Perú in a critical situation: the protests against the Merino coup continue

Originally published at: http://estrategia.la/2020/11/12/peru-en-situacion-critica-siguen-las-protestas-contra-el-golpe-de-merino/ 

By Mariana Álvarez Orellana | 14/11/2020 |  Latin América and the Caribbean

Sources: Rebelión / CLAE

The situation in Peru is critical. The coup has consolidated. The armed forces and business groups have recognised Manuel Merino as president, while the the national indignenous movements, unions and feminist movements reject him and the regional governments in the south of the country have decided to not acknowledge the new president.

Manuel Merino, an opposition deputy that won his seat with barely 5,000 votes, took over as president of Perú after the Congress dismissed Martín Vizcarra after a controversial constitutional process that moves the country towards unavoidable instability in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Merino, who was and will continue being the head of the Legislative Power in a parallel manner to also hold the position of Head of State, which he assumed as the third president of Perú in four years while across the country protests were happening in opposition to the dismissal of Vizcarra and the “usurping” Congress.

The new head of state, from the right-wing party Acción Popular (AP), promised to convene a “cabinet of consensus and national unity”, composed of professionals “with the highest qualifications” and without political affiliations. Various political parties complained that the dismissal owes to a “distribution” of posts and promises among those who voted in favour of it to defend private interests.

In March 2020, Merino was elected as a member of Congress with some 5,000 votes for Acción Popular to represent the state of Tumbes. The election had 24.7 million eligible votes, and AP got 1,518,000 votes, 10% of the general vote, with which the party obtained the majority and the presidency of the Congress, after defeating Rocío Silva Santiesteban from the Frente Amplio party. He was a driver of the two motions of censure against the president Martín Vizcarra.

Meanwhile, now converted into a civilian, Vizcarra retook his private activities and expressed his “concern” about the self-imposed president, as it deals with an authority that lacks two basic conditions, legality and legitimacy. “The legality is in doubt because the Constitutional Court still hasn’t made a declaration, and the legitimacy, who gives that? The people. Then, an authority that doesn’t have defined legality nor legitimacy of support generates concern”, he concluded.

Tuesday and Wednesday were very difficult days, full of police brutality and arbitrary arrests in different cities. The humanitarian organizations don’t know how many people have been detained or where they are. Despite the repression the public continued protesting in Lima and other regions to show their opposition to the coup d’etat.

Vizcarra was accused of alleged bribes that he would have received when he was the governor of the southern region of Moquegua. The irony is that 68 of the congress members are implicated in investigations for collusion and bribes in the public prosecutor’s office. The depositors of these bribes to Vizcarra would be consortiums of businesses that the Public Prosecutor’s Office has been investigating in a case known as the Construction Club, bribes from the big construction companies -among them the Brazilian transnational Odebrech- to secure themselves road construction contracts.

With massive demonstrations of protest in the streets of different regions of the country: Lima, Huancayo, Trujillo, Arequipa, Chiclayo, Iquitos, among others-, thousands of Peruvians expressed their rejection of Manuel Merino’s assumption of the presidency, after the dismissal of the head of state Martín Vizcarra was approved by the Congress.

The immediate response of the new government was violent repression by police of the demonstrators, that left several detained and injured from rubber bullets, blows and teargas bombs. “Merino, listen, the people reject you”, “Merino Out”. “Merino is not my president”, were some of the chants that demonstrators yelled.

No country has sent congratulations to the new head of state. The Organization of American States showed its concern with the political crisis in Peru, five months from elections.

Repressive Prime Minister

The mobilization has a new reason: the election as prime minister, without a cabinet, of the lawyer and conservative politician Ántero Flores-Aráoz, who held the portfolio of Defense in the administration of Alan Garcia during the El Baguazo, which occured in 2009, that ended up with the death of 10 indigenous people from the Amazon region, as well as 24 police.

The indigenous people rejected two decrees approved in the Free Trade Agreement with the United States that permitted private companies to drill on community land in search of oil and gas. After the massacre the decrees were repealed.

In a ceremony of less than three minutes in the presidential palace with no media access, Merino took the oath of Flores-Aráoz, 78 years old, who said that he will look to leave a country organized to confront the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus and that the government won’t adopt populist measures.

The fall of the president impacts still further the already battered Peruvian institutionality and sets up a scenario marked by uncertainty. With Vizcarra out of the game, the political-institutional crisis becomes more serious and profound. The scenario remains tainted in the face of the elections and the possibility continues to appear that the vacancy might become institutionalised from here to be more like a dismissal mechanism for parliamentarian minorities.

Elected for a special period of barely more than a year, the multiple parliamentarian groups have demonstrated that they legislate according to their business agenda and political interests, in the country with the third highest number of deaths in the world due to Covid-19 for each 100 thousand inhabitants. The disconnection of the political class from the concerns of the public appears to have become a common feature in a country that suffers its worst crisis in decades.

In low profile, Merino, a cattle business owner, publicly made apologies in September after two high-ranking military leaders informed the Ministry of Defense he had called them to secure the backing of them both for the process of dismissal that was up for debate in the Congress and from which Vizcarra would leave successfully. He rejected the accusation of Vizcarra that he had conspired to dismiss and then succeed him.

Six months from scheduled elections, whoever can capitalise on the social discontent and propose thorough solutions to the concrete demands of the population, will occupy a major place in a Perú that in 2021 will celebrate its bicentenary amongst dismissals, generalised corruption, economic, social and health crises...and popular struggles.

The famous democratic institutionality

The Interamerican Commission of Human Rights (CIDH) showed its concern about the delicate political situation in which the country now is, after the Congress managed the dismissal of presidency of Martín Vizcarra, it made a call to the new State so that it might guarantee “democratic institutionality”, the full validity of the State of Law and the respect of human rights, and that the general elections will take place next year.

For his part Manuel Merino, declared that the general elections for 2021 wouldn’t be postponed and they will take place on the 11 April 2021 just as has been established.

Amnesty International highlighted that the authorities should send a clear message: the role of the security forces should be to protect the population, respecting the right to peaceful protest and the right of Courts to investigate all acts of violence and establish the corresponding criminal responsibilities.

It indicated, as well, its concern with some declarations of congress members that have suggested an amendment to the Constitution and the complaint from the American Convention on Human Rights “to reestablish the death penalty for all these corrupt presidents and high public servants”, and demanded that the authorities to immediately halt the repression of the demonstrators and guarantee the human rights of all people.

Polarization and coup

The sociologist Albert Adrianzen noted that “what happened in the Congress deepens the crisis in the country” that it enters “a stage of tension and polarization that is going to be reflected in the next elections. It is difficult to say now who could take the greatest advantage of this, but I believe that radicalism is going to gain ground”

“What has happened is terrible for democracy. What has taken precedence in the Congress is an ambition for power. The government of Merino could be an unfeasible government. Despite being very short, it could do a lot of damage”, commented the political expert Martín Tanaka.

Four presidential candidates for the April elections, the former president Ollanta Humala, the leftist Verónika Mendoza, the centrist Julio Guzmán and the right wing George Forsyth, expressed their opposition to the dismissal of Vizcarra by the Congress, which they criticised harshly.

The potential presidential candidate for Juntos por el Perú, Verónika Mendoza, highlighted that Peruvians will continue mobilising until they restore democracy. “While the illegitimate Government swears itself in to Congress, thousands of citizens in various regions express their rejection of this political class that turns its back on us and gives orders to repress us. But they don’t scare us, we will continue mobilising until we restore democracy”, she tweeted.

Mendoza pointed out that “only the people organized and mobilized could restore democracy and put the life and dignity of the people first and she criticised the congress members that voted in favour of the presidential dismissal. “The only thing that they have cared about is their immunity to flee from justice and tighten their hold on power”, she said.

Now there isn’t anymore more to expect from this political class that is rotten. Only the people organized and mobilised will be able to restore democracy and put the life and dignity of the people first, added the young leader of the centre-left.

Mariana Álvarez Orellana, is a Peruvian anthropologist, teacher and researcher and she is an analyst associated to Centro Latinoamericano de Análisis Estratégico (CLAE, www.estrategia.la)