#Peru: dina boluarte resignation

[huariqueje]

9/02/2023   One month after the massacre in Puno🏴 Peru

The massacre in Juliaca was on January 9, 2023. The massacres of the government of Dina Boluarte in Andahuaylas and Ayacucho were on December 15, 2022, the Christmas truce came and there were already 28 murdered. On Monday  9 January  , 17 citizens were murdered in Juliaca in one day of protests.

Puno🏴 Peru      Puno🏴 Peru      Puno🏴 Peru    Channel4News 

[zvaigzdelasas]

[CNN is US Media]

30 Jul 23

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Julieta Díaz Lozano

In total more than 100 thousand people mobilized throughout the country, calling for the resignation of the coup leader Dina Boluarte in Peru. Again there were arrests and injuries. In spite of a gigantic repressive operation and a campaign of fear for several weeks, a multitude participated in the streets of the so-called Third Seizure of Lima this July 19. 

The central demands were, besides the departure of Boluarte and the resignation of the entire Congress, a Constituent Assembly to re-found the country. Regarding former president Pedro Castillo, an important sector of the organizations demanded his reinstatement in office, while other sectors demanded immediate elections.

[reallydumbdannyphantomaus]

Whats going on in peru??

ok so let me preface this by saying that i'm far from an expert in peruvian politics, but i've been in cusco for the past two months as this all unfolded. i'm avoiding giving my own opinion in favor of relaying the opinions of actual peruvians who i have talked to about this.

so, last presidential election there were two candidates who were in the running: Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori. you may have heard some about this, as Castillo was the left candidate backed largely by rural communities and poor people while Fujimori was the daughter of a previous president/dictator (depending on who you ask) Alberto Fujimori. Fujimori the elder is both beloved and reviled here: beloved by people who say that he helped end the reign of terror of The Shining Path, a terrorist organization that operated here in the 80s and 90s (and still does in a couple isolated pockets but is mostly done now), and reviled by people who say "yeah but he also committed a bunch of political murders himself and was corrupt and sentenced to prison for a reason." his daughter running for president as a far right candidate was complicated here, to say the least.

but she did lose to Castillo, in the end. it was a tremendously close election, though, and Castillo was embattled from the moment he took office. he never got along with his congress, which kept trying to impeach him. he was repeatedly accused of corruption and the like, but his supporters insist that these were lies intended to silence him and force him out. truthfully, i have no idea whether or not that's true.

what is true is that Castillo, staring down the barrel of yet another attempted impeachment, made the decision to dissolve congress instead. this is widely regarded as a bad move on his part, because this is what set this whole crisis off. the military and congress and pretty much everybody else was like "hey dude you can't do that" and congress voted to impeach him, his own government officials resigned en masse, and his VP Dina Boluarte was sworn in. Castillo attempted to flee but has been arrested and is awaiting trial.

so now we get to the protests. there are a number of disparate groups within the protestors themselves, but the protests were ultimately sparked by this event. most of the protestors are Castillo's supporters, who think that he is the rightful president, and that his attempted dissolution of congress was less a coup attempt and more an attempt to stop a legislative coup. there has long been dissatisfaction with congress here, with an abiding belief that is it full of corruption and focused on the needs of the rich and people in lima as opposed to the more rural areas, like ayacucho and urubamba in the cusco region. their demands center around three things: dissolve congress, have new elections, and release Castillo from prison.

so the protests have been going on since earlier this week, though things have calmed down in cusco proper now. but still, i think 12 people have died at my last check of the news. there's also been some looting and such going on, leading Boluarte to declare a state of emergency for the entire country. she's also set a curfew for much of the cusco area, so we aren't allowed out from 8pm-4am. the military has gotten involved in quelling the protests, which some people feel is excessive. the buses are also on strike in cusco, though i think that may be slowly coming to an end.

as for the protestors demands, the dissolution of congress isn't exactly likely and Castillo was just sentenced to wait in prison for 18 months pending his trial, so those demands aren't likely to be met. however, Boluarte has submitted a bill to move elections up to 2024 instead of 2025. the protestors were asking for 2023, so we'll see how they push back on that. but the government wants to open everything up as soon as possible because so much of the peruvian economy runs on tourism, so there's definitely a push to get the protestors to shut up.

as for if they will? who knows. because they are mostly poor, they unfortunately cant afford to keep striking and protesting indefinitely. i don't think it will last much longer, but it probably won't be fully resolved any time soon.

[nando161mando]

System Fail 25: The Urge to Destroy

As humanity recons with a never ending cavalcade of catastrophes, large segments of the population have succumbed to despair or distraction through culture wars or a series of vain cultural phenomena. [Insert Barbenheimer joke here.]

Many youth, particularly in France, have channeled this hopelessness into rage. For the past several months the country had been seeing a series of strikes and riots in response to the raising of the retirement age, and these riots intensified in late June after the police murder of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop. As the dust settles, inept politicians blame bad parenting and TikTok.

Meanwhile in Peru, protesters from around the country have gathered in Lima calling for the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and the dissolution of congress.

[cccrrrfu]

"Dictator Barbie" (July 19, 2023)

Protester in Peru against Dina Boluarte's regime, who rose to power in December 2022 amidst the controversial deposition of president Pedro Castillo. Since Boularte was appointed president, over 60 people have been murdered by police forces for exercising their constitutional right to protest. Many of the people murdered were not even protesting, just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, including minors. Police also attacked (and murdered) medical professionals who were providing first aid to injured protesters.

People are taking the streets calling for Boluarte to resign, since a government that murders people for protesting is not a democracy at all, but a dictatorship. Boluarte claims she "cannot understand" why people are protesting.

[mariacallous]

LIMA, Peru—When Dina Boluarte was abruptly sworn in on Dec. 7, 2022, the fact that she was the first female president in Peru’s 201-year history was widely noted, yet barely explored by Peruvian media. Journalists had other things on their minds: Boluarte’s inauguration took place just hours after her predecessor Pedro Castillo was impeached for attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree, bringing down the curtain on a 17-month administration that had tipped the Andean republic into unremitting political instability and chaos.

Boluarte’s professional credentials as a lawyer felt like a qualitative leap forward for the presidency—regardless of the fact that she, like her predecessor, had never held public office before becoming vice president for the self-declared Marxist-Leninist Free Peru party in the June 2021 elections.

The youngest of 14 children from a working-class family in the remote Andean market town of Chalhuanca, nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, Boluarte said in her maiden presidential speech that her priority would be to fight for “the nobodies, the excluded, the others, to have the opportunity and access that has historically been denied to them.”

“More than a politician, I am a Peruvian citizen and mother who fully understands the high responsibility that history has put on my shoulders,” she declared. “Responding to that high responsibility is [a show of] my respect for the millions of Peruvian mothers who day after day provide sustenance for their families.”

Now, three months since Boluarte’s swearing in, her presidency has descended into a dark mess of severe human rights violations, its legitimacy decimated by allegations of principle-free political opportunism, brutal authoritarianism, and racism. It looks increasingly inevitable that Peru’s first ever female president will face a similar fate to Castillo, the country’s first ever campesino president (in Peru, the term means someone of indigenous ancestry who works the land), with a post-presidency dogged by legal problems and a potentially lengthy jail sentence.

At the time of writing, 48 Peruvians had been killed by security forces, some while protesting violently; some while demonstrating peacefully; and some who were just bystanders, including a medical intern treating an injured protester. Another dozen people died after protestors’ road blockades prevented them from receiving emergency medical treatment, and one police officer was found dead in a burnt-out patrol car.

In a searing report released in February, Amnesty International warned that Boluarte had presided over an out-of-control police and armed forces that, motivated by “systemic racism ingrained in Peruvian society,” had repeatedly violated international human rights standards by using “lethal ammunition to control demonstrations.” Many Peruvians view Boluarte as having blood on her hands. Three-quarters want her to resign.

“We are not celebrating her presidency,” Indigenous feminist activist Tarcila Rivera Zea said. “For us, it has meant pain and sadness, with so many deaths. More than anything else, it is a feeling of frustration and disappointment.

Boluarte, 60, who is bilingual in Spanish and the indigenous Quechua language, started her presidency relatively well. Indeed, in her inaugural address, she distanced herself from Castillo, referencing her “revulsion” at his flagrant alleged graft and condemning his “attempted coup.” Having been expelled from the Free Peru party nearly a year earlier after openly disagreeing with the party’s more extreme politics—and after managing to stay clear of her predecessor’s endless corruption scandals—she had some credibility in the matter.

But her legacy, to the extent she has one, will remain inseparable from that of her predecessor. This is not only a matter of the authoritarian excesses of her leadership over security forces, but also her emphasis on social conservatism, which has been one of the few areas of common ground between Free Peru’s presidential administrations and the hard-right congressional majority. Free Peru’s campaign manifesto has even been accused of advocating “machismo Leninism” for accusing the state of “subcontracting” its obligation to provide for the children of separated parents to absent fathers by requiring them to pay child support.

“It’s also a lesson learned,” Rivera Zea added. “What her presidency shows is that it is not enough to be a woman or speak Quechua if you don’t have that sensibility or identification with the historically excluded. She could have been a president who showed strength, wisdom, justice, and respect for human rights. Instead, she has aligned herself with the worst in Peruvian politics.”

Far from being carried on the back of a feminist wave, Boluarte’s rise to power came at a particularly challenging time for gender rights in Peru, even as some other Latin American nations have been relaxing restrictions on abortion and increasingly tackling gender violence. Peru was already one of the most socially conservative societies in Latin America, with what are thought to be some of the highest rates of sexual violence in the region, and where abortion is only allowed in cases where the mother’s health is at risk.

It is unclear whether Boluarte has ever identified with the feminist movement, although she has shown an appreciation of gender issues. “[Boluarte’s] not a feminist in the sense of a feminist activist,” Alexandra Ames, a political scientist at Lima’s University of the Pacific, said. “But she’s definitely a woman who feels that she has got ahead by working hard, harder than men would normally have to, and seems to have that awareness.”

While she was vice president, Boluarte also served as minister for development and social inclusion, a role that would normally have a strong gender component. During that time, gender rights came under a sustained assault from lawmakers, one that might have been met with effective resistance from a different executive.

Members of Congress sought to further restrict already highly limited abortion rights with a blanket ban, and change the name of the Ministry of Women to the Ministry for the Family—a switch that in Peru’s machista society could have potentially life-and-death policy consequences for, for example, women facing abusive partners.

But the most damaging counter reform has been a new law allowing parents to block classes with a gender focus—or, as Peruvian conservatives call it, gender ideology.

First introduced to the national curriculum in 2004, gender focus concepts, which include sex education, were aimed at raising awareness among boys and girls of the harms caused by Peru’s patriarchal culture—everything from wage disparities to femicide. Conservatives, often fundamentalist evangelical Christians, caricature gender focus as “cultural Marxism” that encourages premature sexual activity and pressures children into homosexuality and transgenderism.

“Getting rid of gender focus will do enormous damage,” warned Gloria Montenegro, former minister of women. “You’re getting rid of sex education, of a girl’s right to understand herself, to make informed choices, or have good self-esteem. What is so lamentable is that in Peru, we already have so many cases of physical and sexual abuse, of women being raped, often in their own homes, and this is going to make all of that worse.”

Throughout the debate over the curriculum, Boluarte was notable for her silence. She did, at different points during her work as a minister, show protocolary support for gendered development policies, including to empower indigenous women. But she failed to provide any substantive leadership, much less confront the attack on gender focus.

Boluarte did restore gender parity in her government after Castillo’s notorious cabinet appointments, which were not just overwhelmingly male but frequently involved ministers with a track record of misogynistic statements and even domestic abuse—including, briefly, one prime minister.

Ironically, however, that parity was just a return to the status quo ante in a country which, despite its entrenched patriarchy, had previously had some half dozen female prime ministers. Indeed, at one point, just before Castillo’s surprise election victory, almost all the major roles of state barring the presidency had been occupied by women, including the prime minister, foreign minister, defense minister, speaker of Congress, chief prosecutor, head of the judiciary, and chair of the constitutional court.

Boluarte’s term is scheduled to end in 2026, although the deadly repression of anti-government protests means she faces huge and potentially irresistible pressure to resign. Either way, her story as Peru’s first female president seems unlikely to end happily.

Montenegro said Boluarte’s mistake was not realizing she didn’t need to cross the political aisle to build a base of power. “She abandoned the Free Peru program, which, as a party of the left, had a strong social agenda, especially for rural Peru,” she said. “She’s an Andean woman; she should have understood. Where’s the political skill, the ability to broker political compromise and then sell that to the population?”

Protesters are now demanding a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution capable of addressing stark economic injustices. However, a new constitution could also entrench gender inequality. Although there have been no polls on the issue of gender rights in a new constitution, surveys show that most voters want a conservative Magna Carta when it comes to social issues, including prohibiting same-sex marriage and reinstating both compulsory military service and the death penalty.

As for Boluarte personally, the moment she loses her presidential immunity she faces criminal exposure as a head of government who presided over heavily armed police and soldiers gunning down anti-government protesters.

“She’s going to have very serious problems with the justice system,” Montenegro said. “She doesn’t seem to understand that there is no statute of limitations for human rights violations.”

[beardedmrbean]

LIMA, Peru — Peru's new government declared a national emergency Wednesday amid violent protests over the ouster of President Pedro Castillo, suspending the rights of "personal security and freedom" across the Andean nation for 30 days.

Acts of vandalism, violence and highway blockades as thousands of Peruvians are in the streets "require a forceful and authoritative response from the government," Defense Minister Luis Otarola Peñaranda said.

The declaration suspends the rights of assembly and freedom of movement and empowers the police, supported by the military, to search people's homes without permission or judicial order. Otarola said it had not been determined whether a nightly curfew would be imposed.

The defense minister said the declaration was agreed to by the council of ministers. It didn't mention Peru's new president, Dina Boluarte, who was sworn in by Congress last week hours after lawmakers ousted Castillo.

Boluarte pleaded for calm as demonstrations continued against her and Congress.

"Peru cannot overflow with blood," she said earlier Wednesday.

Referring to demands for immediate elections, she suggested they could be held a year from now, four months before her earlier proposal, which placated no one.

Boluarte floated the possibility of scheduling general elections for December 2023 to reporters just before a hearing to determine whether Castillo would remain jailed for 18 months while authorities build a rebellion case against him. The judge postponed the hearing after Castillo refused to participate.

"The only thing I can tell you sisters and brothers (is) to keep calm," Boluarte said. "We have already lived through this experience in the '80s and '90s, and I believe that we do not want to return to that painful history."

The remarks of Castillo's running mate recalled the ruinous years when the Shining Path insurgency presided over numerous car bombings and assassinations. The group was blamed for more than half of the nearly 70,000 estimated deaths and disappearances caused by various rebel groups and a brutal government counterinsurgency response.

Protesters have blocked streets in Peru's capital and many rural communities, demanding Castillo's freedom, Boluarte's resignation and the immediate scheduling of general elections to pick a new president and replace all members of Congress.

At least seven people have been killed, including a teenager who died Wednesday after being injured during protests in Andahuaylas, a hospital director said.

All perished in the same kinds of impoverished communities whose voters propelled the rural teachers union leader to victory last year after he promised a populist approach to governing.

Castillo was ousted by lawmakers Dec. 7 after he sought to dissolve Congress ahead of their third attempt to impeach him. His vehicle was intercepted as he traveled through Lima's streets with his security detail. Prosecutors accused him of trying to seek political asylum at the Mexican Embassy.

In a handwritten letter shared Wednesday with The Associated Press by his associate Mauro Gonzales, Castillo asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to intercede for his "rights and the rights of my Peruvian brothers who cry out for justice." The commission investigates allegations of human rights violations and litigates them in some cases.

In the last week, protesters have burned police stations, taken over an airstrip used by the armed forces and invaded the runway of the international airport in Arequipa, a gateway to some of Peru's tourist attractions. The passenger train that carries visitors to Machu Picchu suspended service, and roadblocks on the Pan-American Highway have stranded trailer trucks for days, spoiling food bound for the capital.

Otarola on Tuesday said the total number of people "causing this disturbance" has been no more than 8,000 nationwide, an estimate that vastly understates support for Castillo, who took office in July 2021 after gaining nearly 8.8 million votes to win the presidential runoff election by a narrow 50.1% share of the vote.

Boluarte said Wednesday that 200 police officers had been injured in the protests. and she met with at least two of them at a hospital.

Speaking to an officer with facial injuries, the president said that "one group," which she did not identify, is leading the protests.

"It is a group that is pulling the uninformed community because, surely, many come out to this protest and do not even know what they are going out to protest for," Boluarte said. "But this smaller group that is behind them encourages them to come out with these violent attitudes."

By Wednesday, members of the armed forces had already been deployed to Arequipa and other areas outside Lima. Securing rural areas far from the capital could take longer.

Five of the deaths have been in Andahuaylas, an Andean community whose impoverished residents have long felt abandoned by the government and occasionally rebelled against it. College student Luis Torres joined a protest of about 2,000 people there Wednesday as a few white vans carrying soldiers moved through the streets.

"This measure is disproportionate. It shows the political precariousness of the government that Mrs. Dina Boluarte is having now," Torres said. "We are all marching peacefully, for something fair that we are demanding. At least Andahuaylas will continue to fight."\

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

California Has More Than 100 Gun Laws. Why Don’t They Stop More Mass Shootings? (NYT) California bans guns for domestic violence offenders. It bans them for people deemed a danger to others or themselves. There is a ban on large-capacity magazines, and a ban on noise-muffling silencers. Semiautomatic guns of the sort colloquially known as “assault weapons” are, famously, banned. More than 100 gun laws—the most of any state—are on the books in California. They have saved lives, policymakers say: Californians have among the lowest rates of gun death in the United States. Yet this month, those laws failed to stop the massacres of at least 19 people in back-to-back mass shootings. The tragedies in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay have confounded Americans who regard California as a best-case bastion of gun safety in a nation awash with firearms. Inside the state, gun rights proponents say the shootings show that California’s strategy is a failure. Gun safety groups, meanwhile, have already begun mobilizing for more laws and better enforcement.

Peru’s protest ‘deactivators’ run toward tear gas to stop it (AP) When police fire tear gas at protesters demanding the resignation of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, most run away. A few, though, run toward the gas canisters as quickly as possible—to neutralize them. These are the “deactivators.” Donning gas masks, safety goggles and thick gloves, these volunteers grab the hot canisters and toss them inside large plastic bottles filled with a mixture of water, baking soda and vinegar. The deactivators made their debut in Peru street protests in 2020, inspired by protesters in Hong Kong who in 2019 unveiled new strategies to counteract the eye-stinging, breath-stealing effects of tear gas. With protesters in Lima facing a nearly daily fusillade of tear gas, more people have joined the ranks of deactivators trying to shield them and keep the demonstrations going.

France braces for major transport woes from pension strikes (AP) France’s national rail operator is recommending that passengers stay home Tuesday to avoid strikes over pensions that are expected to cause major transport woes but largely spare high-speed links to Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Labor unions that mobilized massive street protests in an initial salvo of nationwide strikes earlier this month are hoping for similar success Tuesday to maintain pressure on government plans to raise France’s retirement age. Positions are hardening on both sides as lawmakers begin debating the planned change. France’s prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, insisted this weekend that her government’s intention to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 is “no longer negotiable.” Opponents in parliament and labor leaders are determined to prove her wrong.

Russia’s Convict Fighters Are Heading Home (NYT) He was released from a Russian prison and thrown into battle in Ukraine with a promise of freedom, redemption and money. Now, Andrei Yastrebov, who was among tens of thousands of convict soldiers, is part of a return from the battlefield with potentially serious implications for Russian society. Mr. Yastrebov, 22, who had been serving time for theft, returned home a changed man. “We all feel like he is in some sort of hypnosis, like he is a different person,” said a relative of his, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “He is without any emotions.” President Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to allow a mercenary group to recruit Russian convicts in support of his flagging war effort marks a watershed in his 23-year rule, say human rights activists and legal experts. The policy circumvents Russian legal precedent and, by returning some brutalized criminals to their homes with pardons, risks triggering greater violence throughout society. Since July, around 40,000 inmates have joined the Russian forces, according to Western intelligence agencies, the Ukrainian government and a prisoners’ rights association, Russia Behind Bars, which combines reports from informers across Russian jails. Ukraine claims that nearly 30,000 have deserted or been killed or wounded, although that number could not be independently verified.

Biden says no F-16s for Ukraine as Russia claims gains (Reuters) The United States will not provide the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine has sought in its fight against Russia, President Joe Biden said on Monday, as Russian forces claimed a series of incremental gains in the country's east. Ukraine planned to push for Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16 after securing supplies of main battle tanks last week, an adviser to Ukraine's defence minister said on Friday. Asked if the United States would provide the jets, Biden told reporters at the White House, "No." The hundreds of modern tanks and armoured vehicles pledged to Ukraine by Western countries in recent weeks for a counteroffensive to recapture territory are months away from delivery. This leaves Kyiv to fight through the winter in what both sides have described as a meat grinder of relentless attritional warfare.

Winter has come for Afghanistan (Washington Post) For much of the past year, the West’s policymakers and analysts were possessed by one haunting question: How bad will Europe’s winter be? The prospect of a deep cold spell as European governments rationed gas supplies conjured images of a bleak winter from Lviv to London, with industry going dark and pensioners scavenging for firewood. The worst did not come to pass. But consider another part of the world that has receded from the West’s attention over the course of the Ukraine conflict. Afghanistan is currently in the grips of its worst winter in more than a decade. Temperatures recently plunged to below minus-34 degrees Celsius (minus-29.2 degrees Fahrenheit). Officials in the local Taliban government said the cold has been lethal, leading to more than 160 deaths over the span of about two weeks, and killing more than 70,000 livestock. The dismal conditions have struck a society ill-equipped to cope.

Suicide bomber kills 88, wounds over 150 at mosque in NW Pakistan (AP) A suicide bomber struck Monday inside a mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 88 people and wounding more than 150 worshippers, officials said. Most of the casualties were policemen and police officers as the targeted mosque is located within a sprawling compound, which also serves as the city’s police headquarters. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, said Saddique Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar, but the Pakistani Taliban have been blamed in similar suicide attacks in the past.

Iran says drone strike targeted military complex amid ongoing shadow war (Washington Post) Iran said a drone strike lightly damaged a defense ministry complex in the central city of Isfahan on Saturday, an attack that reverberated across capitals as tensions with the West and Israel mount over Tehran’s advancing nuclear program, arms supply for Russia’s war in Ukraine and lethal crackdown on months-long anti-government protests. Iran’s Ministry of Defense said that three drones struck around 11:30 p.m. local time Saturday, according to a statement carried by the IRNA state news agency, in an attack that caused “minor damage to the roof of a workshop.” There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Saturday strike. But Israel has a history of conducting attacks on Iranian nuclear program facilities as part of an ongoing shadow war between the two regional rivals, a campaign that appears to have escalated following the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, three years into the landmark agreement. One U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity said the strike appeared to be the work of the Israeli military.

Russian embassy says North Korea lifted lockdown in capital (AP) Russia’s embassy in North Korea says the country has eased stringent epidemic controls in capital Pyongyang that were placed during the past five days to slow the spread of respiratory illnesses. North Korea has not officially acknowledged a lockdown in Pyongyang or a re-emergence of COVID-19 after leader Kim Jong Un declared a widely disputed victory over the coronavirus in August, but the Russian embassy’s Facebook posts have provided rare glimpses into the secretive country’s infectious disease controls. Last week, the embassy said that North Korean health authorities required diplomatic missions to keep their employees indoors and also measure their temperatures four times a day and report the results to a hospital in Pyongyang. It said the North Korean measures were in response to an increase in “flu and other respiratory diseases,” but it didn’t mention the spread of COVID-19 or restrictions imposed on regular citizens.

Radioactive needle in a haystack: Tiny capsule lost in rural Australia (Washington Post) Emergency officials in Western Australia warned that a tiny radioactive capsule was on the loose, with a harried hunt underway along a lengthy stretch of highway for what was essentially a toxic needle in a haystack. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services in Western Australia, a largely rural state that makes up the western third of the country, issued a hazardous materials warning Saturday evening, cautioning that the radioactive capsule had been lost while it was being transported from a mine near the town of Newman to a suburb near Perth, the state’s most populous city. The capsule—which is less than a third of an inch long—went missing somewhere along the more than 800-mile stretch of road between Newman and Perth, the department said. It contains cesium-137, a radioactive material used in gauges for mining, one of the main industries in resource-rich Western Australia. Despite its size, the capsule is dangerous, the department warned. “Exposure to this substance could cause radiation burns or radiation sickness,” it said, cautioning people not to touch it or move it if they come across it. Anyone who sees the capsule should stay at least five meters (16 feet) away from it and report it, the department said.

Palestinian Man Fatally Shot as Violence Continues in Israel (NYT) A Palestinian man was fatally shot outside an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and Israeli settlers carried out nearly 150 attacks against Palestinians and their properties across the region, according to reports on Sunday by Palestinian state media and the Israeli Army. Sunday’s violence was the latest to grip the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jerusalem since Thursday, in a series of raids and attacks that have left more than 20 people dead. Palestinian officials said that across the West Bank on Saturday night and into early Sunday, Israeli settlers had carried out 144 attacks against Palestinian civilians or their properties. One official, Ghassan Daghlas, told Wafa that settlers had hurled stones at more than 100 motorists and vehicles and had set fire to six vehicles in a wave of violence. At least 22 Palestinian-owned shops were attacked and at least one Palestinian home near the city of Ramallah was set on fire by settlers, Palestinian media reported.

[huariqueje]

Carlos Noriega 

Page 12 ,Newspaper  La Jornada 

Wednesday, February 1, 2023,  Lima. 

Congress again suspends debate on elections 

The repudiation of Dina Boluarte resounds again in the streets of Lima

Parliament has only 7% approval, according to a poll

Protests demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and holding elections this year are growing. Yesterday a massive anti-government demonstration was held in Lima. There were also mobilizations in different regions of the country. Not one more dead. Dina, resign, reads a large banner that a group of protesters carries through the streets of the capital.

Behind them stands a large group that walks chanting the people are fighting, Dina is killing them. They join other protesters. At the end of the afternoon it is a crowd that has taken to the streets of the center of the capital. Peruvian flags are waved, with the colors of the rainbow that identify indigenous peoples. Thousands have come to the capital from the interior of the country to demand the departure of the president, who after more than fifty deaths refuses to resign. It has been many years since the country has seen protests of the magnitude they have reached in the last two months

Inca blood  

Protests broke out in the southern Andes in December, after the dismissal of Pedro Castillo, and have spread to the rest of the country. For two weeks they have taken center stage in Lima. The inhabitants of the interior who have traveled to the capital to make their voices heard in the streets near the Government Palace and the Congress, targets of popular anger, have a leading role in the mobilizations in Lima. There is a strong presence of Andean populations.

A crowd that has come to the center of the city walking from one of the neighborhoods in the cordon of poverty that surrounds the capital walks chanting: We are Inca blood, we are not terrorists. A slogan that reinforces their indigenous identification and that responds to the accusations of terrorists that, in order to discredit and criminalize them, are thrown at them from political and media power.

In the center of the city they join another large group that shouts: here they are, these are the ones who will always fight. There is enthusiasm, conviction, decision. Dina, murderer, the people repudiate you, the blood shed will never be forgotten, outside of the corrupt Congress, are other slogans that echo in the center of the city.

Strong police contingents and tanks block the passage of several streets in the center of the city. They prevent them from approaching Congress and the Government Palace. The repression has been constant and harsh in each of the mobilizations in Lima and in the interior of the country.

They negotiate behind closed doors 

 While the massive protests once again took to the streets of Lima and other cities, Congress suspended for the second consecutive day the debate and voting on the early elections for October of this year. Since Monday, legislators have been negotiating behind closed doors a consensus agreement that ensures reaching the necessary votes to approve the early elections. For this, 87 are needed, two thirds of the unicamaral Parliament.

Elections in October of this year, in April 2024, in October but conditioned to the simultaneous holding of a referendum for a Constituent Assembly, not moving anything so that the elections are held in 2026, were the different positions. Yesterday the version of a possible proposal to carry them out in December of this year, as a consensus date, circulated. In that case, the change of government would be in April 2024. A proposal that has already been rejected in the streets. Last night the arduous negotiations between the legislators continued. It was announced that the issue would be debated and voted on today.

The delay of Congress to make a decision at critical moments, with more than fifty deaths, and the insistence of a good number of legislators to refuse to call elections this year as demanded by the vast majority, reveal a Congress with its back to the streets .

A recent survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) reveals that Congress has a mere 7 percent approval rating and that 73 percent want elections this year. The obstacles to approving the early elections leave as the only way out for that to materialize the resignation or dismissal of Boluarte, which would force elections in six months. According to the IEP survey, 74 percent demand Boluarte's resignation, which in the south rises to 85 percent. Every day his government is more untenable.

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2023/02/01/mundo/020n1mun?fbclid=IwAR2cRqjvXibr868NvFF2VCRJLhAdYmZJ-ZrsIoEQTUuGhZGd2YN5fEh6ZcQ

[zvaigzdelasas]

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, who is leading a transitional government following the ouster of her predecessor, will replace the prime minister as part of a reshuffling of her Cabinet, she said on Sunday.[...]

The Cabinet changes will take place on Monday and Tuesday, Boluarte told America Television's news program "Cuarto Poder" on Sunday. The shakeup follows the resignation of her education and culture ministers, who left because of the deaths during the protests.[...]

She did not hint at a possible replacement for Pedro Angulo, who had been prime minister for just a week.[...]

Boluarte also added that the new Cabinet, which will work with the opposition-led Congress, will be "a little more political."[...]

Congress, seen as corrupt and self-serving, is deeply unpopular among Peruvians. Just 11% approve of the parliament, according to pollster Datum.

18 Dec 22

[plethoraworldatlas]

Peru’s first female president, Dina Boluarte, is embroiled in a scandal over her alleged possession of a collection of Rolex watches and luxury jewellery that has put her at the centre of a corruption investigation.

The unpopular leader shook up her cabinet on Monday, swearing in six new ministers, after a rash of resignations following reports that she owned jewellery worth £400,000 ($502,700) despite earning a monthly presidential salary of around $3,320.

The “Rolexgate” scandal continues to engulf Boluarte’s government days after police rammed open the front door of her residence in Lima on Friday in search of the watches – the first time in Peru’s history that the police have forcibly entered the home of a sitting president.

After launching an investigation last month, prosecutors ordered the raid after Boluarte said she was too busy to attend a hearing last week. She had failed to declare the origin of three watches from the high-end brand, including one worth £11,150, as well as other items such as a £43,000 Cartier bracelet.

Boluarte claimed on Saturday she was the victim of a plot and, in a televised address flanked by ministers, denied she was “corrupt or a thief”.

The scandal began when La Encerrona, a popular Peruvian news podcast, analysed 10,000 images from the presidential Flickr account, revealing Boluarte’s undisclosed collection of luxury watches and jewellery.

Boluarte is far from being the first Peruvian president to be accused of corruption but the allegations have done nothing to improve the reputation of a leader accused of presiding over the killings of nearly 50 people by security forces during widespread protests over the ousting of her predecessor Pedro Castillo in 2022.

When she took office, the former vice-president vowed to fight corruption and stand up for the rural poor, but – largely due to after what Amnesty International called “excessive and lethal use of force” against anti-government protesters – her approval rating barely reaches double figures.

Boluarte, 61, a mid-level civil servant before she became Castillo’s running mate, claimed that the watches and other jewellery were the fruit of a lifetime of work. But such claims were upended during the raid on her home when police discovered a guarantee for one of the luxury watches dated July 2023.

[dailynewsdrawings]

0110_2023

17 Dead In Peru Amid Renewed Protests Calling For New President To Resign

Protesters demanding that President Dina Boluarte resign and ousted President Pedro Castillo be freed from jail violently clashed with security forces.

ペルーで17人が死亡、新大統領の辞任を求める抗議デモが再び発生

ペルー史上初の女性大統領、ディナ・ボルアルテの辞任とペドロ・カスティーヨ前大統領の釈放を要求するデモ隊が治安部隊と激しく衝突した。

17 Dead In Peru Amidst Renewed Protests Calling For President To Resign | HuffPost Latest News