CNN
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Peru is seeing some of its worst political violence in recent decades, but the protesters’ complaints are far from new; They reflect a system that has failed to deliver for over twenty years.
Following the ousting of former President Pedro Castillo last month, some of Peru’s most intense protests have occurred in the country’s south, where dozens have been killed in violent clashes with security forces over the past few weeks.
The region, surrounding the Andean mountain range ten thousand feet above sea level and home to some of Peru’s most famous archeological sites such as Machu Picchu and the ancient ruins of the city of Cusco, is also one of the country’s poorest regions.
In recent days, protesters from this and other rural areas of Peru have begun traveling to the capital, Lima – sometimes for days – to express their grievances towards the country’s leadership and demand that Current President Dina Boluarte step down.
Their anger exposes a much deeper democratic crisis. After years of political bedlam, Peru is a country that has fallen in love with democracy: both the presidency and Congress are widely reviled and regarded as corrupt institutions.
A 2021 survey by LABOPA survey by the Research Laboratory at Vanderbilt University revealed that only 21% of Peruvians said they were satisfied with democratic governance, the lowest of any country in Latin American and the Caribbean except Haiti.
Worryingly, more than half of Peruvians who participated in that poll said a military takeover of the country would be justified under high levels of corruption.
At the core of the crisis are demands for better living conditions that have not been met in the two decades since democratic rule was restored in the country. Peru is one of the youngest democracies in the Americas, where free and fair elections were restored in 2001 after the ouster of right-wing leader Alberto Fujimori.
Thanks to strong exports of raw materials and healthy foreign investment, Peru’s economy flourished under Fujimori and in the years following the restoration of democracy, outpacing almost any other in the region. The term Lima Consensus was coined to describe the system of free market policies, after the capital of Peru, that was promoted by the Peruvian elite to spur an economic boom.
But when the economy boomed, state institutions were naturally weakened by a governing philosophy that minimized state intervention.
In early 2014, Harvard University professor Steven Levitsky highlighted a particular Peruvian paradox: while public opinion in most democracies reflects the state of the economy, the president’s approval rating in Peru fell steadily during the 2000s, Even as growth grew, he wrote in the Journal Revista.
Levitsky highlighted chronic deficiencies in security, justice, education and other basic services from successive Peruvian governments as threats to the young democracy’s stability.
“Security, justice, education and other basic services are still under-provided, resulting in widespread perceptions of government corruption, unfairness, ineffectiveness and neglect. This is a major cause of public discontent. remains, in all governments, public trust in democratic institutions is likely to erode,” he wrote, an overview Which sounds prophetic today.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this structural weakness at the core of Peruvian society. While many countries expanded social safety nets to counter the damaging economic impact of lockdowns, Peru had no net to fall back on.
according to United NationsMore than half of Peru’s population did not have access to sufficient food in the months leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the virus spread across the country. data from Johns Hopkins University It also show that Peru recorded the highest per capita death toll due to coronavirus in the world.
The country’s economy is back on track after the blow of the pandemic – Peru’s GDP is set to grow by an astonishing 13.3% in 2021 – but public trust in democratic institutions has crumbled, as Levitsky predicted.
A survey published on September 2022 by IEP 84% of Peruvians disapproved of the congressional performance. The MPs are not only perceived to be pursuing their own interests in the Congress, but are also associated with corrupt practices.
The country’s desperation is reflected in its years-old revolving door presidency. The current President Bouluard is the sixth head of state in less than five years.
His predecessor Castillo swept to power in 2021 general elections, styled as a man of the people who would bring a new beginning to the country. But the polarization and chaos surrounding his presidency – including corruption charges and multiple impeachment attempts by Congress, which Castillo dismissed as politically motivated – only exacerbated pre-existing tensions.
Most of the protesters who spoke with CNN on Wednesday said the country needed a fresh start and called for new elections across the board to restore a sense of legitimacy to public institutions.
But Boluarte and legislators have so far resisted calls for early general elections. On Sunday, the president declared a state of emergency in the regions of the country most affected by the protests, including Lima. The measure is due to last until mid-February but that hasn’t stopped more people from taking to the streets.
Meanwhile, Peru’s attorney general has opened an investigation into Boluaarte’s handling of the unrest.
But even if the current leadership is gone and yet another politician runs for presidency, the root causes of Peru’s unrest will remain.
As in many other regions of Latin America, addressing those issues requires structural change in terms of social and economic equality, tackling the cost-of-living crisis and fighting corruption.
Across the region, after years of economic and social development under democratic rule, the pandemic has proved a reality check that Latin America has finally put an era of coups, dictatorships and insurgencies behind it.
Today’s Peru could be a cautionary tale for any democracy that fails to deliver for its people and relies on itself.