Thoughts From a Bilingual Educator!

Source: José Miguel Alban       For the past 7 days there has been social unrest over the most recent political crisis in Peru. Since the start of the protests the national police has used violence to calm the tension which have obviously exacerbated the situation. For example, the national police has used gas bombs, police batons, rubber bullets and pellets againt the protesters. There has even been an undercover police unit, known as the ternas, infiltrating the marches and instigating violence and repression against the protesters. However, things started getting suspicious when doctors started reporting extractions of marbles from protesters which meant the national police started using lethal force. And there are videos where you heard police officers scream “shoot , aim for their heads”.Of course, now the former de facto president and Minister of Defense denied using violence to suppress the people. Additionally, the now former Prime Minister visited the police...

  In the past week Peru has been in a political crisis, not to mention our health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. So, what happened? Well, a small group of career politicians have hijacked our democracy, legislative and executive branches by ousting our democratically elected President (Former Vice President) on Monday, November 9th, 2020 with 105 votes in congress. Our now former president dissolved the congress last year and new representatives were elected in January. However, this group has set their ambitious desires on the judicial branch and our highest constitutional court; the Constitutional Tribunal, which is the only institution that resolves disputes over the constitutionality of government activities and decisions. Its sole purpose is to guarantee the compliance of the constitution by government institutions. It is very difficult to explain the complexity of the issues, but to try to understand our politics, we have to go back to the starting point...