this because our hearts are with the homeland, because I want my Peru to change, because a government that was trying to do this was unjustly overthrown.”

Luis Alberto (name changed) is one of hundreds of Peruvians who traveled to Peru’s capital, leaving behind his home and his employment, to protest the coup against Pedro Castillo as well as his detention, which took place on December 7, 2022.

We met outside the Barbadillo Prison in the eastern part of Lima. This prison is where constitutional president Pedro Castillo is being held in pre-trial detention, which was just extended to 18 months by a judge on Thursday, December 15. Luis Alberto, alongside several others, are part of a self-organized group maintaining a vigil outside the prison—day and night—so that “those corrupt people don’t try to plant anything, or harm [Castillo] in any way,” as they told me. And above all, their group wants to “show our support for our president.” Around one hundred of the original participants shifted to the camp in Manco Capac Plaza, in the center of the city, in order to maintain constant pressure on Congress amid the upcoming debates on elections and the political crisis.

Throughout the day, people pass by the vigil to drop off bottles of water, crates of oranges, packages of crackers, or simply to chat and ask what is happening and what they can do.

Some of the group gathered in front of Barbadillo Prison. Photo: Zoe Alexandra
“Everything we have here has been given to us by the people themselves,” Alberto told me. “The first night we slept on the grass, and the next day neighbors brought us mattresses, clothing, food…this is the solidarity that this government [of Pedro Castillo] has taught us. To share with our brothers the bread that we have, with those that do not.”

Those present engage in discussions about the Peruvian political system, the “bought” judiciary, the “lying” media, and the “corrupt” right-wing Congress, constantly sharing updates from Whatsapp and Facebook on the debates in Congress, the mobilizations occurring across the country, and the repression faced by those on the streets. They also share stories about their own struggles to survive in the country, for land, dignified employment, and quality education. They take turns chanting on the megaphone, and playing broadcasts from independent media on the situation.

Self-organized citizens participate in the vigil outside the Barbadillo Prison where Pedro Castillo is being held. Photo: Zoe Alexandra
“We must be clear. This is political persecution because the right-wing didn’t win and they did not accept their electoral defeat,” Estela Cornejo Cusihuaman, who is also participating in the vigil, told me.

“We are here so that democracy is respected and our president is freed, because he is not being detained. He has been kidnapped. This is political persecution whether you like it or not. Here there is no point in covering up the sun with a finger,” Cornejo Cusihuaman added.

The fourth power: the media

Much of the conversation amongst those outside Barbadillo is about the role of the media in creating the conditions for the coup and for the criminalization of the anti-coup protests. When I introduced myself as a journalist, many became immediately uneasy. “But not mainstream, national press, right? All they do is manipulate our words and tell lies,” one participant asked.

Cornejo Cusihuaman said that during the year and six months that Castillo’s government was in power, it was “all attacks”.

“[In the media they] would say, ‘Pedro Castillo is ignorant, a terrorist, a communist, a teacher who knows nothing, a peasant who doesn’t know how to govern.’ They would say whether or not he was wearing his sombrero, if we went to the bathroom with his sombrero. All this paid-off press was just focused on criticizing, and harassing him,” she condemned.

Luis Alberto added that the press employed a racist treatment towards Castillo and his government, dissecting the minute details about the background, qualifications, and experience of Castillo and the members of his various cabinets.

For many, the right-wing’s treatment of Castillo is a mirror for how ordinary, working class people in the country are treated, especially those that fight for change.

During the two weeks of mass protests against the coup, mainstream Peruvian press has called protesters “vandals”, “criminals”, “terrorists”, “drug-traffickers”, they have published unverified reports alleging that protesters have been using weapons and have links to criminal groups, and always emphasize the disruption to daily life caused by the protests.

This has occurred alongside the brutal and violent repression of these mass anti-coup protests. According to human rights organizations in the country, at least 26 people have been killed due to the police repression, eight of them below the age of 20. According to the National Human Rights Coordinator (CCDDHH), the National Police and Armed Forces have used prohibited munition such as metal pellets, glass pellets, and live bullets in addition to “shooting tear gas bombs directly at protesters bodies” and indiscriminately shooting at protesters with lethal weapons.

In addition, across the country, nearly 200 protesters have been detained and dozens of offices and houses of political leaders, social movements, and organizations, many of which have been hosting protesters from outside the cities, have been raided by police, accompanied by the mainstream media who often “writes the sentence before the trial.”

Yet, despite repression, stigmatization, and criminalization, the people of Peru are determined to stay in the streets to express their indignation against the coup, the de facto government of Dina Boluarte, the human rights violations against protesters, and the imprisonment of Castillo. Cornejo Cusihuaman emphasized, “This is the reaction of the people, because all of the attacks that they have made against Pedro Castillo, who has been democratically elected, have been against the people.

“These attacks are not just against Pedro, but against the people.”

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1605403976937226247

1605403976937226247

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/TheGrayzoneNews/status/1605625721195356161

1605625721195356161

Why Peruvians are in the streets for Castillo

The Grayzone speaks to Anahi Durand, the former Minister of Women and Vulnerable People in the government of Peru's ex-President Pedro Castillo, a schoolteacher and union leader-turned-politician was removed from power by parliament, placed in detention and replaced with an unelected figure.

With Castillo charged with "rebellion and conspiracy," masses of Peruvians have taken to the streets, facing heavy repression as they protest for his release. In this exclusive interview, Durand details the elite forces behind Castillo's ouster and slams his treatment.

dfvzssfpgpE

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1605966269521350658

1605966269521350658

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1605966086234460160

1605966086234460160

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1605977405301985280

1605977405301985280

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1606027777731284993

1606027777731284993

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1606613988367892480

1606613988367892480

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1610790869975859205

1610790869975859205

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1610793206366769153

1610793206366769153

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1610795282710794240
1610795282710794240

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1610727199534874625

1610727199534874625

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Peruvians-Block-Roads-in-Cusco-and-Puno-20230104-0010.html

Peruvians Block Roads in Cusco and Puno

After a few days of truce due to the festivities, Peruvian farmers, workers, merchants, transporters, and other citizens of the Cusco and Puno regions resumed massive protests to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the call for early general elections, and the release of former President Pedro Castillo.

RELATED:
Social and Political Organizations Restart Protests in Peru
Roadblocks to the south and north of the country have managed to restrict vehicular traffic on the main Peruvian highways, which has relatively paralyzed normal economic activities.

One of the main interconnection roads between Peru and Bolivia, the road from Puno to the city of Desaguadero, is completely blocked by social organizations that joined the strike called for Wednesday.

"The traffic obstruction is located on the Llave bridge and the Acora, Pomata and Zepita sectors, in the provinces of Puno, El Collao, and Yunguyo," local outlet Willax reported.

The tweet reads, "Aymara peasant communities, in Desaguadero-Puno near the Bolivian border, get ready for protest actions against the Boluarte administration."

As of Wednesday noon, the Superintendency of Land Transportation (SUTRAN) had reported the highest number of roadblocks in the regions of Puno (9) and Cusco (4). A massive blockade was also reported in Junin.

In the province of Lampa, a group of "ronderos", the union to which Castillo belonged, complied with the strike. In the cities of Puno and Juliaca, there is no urban transportation or commercial activities.

“Teachers cannot be outside the struggles of the people. We call on all sectors to join this strike and to act consciously about what is happening in the country," said Reynaldo Villahermosa, the secretary of the Puno Teachers' Union.

[Ravenlocke]

Yesterday,

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612588346986926081

1612588346986926081

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612596530354987008

1612596530354987008

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612606975526797312

1612606975526797312

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612615833024331776

1612615833024331776

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612590448509595649

1612590448509595649

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612513620474187776

1612513620474187776

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612789721708793857

1612789721708793857

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612918986840354816

1612918986840354816

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1612937516063023105

1612937516063023105

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1612858648098738180

1612858648098738180

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Peru-Puno-Decrees-Three-Day-Mourning-for-the-Juliaca-Massacre-20230110-0007.html?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

Peru: Puno Decrees Three-Day Mourning for the Juliaca Massacre

On Tuesday, Governor Richard Hancco Soncco decreed three days of mourning in the department of Puno to honor the memory of 17 Peruvians who died as a result of police brutality deployed against citizens protesting in the city of Juliaca.

RELATED:
Brutal Repression Leaves 17 Dead in a Peruvian City
His decree provides that the flag be hoisted halfway up in all public institutions in the region from Tuesday to Thursday. It also asks national authorities to initiate investigations to detect and punish those responsible for the deaths.

The Puno government rejected "any act of violence and the exaggerated use of public force by the Peruvian National Police and the Peruvian Armed Forces."

Given the growing protests in the highlands, social organizations also demand an end to police repression at a time when President Dina Boluarte is seeking support in Congress to remain in power until the early elections scheduled for 2014.

On Tuesday, Transportation Minister Paola Lazarte acknowledged that citizens have managed to interrupt traffic on the main highways in 44 strategic sites.

The tweet reads, "The Juliaca massacre was so serious that even right-wing media reported on it." "The crisis in Peru worsens. In the south of the country, protesters tried to block the airport in Juliaca. The clashes left 17 dead and over 30 injured. Due to the deaths, President Dina Boluarte suspended the 'National Agreement' meeting."

The President of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otarola, is expected to hold talks with various parliamentary groups to request their support. The Juliaca massacre, however, will make those political negotiations difficult.

On Monday, the city of Juliaca lived the sixth consecutive day of anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Boluarte, the closure of Congress, early elections in 2023, and the immediate release of former President Pedro Castillo.

Since the right-wing-controlled congress appointed Boluarte as president in December 2022, State terrorism has left 44 citizens dead and dozens injured throughout the country.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1613239505787682824

1613239505787682824

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1614668868257030147

1614668868257030147

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1614001934100226054

1614001934100226054

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/13/stop-the-violence-against-the-peruvian-people/

Stop the violence against the Peruvian people!

Over 100 journalists and media projects from across the world signed a letter to demand an end to the repression of the Peruvian people and to the attacks against journalists

The Peruvian people have been on the streets across the country to reject the coup that took constitutional president Pedro Castillo out of office on December 7. The Peruvian authorities have responded to these mass protests with brutal violence. As of today, Peruvian human rights organizations estimate that 48 people have been killed in the context of the protests and hundreds more have been injured.

Mainstream, corporate media in Peru has helped reinforce the government’s narrative that those who are on the streets are “criminals”, “terrorists” and that their demands are illegitimate. Meanwhile, independent and alternative media outlets and journalists in the country who have been covering the protests, have faced threats, campaigns of slander and stigmatization, and physical attacks.

In light of this situation, over 100 journalists and media outlets from Peru to India, and from Haiti to Egypt, including Rania Khalek, Carlos Aznarez, Patricia Villegas, Claudia Cisneros, Eugene Puryear, Vijay Prashad, Alina Duarte, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., among others, signed a letter to condemn this violence and demand that protesters and journalists rights be respected.

See below the letter and the signatories:

We, communicators and journalists, repudiate the brutal violence against the Peruvian people by the security forces and the disturbing attacks against journalists and photographers who seek to tell the truth about what is happening in the country.

Since December 7, when the coup d’état against constitutional president Pedro Castillo and his subsequent illegal detention took place, the Peruvian people have been in constant mobilization to demand the immediate resignation of the de facto leader, Dina Boluarte, the dissolution of Congress, the realization of a Constituent Assembly and the immediate release of Pedro Castillo.

Their just and courageous protests have been met with an extremely violent response by the security forces. To date, at least 48 Peruvian brothers and sisters have been killed with bullets, sound grenades, tear gas and pepper spray during the protests. We have seen with great concern how these flagrant violations of human rights, the right to protest, freedom of expression and the democratic state have been justified by the executive branch, the mass media and right-wing politicians.

In all this, we have not been able to depend on the narrative of the corporate media that call the protesters “vandals” “terrorists”, justifying the violence against them as sinister accomplices of the barbarism of the state. It has been the popular communicators, independent journalists and photojournalists, who take to the streets risking their physical integrity, facing extreme violence in order to communicate the truth to the world.

We are concerned about the case of Aldair Mejía, photojournalist, who was shot by a projectile while covering the demonstrations in Juliaca. He had denounced that prior to the attack, a member of the Peruvian National Police had threatened him saying “Get out of here, if not I’ll blow your head off and kill you”. In addition to him, there are many other cases of colleagues who have suffered stigmatization, accusations, violent attacks, criminalization and more in the context of their journalistic work. Journalism is not a crime!

As communicators and journalists of the world, we stand in solidarity with the brave Peruvian people and with their communicators and journalists who are facing the terrible repression of Dina Boluarte’s government.

We demand an immediate end to this repression and respect for the human rights of protesters and members of the press.


See the list of signatories here,

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/13/stop-the-violence-against-the-peruvian-people/

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1616166078454931456

1616166078454931456

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1616180414674243586

1616180414674243586

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1616205101458198558

1616205101458198558

https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/19/peru-resources-mining-gas-investment/


Peru’s natural resources: CIA-linked US ambassador meets with mining and energy ministers to talk ‘investments’

The US ambassador in Peru, Lisa Kenna, is a CIA veteran who supported a parliamentary coup in December 2022 that overthrew the South American nation’s democratically elected left-wing president, Pedro Castillo.

Castillo was subsequently imprisoned for 18 months without due process, setting off massive protests across Peru. The unelected government responded with extreme violence, killing approximately 50 protesters in just over a month.

One day before the December 7 coup, the former CIA officer turned US ambassador met with Peru’s defense minister, who then told the country’s powerful military to turn against President Castillo.


Since then, Kenna has been quite busy, regularly meeting with top officials in Peru’s coup government, including unelected President Dina Boluarte and her ministers.

On January 18, the US ambassador sat down with Peru’s minister of energy and mining, as well as its vice minister of hydrocarbons and vice minister of mining.

Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines boasted that they discussed “investment” opportunities and plans to “develop” and “expand” the extractive industries.


Peru is a country rich in natural resources, especially minerals. Spanish colonialists exploited the South American nation’s substantial silver and gold reserves, and today transnational corporations see it as a very profitable resource hub.

One of Earth’s top producers of copper, lead, zinc, tin, silver, and gold, Peru’s economy relies heavily on the mining sector, which represents more than half of total national exports and over 10% of GDP.

The world’s three largest transnational mining corporations – BHP, Rio Tinto, and Glencore – are heavily invested in Peru, along with other prominent companies from Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Britain, the US, Japan, and Australia.

Peru is the planet’s second-biggest copper producer (after its neighbor Chile), meaning it will become increasingly important in the global shift toward renewable energy technologies.

US investment banking giant Goldman Sachs stated in 2022 that “copper is the new oil”, writing: “The critical role copper will play in achieving the Paris climate goals cannot be overstated… As the most cost-effective conductive material, copper sits at the heart of capturing, storing and transporting these new sources of energy”.

Peru is also a significant producer of liquified natural gas (LNG). Its LNG exports are largely overseen by foreign corporations like Shell.

Europe became the top importer of Peruvian LNG in 2022, after the European Union boycotted Russian energy over the proxy war in Ukraine.

While natural resources are not the only reason for these coups in Latin America, they are a significant factor.

Following the violent putsch in Peru’s mineral-rich neighbor Bolivia in 2019, a critic wrote to billionaire Elon Musk on Twitter, “You know what wasn’t in the best interest of people? The US government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there”.

Musk replied, “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it”.


Peru’s President Castillo: ‘We want our natural resources to directly benefit the people’

When he ran for office in 2021, left-wing presidential candidate Pedro Castillo had made one of the central themes of his campaign the need to reassert popular control over Peru’s natural resources.

Condemning foreign companies for “pillaging” the country, he called to renegotiate contracts to ensure that 70% of all proceeds from mining went to the state, to fund social programs.

A few weeks before the presidential elections, Castillo said, “Let’s be clear: these decades of betrayal, corruption, and cynicism are the symptoms of this neoliberal system dedicated exclusively to the exploitation of our people and natural resources for the benefit of a few scoundrels”.

When he entered office, Castillo was very limited in what he could do politically. The right-wing opposition had a majority in the congress, and they were hellbent on destabilizing and eventually removing him with a presidential “vacancy”. They used Peru’s legislature and the heavily politicized and corrupt judiciary to launch constant attacks against Castillo, as part of a campaign of systematic persecution and lawfare.

But Castillo did what he could. The president announced a “second agrarian reform” and declared, “We are rescuing the resources of the country for all Peruvians”. He explained his goal: “We want our natural resources to directly benefit the people“.

Castillo’s government made plans with left-wing President Gustavo Petro in neighboring Colombia to develop gas infrastructure in Peru and expand internal use.

This was part of Castillo’s progressive economic model of import substitution industrialization, which aimed to grow local industry and boost domestic consumption, so Peru would not rely exclusively on low value-added exports.

Immediately after ousting Castillo, however, Peru’s coup regime returned to the neoliberal economic model of the Washington Consensus, prioritizing foreign corporate investment over internal development.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted on January 18 that it had just conducted a “high-level institutional dialogue between Peru and the United States, which addressed themes of development of the mining sector”.

US Ambassador Kenna met with Peru’s minister of energy and mining, Óscar Vera Gargurevich; vice minister of hydrocarbons, Enrique Bisetti Solari; and vice minister of mining, Jaime Chávez Riva.

The ministry said they discussed “themes linked to the expansion of natural gas, mining investments, and the development of renewable energies in our country”.

It added that “Minister Vera was grateful for the support from the North American government in mining-energy issues, and he reiterated the will of the national government, whose priority is the expansion of natural gas, energy security, and the petrochemical development of the south of the country”.

Mining dominates Peru’s economy

The Peruvian government itself has publicly stated that its economy relies heavily on mining and exporting minerals such as copper, zinc, gold, silver, lead, iron, and molybdenum.

Peru’s top exports in 2022 included copper, gold, and liquified natural gas (LNG).

The mining sector made up 58.7% of all of Peru’s exports, 57.1% of which were metals and 1.6% of which were non-metals, according to the most recent publicly available statistics, from January to October 2022.

Copper, gold, zinc, and iron represented 88.4% of the total value of Peru’s mineral exports, and 51.9% of the value of all of the country’s exports.

As of 2022, the largest corporate investor in Peru’s mining sector was the UK-based company Anglo American.

The second biggest investor was Compañía Minera Antamina S.A., a local firm that is majority owned by Australian and Swiss mining giants. The third was the US-Mexican Southern Copper Corporation.

Local communities in the South American country, especially those of Indigenous descent, have long protested the mining companies that devastate their environment.

These rural communities were the base of support for President Castillo. Since the coup, they have organized massive protests, demanding that he be freed, that new elections be held, and that the government convene a constituent assembly to write a new constitution, to replace the current one that was inherited from the former US-backed far-right dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori.

Europe becomes top importer of Peru’s LNG, following boycott of Russian energy

After minerals, Peru’s other top export is natural gas – and more specifically liquified natural gas (LNG).

Peru’s gas sector saw a huge boom in 2022, with LNG exports increasing by 85% in the first eight months of the year, in comparison with the same period in 2021.

One of the main reasons for this surge was Europe’s sky-high demand for gas.

Before 2022, most of Peru’s LNG had gone to Asia (primarily Japan, South Korea, and China). But as tensions between NATO and Russia escalated in late 2021 and early 2022, and the EU moved to boycott Russian energy, this drastically shifted.

The vast majority of Peru’s LNG exports went to Europe in 2022, primarily to Britain and Spain.

In months like April, May, and August, all of Peru’s LNG exports went to Europe, according to data published by the state company Perúpetro.


Peru’s LNG exports are overseen by a consortium of foreign corporations including Britain’s Shell, the US Hunt Oil Company, Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, and South Korea’s SK Group.

While Peru only exports a relatively small amount of LNG when compared to the United States – which quickly established itself as the world’s top LNG exporter in 2022 – the South American nation has become an important energy partner for Europe.

In its attempt to reduce trade with Russia, Spain increased its imports of LNG from the Americas – including the US, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago – by 77.4% in 2022. (Spain boosted its imports of US LNG specifically by 93.4% in 2022.)

Ironically, by pledging to boycott Russian oil, Spain also ended up increasing its imports of more expensive Russian LNG by 37% in 2022.

At the same time, from the beginning of 2021 to mid-2022, the price of natural gas skyrocketed by 700%.

Transnational corporations rake in profits in Peruvian mining

Foreign companies have made a killing in Peru’s mining sector.

In promotional materials urging more foreign investment, the Peruvian government boasted that the planet’s three largest mining corporations are active in the country: BHP Group, of Australia; Rio Tinto, of Britain and Australia; and Glencore, of Switzerland.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines wrote with pride in 2018: “The world’s most important companies in the mining sector are making investments in our country. Due to our mineral reserves, Peru is a market that is always taken into account by these companies when they decide their investment budgets in exploration and exploitation”.

Many local mining companies in Peru are owned by foreign corporate giants.

The second-largest investor in mining in Peru, the Compañía Minera Antamina (Antamina Mining Company in English), was 33.75% owned by BHP, another 33.75% owned by Glencore, 22.5% by Canada’s Teck Resources, and 10% by Japan’s Mitsubishi, as of 2018.

The Compañía Minera Antamina operates in Peru’s western Áncash region, and was responsible for roughly one-fifth of national copper production and 15% of national silver production in 2018.

Peru was the source of 20% of BHP’s global production of copper in 2017, as well as 50% of its global production of silver and 100% of its global production of zinc.

The British-Australian Rio Tinto corporation oversees the La Granja mining project in the northwestern Cajamarca region. Peru was the source of 15% of Rio Tinto’s global production of copper in 2017.

Other large transnational corporations active in Peru’s mining sector include the US company Freeport-McMoRan and Mexican Southern Copper Corporation, both of which are based in Phoenix, Arizona; as well as Canada’s Barrick Gold.

But this is just to mention existing mining operations. Foreign companies are also heavily invested in exploration for new projects.

The top foreign countries whose companies are investing in mining exploration in Peru are Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Britain, the US, Japan, and Australia, according to a 2022 report from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Companies located in Peru are responsible for 37.8% of investment in exploration, but this figure can be misleading because many of these firms are owned by much bigger transnational corporations.

Peru mining exploration projects country
As of 2022, 43.4% of exploration investment went into looking for gold, 36.1% for copper, 11.2% for zinc, 8.3% for silver, and 1% for tin.

Mining exploration projects are taking place all across western Peru.

Many of these regions, which are underdeveloped and suffer from high rates of poverty, have seen large protests against the US-backed coup regime and in support of Castillo.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1616212678426378242

1616212678426378242

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1616213778932047881

1616213778932047881

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1616258411640782848

1616258411640782848

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1616269478458806272

1616269478458806272

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1616298751617863680

1616298751617863680

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/NeilGiardino/status/1616466053491556353

1616466053491556353

https://twitter.com/bbcworldservice/status/1616062684084011010

1616062684084011010

https://twitter.com/NeilGiardino/status/1615838112168517653

1615838112168517653

[Ravenlocke]

“The "big press", prostituted at the service of the right and power groups, wants to cover the sun with one finger. This is an absolutely legitimate NATIONAL POPULAR MOVEMENT, unlike Boluarte. "Get out, murderers of ****", says the union of municipal workers of #Perú”

https://twitter.com/RadioPopularPe/status/1616436943138742279

1616436943138742279

[Ravenlocke]

#ATENCIÓN | Twelve journalists in Lima and four in Arequipa denounced attacks during their informative work in the coverage of the protests at the national level, according to the Journalist's Human Rights Office and the
@ANP_periodistas
.

https://twitter.com/WaykaPeru/status/1616452586957307906

1616452586957307906

[Bill Ryan]

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/30037

Slavyangrad/30037

[pyrangello]

As an American, a veteran, and caring citizen of this earth I can tell you there are many citizens here in America that are truly disgusted with the direction of the u.s. and its policies of late, hell look at all of the u.s. citizens this government left behind in Afghanistan and how we abandoned that country to go back to the stone age again. I keep saying America, land of the free, home of the brave but a place where nobody goes to jail anymore. The leadership in this country at present is so busy destroying many of our values internally, there is no energy left here to care about other countries. Truly disgusting.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:

EVO MORALES: "Let the whole world know: Peru is not being governed by the president called Dina Boluarte. Peru is governed by the United States and the Joint Command of the Armed Forces... sister Dina became just another US employee.

The Peruvian right wing attacks and persecutes us for defending the lives of our murdered brothers who defend their democracy. We do not defend human rights out of intrusion, we do it and will continue to do it out of conviction. Deep Peru has awakened."

https://twitter.com/upholdreality/status/1652729762673045505

1652729762673045505

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1653441854795309056

1653441854795309056

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://kawsachunnews.com/boluarte-regime-signs-770k-lobby-contract-with-u-s-pr-firm

Boluarte regime signs $770K lobby contract with U.S. PR firm

Peru’s coup regime has locked down a $40,000/month lobby contract with U.S. public relations firm Patriot Strategies, according to a agreement document published by AP reporter Josh Goodman.

The contract, dated April 10th, says “Patriot’s representation will encompass providing targeted communications, strategic planning, tactical execution, and public relations assistance on matters before the US Congress, the White House, academic institutions, NGO’s and think-tanks, the business community and the media. Patriot’s efforts will be in furtherance of the Peruvian State’s long-term interests and safeguarding the good image of Peru as an attractive partner for investment, tourism and constructive engagement for the benefit of the Peruvian People. Building on its previous engagement with the Embassy of Peru, Patriot will work with the Embassy of Peru to expand and implement a strategy..”

The agreement states that the PR firm will “submit a technical report to the Embassy of Peru” upon the conclusion of the contract term, which lasts fourteen months, effective as of April 10.

At $40,000 USD per month, the Peruvian government’s contract with Patriot totals $770,000 USD including “Administration and Implementation Support Costs”, charged in the amount of $15,000 USD per month to the Embassy of Peru.

Social movements and civil society organizations in Peru continue to draw attention to the illegitimacy of the Dina Boluarte administration, which since December 7, has carried out dozens of killings of protesters and civilians in general, and which has committed a long and growing list of human rights violations since the coup.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1659770974965776384

1659770974965776384

https://www.hispantv.com/noticias/peru/565617/tropas-eeuu-entrenaran-policia-peruana

Peru authorizes the entry of US troops for 'military training'

The Peruvian Congress approved the entry of U.S. troops to "train" with the military and police from the South American country.

With 70 votes in favor, 33 against and four abstentions, the plenary of Parliament endorsed the measure, which was repudiated by the benches of the left in the opposition.

The measure, which was approved this Friday morning, authorizes the entry of U.S. military troops into Peru, from June, until December 31, at the moment the number of soldiers who can enter is unknown.

Despite the opposition's rejection, the Commission on National Defense, Internal Order, Alternative Development and the Fight Against Drugs, defends the opinion and assures that U.S. personnel will carry out "cooperation and training" activities with the Armed Forces and the National Police.

Report: Peruvian army and police violated human rights in protests
79% of Peruvians reject the Boluarte government
The secretary of the commission, legislator Alfredo Azurín, assures that the entry of the US detachment "is not aimed at implementing any foreign military base in Peru and will not affect national sovereignty," according to the Legislative Office of Communications this Friday.

The vote was made a day after the special rapporteur of the United Nations Organization for the Right of Expression, Meeting and Peaceful Association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, confirmed excessive repressive force against the mobilizations initiated last December in rejection of the interim government of Dina Boluarte. The office also calls on the Boluarte Administration to be transparent in the investigations that are being carried out into the deaths of civilians.

The high representative of the UN suggested that the Government should approach the victims of the recent protests and recognize their suffering and ensure that those responsible for human rights violations during the protests are effectively held accountable.

Two weeks later, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had presented a documented report on the "serious violations, by the military and police," during the protests against Congress and the interim president.

Dina Boluarte rejects IACHR report and supports the Armed Forces | HISPANTV
The IACHR's final report on the crisis in Peru concluded that there were several human rights violations during the anti-Boluarte protests that left about 49 dead.
For the IACHR, the "disproportionate, indiscriminate and lethal" use was confirmed by the high number of deaths, of which the majority, almost 50, according to the organization, occurred after clashes with public security forces.

'Government of Boluarte admitted excesses in the use of weapons in protests'
According to the president of the IACHR, Margarette May Macaulay, the deaths could constitute extrajudicial executions in Ayacucho, one of the regions where the bloodiest acts were recorded.

The most recent social outburst in Peru arose after the dismissal of former President Pedro Castillo, for having tried to dissolve the Congress of the Republic, which caused the death of about 80 people, and dozens of injuries at the hands of the police and military.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
EVO MORALES: "Very concerned about the decision of the brother president of Chile to support the illegal and illegitimate government of Peru for the protempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance just when the US military intervention in Peru is authorized.

It seems that the brother president of Chile forgets that Allende was a victim of CIA interventionism. The presence of the US Armed Forces in Peruvian territory corresponds to the interference plan of the Southern Command to usurp the natural resources of the region, especially lithium, gold and fresh water.

The authorization of the entry of these troops is an attempt against peace in Latin America."

https://twitter.com/upholdreality/status/1661386743818452993

1661386743818452993

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1662402830680875010

1662402830680875010

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/why-are-us-military-personnel-heading-peru

Why Are US Military Personnel Heading To Peru?

The ostensible goal of the operation is to provide “support and assistance to the Special Operations of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces and National Police of Peru,” including in regions recently engulfed in violence.

Unbeknown, it seems, to most people in Peru and the US (considering the paucity of media coverage in both countries), US military personnel will soon be landing in Peru. The plenary session of Peru’s Congress last Thursday (May 18) authorised the entry of US troops onto Peruvian soil with the ostensible purpose of carrying out “cooperation activities” with Peru’s armed forces and national police. Passed with 70 votes in favour, 33 against and four abstentions, resolution 4766 stipulates that the troops are welcome to stay any time between June 1 and December 31, 2023.

The number of US soldiers involved has not been officially disclosed, at least as far as I can tell, though a recent statement by Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, who is currently person non grata in Peru, suggests it could be around 700. The cooperation and training activities will take place across a wide swathe of territory including Lima, Callao, Loreto, San Martín, Huánuco, Ucayali, Pasco, Junín, Huancavelica, Iquitos, Pucusana, Apurímac, Cusco and Ayacucho.

The last three regions, in the south of Peru, together with Arequipa and Puno, were the epicentre of huge political protests, strikes and road blocks from December to February after Peru’s elected President Pedro Castillo was toppled, imprisoned and replaced by his vice-president Dina Boluarte. The protesters’ demands included:

The release of Castillo

New elections

A national referendum on forming a Constitutional Assembly to replace Peru’s current constitution, which was imposed by former dictator Alberto Fujimori following his self-imposed coup of 1992

Brutal Crackdown on Protests

Needless to say, none of these demands have been met. Instead, Peru’s security forces, including 140,000 mobilised soldiers, unleashed a brutal crackdown that culminated in the deaths of approximately 70 people. A report released by international human rights organization Amnesty International in February drew the following assessment:

“Since the beginning of the massive protests in different areas of the country in December 2022, the Army and National Police of Peru (PNP) have unlawfully fired lethal weapons and used other less lethal weapons indiscriminately against the population, especially against Indigenous people and campesinos (rural farmworkers) during the repression of protests, constituting widespread attacks.”

As soon as possibly next week, an indeterminate number of US military personnel could be joining the fracas. According to the news website La Lupa, the purported goal of their visit is to provide “support and assistance to the Special Operations of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces and National Police of Peru” during two periods spanning a total of seven months: from June 1 to September 30, and from October 1 to December 30, 2023.

The secretary of the Commission for National Defence, Internal Order, Alternative Development and the Fight Against Drugs, Alfredo Azurín, was at pains to stress that there are no plans for the US to set up a military base in Peru and that the entry of US forces “will not affect national sovereignty.” Some opposition congressmen and women begged to differ, arguing that the entry of foreign forces does indeed pose a threat to national sovereignty. They also lambasted the government for passing the resolution without prior debate or consultation with the indigenous communities.

The de facto Boluarte government and Congress are treating the arrival of US troops as a perfectly routine event. And it is true that the US military has long held a presence in Peru. For example, in 2017, U.S. personnel took part in military exercises held jointly with Colombia, Peru and Brazil in the “triple borderland” of the Amazon region. Also, the US Navy operates a biosafety-level 3 biomedical research laboratory close to Lima as well as two other (biosafety-level 2) laboratories in Puerto Maldonado.

But the timing of the operation raising serious questions. After all, Peru is currently under the control of an unelected government that is heavily supported by Washington but overwhelmingly rejected by the Peruvian people. The crackdown on protests in the south of the Peru by the country’s security forces — the same security forces that US military personnel will soon be joining — has led to dozens of deaths. Peru’s Congress is refusing to call new elections in total defiance of public opinion. Just a few days ago, the country’s Supreme Court issued a ruling that some legal scholars have interpreted as essentially criminalising political protest.

As Peru’s civilian institutions fight among themselves, Peru’s armed forces — the last remaining “backbone” in the country, according to Mexican geopolitical analyst Alfredo Jalife — has taken firm control. And lest we forget, Peru is home to some of the very same minerals that the US military has identified as strategically important to US national security interests, including lithium. Also, as I noted in my June 22, 2021 piece, Is Another Military Coup Brewing in Peru, After Historic Electoral Victory for Leftist Candidate?, while Peru’s largest trading partner is China, its political institutions — like those of Colombia and Chile — remain tethered to US policy interests:

Together with Chile, it’s the only country in South America that was invited to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was later renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership after Donald Trump withdrew US participation.

Given as much, the rumours of another coup in Peru should hardly come as a surprise. Nor should the Biden administration’s recent appointment of a CIA veteran as US ambassador to Peru, as recently reported by Vijay Prashad and José Carlos Llerena Robles:

Her name is Lisa Kenna, a former adviser to former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a nine-year veteran at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and a US secretary of state official in Iraq. Just before the election, Ambassador Kenna released a video, in which she spoke of the close ties between the United States and Peru and of the need for a peaceful transition from one president to another.

It seems more than likely that Kenna played a direct role in the not-so-peaceful transition from President Castillo to de facto President Boluarte, having met with Peru’s then-Defence Minister Gustavo Bobbio Rosas on December 6, the day before Pedro Castillo was ousted, to tackle “issues of bilateral interest”.

On a Knife’s Edge

After decades of stumbling from crisis to crisis and government to government, Peru rests on a knife’s edge. When Castillo, a virtual nobody from an Andean backwater who had played an important role in the teachers’ strikes of 2017, rode to power on a crest of popular anger at Peru’s hyper-corrupt establishment parties in June 2021, Peru’s legions of poor and marginalised hoped that positive changes would follow. But it was not to be.

Castillo was always an outsider in Lima and was out of his depth from day one. He had zero control over Congress and failed miserably to overcome rabid right-wing opposition to his government. Even in his first year in office he faced two impeachment attempts. As Manolo De Los Santos wrote in People’s Dispatch, Peru’s largely Lima-based political and business elite could never accept that a former schoolteacher and farmer from the high Andean plains could become president.

On December 7, they finally got what they wanted: Castillo’s impeachment. Just hours before a third impeachment hearing, he declared on national television that he was dissolving Congress and launching an “exceptional emergency government” and the convening of a Constituent Assembly. It was a preemptive act of total desperation from a man who held no sway with the military or judiciary, had zero control over Congress, and had even lost the support of his own party. Hours later, he was impeached, arrested by his own security detail and taken to jail, where he remains to this day.

Castillo may be out of the picture but political instability continues to reign in Peru. The de facto Boluarte government and Congress are broadly despised by the Peruvian people. According to the latest poll by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP), 78% of Peruvians disapprove of Boluarte’s presidency while only 15% approve. Congress is even less popular, with a public disapproval rate of 91%. Forty-one percent believe that the protests will increase while 26% believe they will remain the same. In the meantime, Peru’s Congress continues to block general elections.

Peru’s “Strategic” Resources

As regular readers know, EU and US interest in Latin America is rising rapidly as the race for lithium, copper, cobalt and other elements essential for the so-called “clean” energy transition heats up. It is a race that China has been winning pretty handily up until now.

Peru is not only one of China’s biggest trade partners in Latin America; it is home to the only port in Latin America that is managed entirely by Chinese capital. And while Peru may not form part of the Lithium Triangle (Bolivia, Argentina and Chile), it does boast significant deposits of the white metal. By one estimate, it is home to the sixth largest deposits of hard-rock lithium in the world. It is also the world’s second largest producer of copper, zinc and silver, three metals that are also expected to play a major role in supporting renewable energy technologies.

In other words, there is a huge amount at stake in how Peru evolves politically as well as the economic and geopolitical alliances it forms. Also, its direct neighbour to the north, Ecuador, is undergoing a major political crisis that is likely to spell the end of the US-aligned Guillermo Lasso government and a handover of power to Rafael Correa’s party and its allies.

And the US government and military have made no secret of their interest in the mineral deposits that countries like Peru hold in their subsoil. In an address to the Washington-based Atlantic Council on Jan 19, Gen. Laura Richardson, head of the U.S. Southern Command, spoke gushingly of Latin America’s rich deposits of “rare earth elements,” “the lithium triangle — Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,” the “largest oil reserves [and] light, sweet crude discovered off Guyana,” Venezuela’s “oil, copper, gold” and the fact that Latin America is home to “31% of the world’s fresh water in this region.”

She also detailed how Washington, together with US Southern Command, is actively negotiating the sale of lithium in the lithium triangle to US companies through its web of embassies, with the goal of “box[ing] out” US adversaries (i.e. China and Russia), concluding with the ominous words: “This region matters. It has a lot to do with national security. And we need to step up our game.”

Which begs the question: is this the first step of the US government and military’s stepping-up-the-game process?

The former president of Bolivia Evo Morales, who knows a thing or two about US interventions in the region, having been on the sharp end of a US-backed right-wing coup in 2019, certainly seems to think so. A few days ago, he tweeted the following message:

The Peruvian Congress’ authorisation for the entry and stationing of US troops for 7 months confirms that Peru is governed from Washington, under the tutelage of the Southern Command.

The Peruvian people are subject to powerful foreign interests mediated by illegitimate powers lacking popular representation.

The greatest challenge for working people and indigenous peoples is to recover their self-determination, their sovereignty and their natural resources.

With this authorization from the Peruvian right, we warn that the criminalization of protest and the occupation of US military forces will consolidate a repressive state that will affect sovereignty and regional peace in Latin America.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, who refuses to acknowledge Boluarte (whom he calls the “great usurper”) as Peru’s president and has recently faced threats of direct US military intervention in Mexico’s drug wars from US Republican lawmakers, had a message for the US government this week: “[Sending soldiers to Peru] merely maintains an interventionist policy that does not help at all in building fraternal bonds among the peoples of the American continent.”

Unfortunately, the US government does not seem interested, if indeed it ever has been, in building fraternal bonds with the peoples of the American continent. Instead, it is set on upgrading the Monroe Doctrine for the 21st century. Its strategic rivals this time around are not Western European nations, which are now little more than US vassals (as a recent paper by the European Council of Foreign Relations, titled “The Art of Vassalisation”, all but admitted), but rather China and Russia.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1663650472798875650

1663650472798875650

Peruvian Workers Call a Strike Against Boluarte in Puno

On Tuesday, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte ordered the deployment of over 4,000 police officers to the southern region of Puno, where citizens will carry out a 24-hour strike.

The demonstrators demand the resignation of Boluarte, the closure of Congress, and the calling of general elections. These demands were also raised in the massive protests that took place between December and March, when police brutality left at least 77 dead.

In the early hours of Tuesday, hundreds of people began to mobilize in support of the protests called by the Puno Neighborhoods Union and the Peruvian Education Workers Union (SUTEP).

Enrique Monroy, the head of the 10th Police Region in Puno, announced that his officers were deployed guarding public buildings and the Juliaca City airport, which reopened operations last April after being closed for over three months due to to the protests.

The tweet reads, "Peru: mobilization day against the government of the murderous Dina in the Puno region. The protesters demand the resignation of the president responsible for the massacres in recent months."

The so-called "Dry Strike" called by social organizations includes the stoppage of economic and educational activities, as well as the blockade of roads and bridges in the region.

Local journalists' first reports indicate that Aymara Indigenous communities blocked the International Bridge that connects with Bolivia at the height of the Ilave town. In the north of Puno, on the other hand, the Interoceanic Highway remains blocked.

"The protest takes place because there is still no justice for the people who were killed during manifestations against the government," said Felix Suasaca, the president of the Puno Basins.

"There is no possibility of dialogue with the administration of Dina Boluarte," Puno Anti-Corruption Council President Fernando Salas explained.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1662549551054561285

1662549551054561285

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1664215209580593156

1664215209580593156

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/mazzenilsson/status/1664275758309867522

1664275758309867522

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇵🇪🤝🇺🇸🪖 — Dina Boluarte approves the entry of US troops with weapons of war to Peru

Through a legislative resolution, published in the Bulletin of Legal Norms of the Official Newspaper El Peruano, it was specified that they will do "different training cooperation activities with the Armed Forces associated with the International Military Exercise Resolute Sentinel 2023."

From June to August, members of the special forces, the Air Force (USAF) and the Space Force (USSF) of the United States will enter the Andean country with "weapons of war".

Tupi Report

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1664468344483790850

1664468344483790850

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1616166078454931456

1616166078454931456

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1616180414674243586

1616180414674243586

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1616205101458198558

1616205101458198558

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1669060363780759553

1669060363780759553

https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/19/peru-resources-mining-gas-investment/

Peru’s natural resources: CIA-linked US ambassador meets with mining and energy ministers to talk ‘investments’

The US ambassador in Peru, Lisa Kenna, is a CIA veteran who supported a parliamentary coup in December 2022 that overthrew the South American nation’s democratically elected left-wing president, Pedro Castillo.

Castillo was subsequently imprisoned for 18 months without due process, setting off massive protests across Peru. The unelected government responded with extreme violence, killing approximately 50 protesters in just over a month.

One day before the December 7 coup, the former CIA officer turned US ambassador met with Peru’s defense minister, who then told the country’s powerful military to turn against President Castillo.
Since then, Kenna has been quite busy, regularly meeting with top officials in Peru’s coup government, including unelected President Dina Boluarte and her ministers.

On January 18, the US ambassador sat down with Peru’s minister of energy and mining, as well as its vice minister of hydrocarbons and vice minister of mining.

Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines boasted that they discussed “investment” opportunities and plans to “develop” and “expand” the extractive industries.

Peru is a country rich in natural resources, especially minerals. Spanish colonialists exploited the South American nation’s substantial silver and gold reserves, and today transnational corporations see it as a very profitable resource hub.

One of Earth’s top producers of copper, lead, zinc, tin, silver, and gold, Peru’s economy relies heavily on the mining sector, which represents more than half of total national exports and over 10% of GDP.

The world’s three largest transnational mining corporations – BHP, Rio Tinto, and Glencore – are heavily invested in Peru, along with other prominent companies from Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Britain, the US, Japan, and Australia.

Peru is the planet’s second-biggest copper producer (after its neighbor Chile), meaning it will become increasingly important in the global shift toward renewable energy technologies.

US investment banking giant Goldman Sachs stated in 2022 that “copper is the new oil”, writing: “The critical role copper will play in achieving the Paris climate goals cannot be overstated… As the most cost-effective conductive material, copper sits at the heart of capturing, storing and transporting these new sources of energy”.

Peru is also a significant producer of liquified natural gas (LNG). Its LNG exports are largely overseen by foreign corporations like Shell.

Europe became the top importer of Peruvian LNG in 2022, after the European Union boycotted Russian energy over the proxy war in Ukraine.

While natural resources are not the only reason for these coups in Latin America, they are a significant factor.

Following the violent putsch in Peru’s mineral-rich neighbor Bolivia in 2019, a critic wrote to billionaire Elon Musk on Twitter, “You know what wasn’t in the best interest of people? The US government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there”.

Peru’s President Castillo: ‘We want our natural resources to directly benefit the people’

When he ran for office in 2021, left-wing presidential candidate Pedro Castillo had made one of the central themes of his campaign the need to reassert popular control over Peru’s natural resources.

Condemning foreign companies for “pillaging” the country, he called to renegotiate contracts to ensure that 70% of all proceeds from mining went to the state, to fund social programs.

A few weeks before the presidential elections, Castillo said, “Let’s be clear: these decades of betrayal, corruption, and cynicism are the symptoms of this neoliberal system dedicated exclusively to the exploitation of our people and natural resources for the benefit of a few scoundrels”.

When he entered office, Castillo was very limited in what he could do politically. The right-wing opposition had a majority in the congress, and they were hellbent on destabilizing and eventually removing him with a presidential “vacancy”. They used Peru’s legislature and the heavily politicized and corrupt judiciary to launch constant attacks against Castillo, as part of a campaign of systematic persecution and lawfare.

But Castillo did what he could. The president announced a “second agrarian reform” and declared, “We are rescuing the resources of the country for all Peruvians”. He explained his goal: “We want our natural resources to directly benefit the people“.

Castillo’s government made plans with left-wing President Gustavo Petro in neighboring Colombia to develop gas infrastructure in Peru and expand internal use.

This was part of Castillo’s progressive economic model of import substitution industrialization, which aimed to grow local industry and boost domestic consumption, so Peru would not rely exclusively on low value-added exports.

Immediately after ousting Castillo, however, Peru’s coup regime returned to the neoliberal economic model of the Washington Consensus, prioritizing foreign corporate investment over internal development.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted on January 18 that it had just conducted a “high-level institutional dialogue between Peru and the United States, which addressed themes of development of the mining sector”.

US Ambassador Kenna met with Peru’s minister of energy and mining, Óscar Vera Gargurevich; vice minister of hydrocarbons, Enrique Bisetti Solari; and vice minister of mining, Jaime Chávez Riva.

The ministry said they discussed “themes linked to the expansion of natural gas, mining investments, and the development of renewable energies in our country”.

It added that “Minister Vera was grateful for the support from the North American government in mining-energy issues, and he reiterated the will of the national government, whose priority is the expansion of natural gas, energy security, and the petrochemical development of the south of the country”.

Mining dominates Peru’s economy

The Peruvian government itself has publicly stated that its economy relies heavily on mining and exporting minerals such as copper, zinc, gold, silver, lead, iron, and molybdenum.

Peru’s top exports in 2022 included copper, gold, and liquified natural gas (LNG).

The mining sector made up 58.7% of all of Peru’s exports, 57.1% of which were metals and 1.6% of which were non-metals, according to the most recent publicly available statistics, from January to October 2022.

Copper, gold, zinc, and iron represented 88.4% of the total value of Peru’s mineral exports, and 51.9% of the value of all of the country’s exports.
As of 2022, the largest corporate investor in Peru’s mining sector was the UK-based company Anglo American.

The second biggest investor was Compañía Minera Antamina S.A., a local firm that is majority owned by Australian and Swiss mining giants. The third was the US-Mexican Southern Copper Corporation.

Local communities in the South American country, especially those of Indigenous descent, have long protested the mining companies that devastate their environment.

These rural communities were the base of support for President Castillo. Since the coup, they have organized massive protests, demanding that he be freed, that new elections be held, and that the government convene a constituent assembly to write a new constitution, to replace the current one that was inherited from the former US-backed far-right dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori.

Europe becomes top importer of Peru’s LNG, following boycott of Russian energy

After minerals, Peru’s other top export is natural gas – and more specifically liquified natural gas (LNG).

Peru’s gas sector saw a huge boom in 2022, with LNG exports increasing by 85% in the first eight months of the year, in comparison with the same period in 2021.

One of the main reasons for this surge was Europe’s sky-high demand for gas.

Before 2022, most of Peru’s LNG had gone to Asia (primarily Japan, South Korea, and China). But as tensions between NATO and Russia escalated in late 2021 and early 2022, and the EU moved to boycott Russian energy, this drastically shifted.

The vast majority of Peru’s LNG exports went to Europe in 2022, primarily to Britain and Spain.

In months like April, May, and August, all of Peru’s LNG exports went to Europe, according to data published by the state company Perúpetro.

Peru’s LNG exports are overseen by a consortium of foreign corporations including Britain’s Shell, the US Hunt Oil Company, Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, and South Korea’s SK Group.

While Peru only exports a relatively small amount of LNG when compared to the United States – which quickly established itself as the world’s top LNG exporter in 2022 – the South American nation has become an important energy partner for Europe.

In its attempt to reduce trade with Russia, Spain increased its imports of LNG from the Americas – including the US, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago – by 77.4% in 2022. (Spain boosted its imports of US LNG specifically by 93.4% in 2022.)

Ironically, by pledging to boycott Russian oil, Spain also ended up increasing its imports of more expensive Russian LNG by 37% in 2022.

At the same time, from the beginning of 2021 to mid-2022, the price of natural gas skyrocketed by 700%.

Transnational corporations rake in profits in Peruvian mining

Foreign companies have made a killing in Peru’s mining sector.

In promotional materials urging more foreign investment, the Peruvian government boasted that the planet’s three largest mining corporations are active in the country: BHP Group, of Australia; Rio Tinto, of Britain and Australia; and Glencore, of Switzerland.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines wrote with pride in 2018: “The world’s most important companies in the mining sector are making investments in our country. Due to our mineral reserves, Peru is a market that is always taken into account by these companies when they decide their investment budgets in exploration and exploitation”.

Many local mining companies in Peru are owned by foreign corporate giants.

The second-largest investor in mining in Peru, the Compañía Minera Antamina (Antamina Mining Company in English), was 33.75% owned by BHP, another 33.75% owned by Glencore, 22.5% by Canada’s Teck Resources, and 10% by Japan’s Mitsubishi, as of 2018.

The Compañía Minera Antamina operates in Peru’s western Áncash region, and was responsible for roughly one-fifth of national copper production and 15% of national silver production in 2018.

Peru was the source of 20% of BHP’s global production of copper in 2017, as well as 50% of its global production of silver and 100% of its global production of zinc.

The British-Australian Rio Tinto corporation oversees the La Granja mining project in the northwestern Cajamarca region. Peru was the source of 15% of Rio Tinto’s global production of copper in 2017.

Other large transnational corporations active in Peru’s mining sector include the US company Freeport-McMoRan and Mexican Southern Copper Corporation, both of which are based in Phoenix, Arizona; as well as Canada’s Barrick Gold.

But this is just to mention existing mining operations. Foreign companies are also heavily invested in exploration for new projects.

The top foreign countries whose companies are investing in mining exploration in Peru are Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Britain, the US, Japan, and Australia, according to a 2022 report from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Companies located in Peru are responsible for 37.8% of investment in exploration, but this figure can be misleading because many of these firms are owned by much bigger transnational corporations.

As of 2022, 43.4% of exploration investment went into looking for gold, 36.1% for copper, 11.2% for zinc, 8.3% for silver, and 1% for tin.

Mining exploration projects are taking place all across western Peru.

Many of these regions, which are underdeveloped and suffer from high rates of poverty, have seen large protests against the US-backed coup regime and in support of Castillo.



Also read this article,

Peru’s coup government is privatizing lithium mining

The move to privatize one of the country’s key strategic resources has been widely rejected by Indigenous community and left movements

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/04/18/perus-coup-government-is-privatizing-lithium-mining/

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1683205343684198400

1683205343684198400

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/mazzenilsson/status/1683241544508162049

1683241544508162049

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/apocalypseos/status/1682573556050444288

1682573556050444288

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1683222518822305792

1683222518822305792

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1679986271677030402

1679986271677030402

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/1735434491957596452

1735434491957596452

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/14/regime-of-impunity-victims-react-to-fujimoris-prison-release-in-peru

‘Regime of impunity’: Victims react to Fujimori’s prison release in Peru

The ex-president had been convicted of crimes against humanity after his government ordered the massacre of 25 people.

Lima, Peru – He was horrible at math. Loved to play sports. And always seemed to be smiling. When Gisela Ortiz thinks back to her older brother Luis Enrique, she remembers someone who was kind and generous, willing to lend clothes out of his own closet to classmates in need.

But when Ortiz was 20, her brother disappeared. She later learned that soldiers had burst into the university residence hall where he was staying and abducted him, along with eight other students.

Together with a professor, they were taken into a field and executed, their bodies dumped in a mass grave. Luis Enrique was only 21 years old.

Now, more than three decades later, the person Ortiz holds responsible has been released from prison — and Ortiz is among those raising their voices in protest.

On December 6, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was freed, 16 years into a 25-year sentence.

In 2009, he had been convicted of ordering massacres between 1991 and 1992 that claimed the lives of 25 people, including Luis Enrique.

But critics have said that his record of human rights abuses stretches much further, to include allegations of torture, involuntary sterilisation and forced disappearances. The Inter-American Court had ordered Peruvian authorities to refrain from releasing Fujimori, given the severity of his crimes.

“A regime of impunity has been established,” Ortiz said after Fujimori’s release. “Ignoring the ruling of the Inter-American Court really makes us a country that does not respect human rights at the international level, and that is a step that is difficult to reverse.”

Peru is a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and is legally bound by the decisions of the Inter-American Court.

But Fujimori has remained a towering figure in Peru’s conservative politics, with a broad base of popular support. Proponents credit him with stabilising the economy, combatting armed leftist groups and launching infrastructure projects that improved transportation, education and healthcare.

The former president was first granted a humanitarian pardon in 2017, though it was later nullified. Peru’s Constitutional Court reinstated the pardon this month, partially on the basis of Fujimori’s advanced age and poor health.

Still, César Muñoz, the Americas associate director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that Fujimori’s release is an “extremely serious setback” for rule of law, not to mention for those harmed.

“It’s a slap in the face to the victims,” Muñoz said.

He explained that, according to international law, humanitarian pardons may indeed be granted to human rights abusers, but two conditions must first be met.

The first condition requires countries to punish human rights abusers according to a consistent standard, without discrimination or favour.

“You cannot have rules that change depending on who the person is,” said Muñoz.

The second condition requires that medical professionals render an independent, thorough and impartial determination about the need for a humanitarian release.

“Those two elements were not there” in the case of Fujimori’s pardon, Muñoz explained.

Following Fujimori’s release, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said it “rejects Peru’s decision” and called for the country “to take effective measures to guarantee the victims’ right to access justice”.

Cameras last week captured Fujimori, 85, stepping out of the prison gates and into the arms of his two children, Kenji Fujimori and Keiko Fujimori, both influential politicians.

The news left Javier Roca Obregón, also 85, feeling “indignant”. He has long since lost hope of ever seeing his son, Martin Roca Casas, again.

“I am 85 years old, and I have no hope,” Obregón told Al Jazeera. “I just want to die soon.”

In 1993, Casas was a student at the National University of Callao when he was tortured and detained by Peruvian military forces. His body has never been recovered.

Obregón and others believe Casas’s abduction was linked to his student activism. He remembers his son as a beacon of hope for other young people — “an example of overcoming” life’s obstacles.

Shortly before he went missing, Casas participated in a march against a tuition increase at his university. When two people started to film the protest, he and other students grabbed the camera and destroyed it — an act Obregón suspects precipitated his kidnapping.

“In Peru, the life of a poor person is worth nothing. The poor have no right to justice,” said Obregón, who originally hailed from the small, rural town of Yanama. “Just like a dog, they can kill it and then forget about it. That is what is being repeated.”

Critics have said Fujimori governed with relative impunity during his term in office, from 1990 to 2000. His presidency oversaw the dissolution of Congress and the suspension of Peru’s constitution, allowing him to consolidate power.

Carolina Oyague said it was a “terrible” feeling to see the video of a smiling Fujimori being released to his children.

Her older sister Dora, 21, was one of the nine students abducted from the Enrique Guzmán y Valle National University of Education in 1993, alongside Luis Enrique Ortiz.

Oyague remembers her sister as “cheerful and creative”, a budding entrepreneur who sold everything from makeup to cakes to pay for her education.

It was not until September of this year that parts of Dora’s skeletal remains were recovered and presented to her family. To watch Fujimori walk free only a few months later left Oyague furious.

“There’s no mea culpa,” she said. “He doesn’t even have a modicum of remorse.”

Fujimori has issued vague apologies in the past but has never taken direct responsibility for the military killings or the other abuses that occurred under his administration.

If anything, Fujimori’s governing style and ideology — nicknamed “Fujimorismo” — has remained a dominant political force in Peru. His daughter Keiko was one of the leading candidates in the 2021 presidential election, as part of the conservative Fuerza Popular party.

Inés Condori, president of the Association of Women Affected by Forced Sterilization of Chumbivilcas, was among the more than 200,000 Peruvians sterilised without their consent between 1996 and 2000, in what Fujimori’s government sought to portray as an anti-poverty measure.

Many of the victims were Quechua-speaking Indigenous women from rural communities, a fact that has fuelled accusations of ethnic cleansing. Condori, too, considers Fujimori’s release a miscarriage of justice.

“We have been fighting for 25 years, but there is no justice for us, the poor,” Condori wrote to Al Jazeera on WhatsApp. “[Fujimori] needs to be in prison forever.”

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/redstreamnet/status/1849499085226770675

1849499085226770675


https://x.com/RT_com/status/1847392209806770566

1847392209806770566

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/camilomgn/status/1849155265226051972

1849155265226051972

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/camilapress/status/1852068531250024757

1852068531250024757

[Ravenlocke]

🇵🇪 President Pedro Castillo CALLS FOR WAR!

Former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, speaking from detention, calls himself the “kidnapped President”and urges leaders of Colombia 🇨🇴, Chile 🇨🇱, Bolivia 🇧🇴, and Brazil 🇧🇷to join him in a “war” not against nations, but against crime, corruption, and looting.

He accuses his political enemies of selling weapons to Colombia’s FARC, smuggling drugs on the presidential plane, and now trying to judge him “without moral authority.”

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1955480561025478718

1955480561025478718

[Ravenlocke]

Sputnik

🚨🇵🇪 Protests erupt in Lima against Boluarte

Students and social groups rallied at San Martín Square denouncing President Dina Boluarte’s policies on insecurity, corruption & pensions.

Local media report clashes as police blocked the march toward the Government Palace.

Footage from social media

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1969619596690014694

1969619596690014694

Sprinter Express

Clashes between protesters against the government and police occurred in the capital of Peru, Lima, during a march against the economic and social policies of President Dina Boluarte

https://x.com/SprinterExpres0/status/1969695530478375266

1969695530478375266

Al Arabiya English

Police fire tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters in Lima during clashes over insecurity and corruption.
#Peru #Lima #Protests

https://x.com/AlArabiya_Eng/status/1969708302410903655

1969708302410903655

🚨BREAKING: Peru: In the Cercado de Lima, clashes are being recorded between protesters from youth movements and the police. A large number of police officers, equipped with fire extinguishers, are guarding Plaza San Martín.

https://x.com/Worldsource24/status/1969562867423670373

1969562867423670373

[Ravenlocke]

Auto-translated by Grok
📌Protests Demand the Resignation of Dina Boluarte and Police Reform

In #Perú 🇵🇪, a broad movement of citizens and social organizations continues in the streets demanding the ouster of President Dina Boluarte, whom they hold responsible for the country's severe political and social crisis. At the same time, the demonstrations call for a deep restructuring of the National Police of Peru, accused of committing serious human rights violations during the protests.

https://x.com/teleSURtv/status/1972113164541034883

1972113164541034883

[Ravenlocke]

Young Peruvians march toward Plaza San Martín in order to rally the support of transporters and guilds to demand the dismissal of Dina Boluarte.

https://x.com/teleSURtv/status/1972101198346940785

1972101198346940785

[Ravenlocke]

From TASS,

Peru impeaches third president in five years: why Dina Boluarte got the ax. Congress President Jose Jeri was sworn in as the country’s new president:
https://vk.cc/cQfgu4

https://x.com/tassagency_en/status/1976645438477369564

1976645438477369564

https://tass.com/world/2027979?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=smm_social_share

Peru impeaches third president in five years: why Dina Boluarte got the ax

Congress President Jose Jeri was sworn in as the country’s new president
BUENOS AIRES, October 10. /TASS/. Peru’s Congress has voted to impeach the country’s President Dina Boluarte citing national security concerns.

The session was broadcast on the parliament’s YouTube channel. Later, Congress President Jose Jeri was sworn in as the country’s new president.

TASS has compiled key facts about the situation in Peru.

Impeachment causes

- On October 9, Peru’s Congress considered four proposals to impeach Boluarte due to her "moral incapacity" to serve as president.

- The initiatives’ authors accused the head of state of failing to quell the country’s crime problem.

- Boluarte did not show up for the Congress’ session.

- Peru’s national security situation has worsened over recent years.

- In March, due to a crime wave, the Peruvian parliament passed a vote of no confidence to the country's interior minister, Juan Jose Santivanez.

- In May, due to a crisis in the security sphere, the Peruvian head of government Gustavo Adrianzen stepped down.

- On October 10, Peru’s Congress unanimously voted to impeach Boluarte.

- Following this, Congress President Jose Jeri was sworn in as the country’s new president.

Investigations into Boluarte’s case

- Peru’s Prosecutor General Tomas Galvez said that he intends to ban Boluarte from leaving the republic.

- Earlier, the office of Peru’s Prosecutor General opened several criminal investigations into Boluarte.

- The agency suspects the former head of state of taking bribes, accessory to protesters’ deaths, dereliction of duty and covering all that up.

About impeachments of Peruvian presidents

- Boluarte became the third Peruvian president to be impeached over the past five years.

- She took the country’s highest office in December 2022 after Pedro Castillo, with whom she ran on the same ticket in 2021, was stripped of his authority.

- In November 2020, Martin Vizcarra was removed as the head of state, this coming after President Pedro Kuczynski resigned ahead of his own impeachment intrigue in March 2018.

[Ravenlocke]

Lima Antigua

Auto-translated by Grok
In the early hours of this Friday, October 10, the President of Congress and member of the Somos Perú political party, José Jerí Oré, assumed the role of President of the Republic of Peru, following the vacancy of the now former President Dina Boluarte.

This is reported today by the Peruvian press.

https://x.com/limantigua/status/1976676614642843969

1976676614642843969




Reuters

Peru's lawmakers swore in Congress chief Jose Jeri as the country's new president less than an hour after unanimously voting to remove President Dina Boluarte https://reut.rs/4havDTW

https://x.com/Reuters/status/1976618722510209329

1976618722510209329

Alerta News 24
@AlertaNews24
·
7h
Auto-translated by Grok
🇵🇪 | FACT: José Jerí is the new President of Peru. He was one of the congressmen who, in April 2023, protected Dina Boluarte when a vacancy motion was presented due to the 50 Peruvians killed in 2022 and 2023.

https://x.com/AlertaNews24/status/1976571151997599935

1976571151997599935

[Ravenlocke]

Auto-translated by Grok

#Urgente José Jerí, who entered Congress as Martín Vizcarra's alternate and later rose to preside over it with the votes of the benches that hate the Lizard, assumes the presidency of Peru.

He had promised to resign, but he has sworn in until July 2026. Will the street accept it?

https://x.com/paolobenza/status/1976528927058223238

1976528927058223238



Sputnik Mundo

Translated from Spanish by Grok

(8/8) Who is leading Peru today?

José Jerí, a 38-year-old lawyer and member of the center-right party Somos Perú, assumed the presidency of Congress in July 2025 and is temporarily performing the duties of the country's president until the elections on April 12, 2026.

Previously, he was investigated for an accusation of sexual assault allegedly occurring in December 2024. In August 2025, prosecutor Tomás Gálvez closed the case due to lack of evidence. However, Gálvez himself is under investigation for his alleged involvement in a mafia that manipulated judicial appointments and court rulings.

https://x.com/SputnikMundo/status/1976676057739591789

1976676057739591789

[Ravenlocke]

Sputnik Mundo

Translated from Spanish by Grok
🇵🇪 The newly appointed José Jerí leads an operation against organized crime in his first actions as president of Peru

🗣 "During the early hours of today, the president of Peru, José Jerí Oré, together with the deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Jesús Baldeon Vásquez, and the head of the National Penitentiary Institute, Iván Paredes Yataco, led a simultaneous operation from the Ancón I prison," states the Presidency of Peru on its X account.

According to the statement, the operations were carried out in the prisons of Lurigancho, Trujillo, and Challapalca with the aim of "striking at the organized crime operating from these penitentiary facilities."

👉 Yesterday, following the ousting of the now former president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, the then head of the country's Congress, José Jerí Oré, assumed the interim presidency.

https://x.com/SputnikMundo/status/1977074863186559309

1977074863186559309

[Ravenlocke]

Sputnik Mundo

Oct 11
Auto-translated by Grok
🇵🇪 Political Crisis in Peru: "Boluarte's Lack of Leadership Has Been Evident," States the Former Peruvian Prosecutor

Peru has regressed to the 1980s and 1990s, when the average citizen "had a great fear of going out on the street," former Supreme Deputy Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Martín Salas declared to Sputnik.

👉 The former official asserts that the removal from office of the now former Peruvian president is a tool that "allows for redirecting political stability" in Peru.




Auto-translated by Grok
📍 According to Salas:

🔶 "The incapacity and political ineptitude" of Dina Boluarte and her Cabinet to implement tools that provide citizen security has led the Peruvian people to react.

🔶 Citizens have begun to push the political sector of Parliament, despite being questioned on corruption issues, to make decisions.

🔶 Salas describes Boluarte as "a president questioned for serious acts of corruption and for not having materialized suitable tools."

https://x.com/SputnikMundo/status/1977045550089253031

1977045550089253031

[Ravenlocke]

Sputnik Mundo

Auto-translated from Spanish by Grok
🇵🇪🪧 Witness Tells Sputnik How the Death of the First Fatality in the Lima Protests Unfolded

The death of Mauricio Ruiz Sáenz, which occurred during the night of October 15 to 16 amid the violent protests in Lima, was carried out "with treachery and advantage," shares exclusively with Sputnik Imer Chahua Chávez, a neighbor of the deceased and witness to the incident.

In his words, Mauricio was heading to his home "with the group of his boys" and was not part of any violent action.

🗣"Automatically, [his attackers] took the corresponding steps and shot them down with gunfire," he revealed.

https://x.com/SputnikMundo/status/1978859274479829416

1978859274479829416

Anadolu English

🚨 Violent clashes broke out in Lima, Peru, as protesters faced off with police during a nationwide march denouncing laws seen as favoring organized crime and rejecting interim president Jose Jeri
https://x.com/anadoluagency/status/1978742711055495660

1978742711055495660

[Ravenlocke]

teleSUR TV

Auto-translated by Grok
The National Police of #Perú 🇵🇪 killed the musician and activist Eduardo Mauricio Ruiz Sáenz during the social protests against the Government and Congress that took place last October 15 in Lima

https://x.com/teleSURtv/status/1978966478012469681

1978966478012469681

[Ravenlocke]

Sputnik Mundo

Translated from Spanish
🇵🇪 "The offensive against crime": the Peruvian president oversees the operation after declaring a state of emergency in Lima and Callao

Before the presentation of his first Cabinet, where he will request a vote of confidence, José Jerí led a search operation in the San Juan de Lurigancho prison.

🗣 "Since 04:30 a.m. in various parts of San Juan de Lurigancho, together with the Minister of Justice and the mayor of San Juan de Lurigancho. Territorial focus," he wrote on his X account.

https://x.com/SputnikMundo/status/1981062121627500794

1981062121627500794


Translated from Spanish
In parallel, a mega-operation was carried out that resulted in more than 40 arrests in the first hours of the state of emergency.

Previously, José Jerí decreed a state of emergency for 30 days in Lima and the neighboring province of Callao due to crime, which involves the temporary concentration of power in the Executive and grants greater authority to the military and police.

https://x.com/SputnikMundo/status/1981062124810928443

1981062124810928443

[Ravenlocke]

teleSUR English

Peru's Congress voted to impeach interim President Jose Jeri, found guilty of misconduct, declaring him unfit to hold the country's top office.
#Peru #teleSUREnglish

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/2023890322124927481

2023890322124927481



Drop Site

🇵🇪 Peru’s Congress voted 75–24 to remove interim President José Jerí after just four months in office, ousting him as both head of state and President of Congress in a censure motion tied to undisclosed meetings with Chinese businessmen, the Associated Press reports.

The affair, dubbed “Chifagate,” centers on clandestine meetings that were not logged as required by law, including with an executive holding active government contracts, fueling allegations of influence peddling.

Jerí, a right-wing “Somos Perú” leader who champions economic liberalism and private investment, had enjoyed support from the US since taking office in October 2025 after Dina Boluarte’s removal. Jeri also backed US military operations in Venezuela. His downfall marks the ninth presidential change in less than a decade, highlighting Peru’s chronic political instability as it heads to general elections on April 12.

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2023873204469551193

2023873204469551193