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. In the first nine months of our republic we had three presidents, and 199 years later, we have had 3 presidents in less than 5 years; maybe a few more before general elections in April. History repeats itself. There has been an effort to make reforms in education, electoral laws, and efforts to strengthen our institutions and political parties. These endeavors have hit hard against the establishment and the interests of many politicians that have made a private fortune. Now, the people are out in the streets protesting the event mentioned above. Although the new president is downplaying the significance of the protests, this is the first time that a protest has extended throughout our whole nation. There have been many protests in Peru over the years, but this one is truly decentralized and massive. People are protesting because the new executive branch represents the establishment and corruption that has plagued our country for so many years. It does not represent what the people want and are demanding, which is change. We are sure how long this crisis will last, but we are certain change needs to come now.
By Emilio Salaverry
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