#peru political crisis

[huariqueje]

“Brothers and sisters, right now our Peru needs us more than ever,” Nilda Mendoza Coronel, a 35-year-old farmer, told hundreds of strikers who had gathered under a ferocious morning sun.

“We’ll fight until the very end, carajo!” Mendoza bellowed through a megaphone. “No one will stop our struggle!”

[keistance]

m estan llegando a la reconchadsumadre

[saik-ava]

anyways i just came out of the shower and now peru is presidentless???? Okkkkkk???????

[gaviymarcsbride]

Y’all I genuinely urge you to stay up to date with world politics.

In my country, Venezuela, elections have just been held and the blatant disrespect that the so called government have for their people is astonishing.

How can they claim that Nicolas Maduro, one of the most hated dictators of our time, won 51%/5+ million votes?

How is it possible that he won when the voting panels have been updating every hour how Edmundo Gonzalez (the opposing candidate) has been winning by TRIPLE the vote?

How is it possible that most of the 7.3 million Venezuelan immigrants can’t vote and have no say in what goes on the country that gave them life?

How is it possible that Venezuelans have to fear for their life in voting stations because the military are set there to prevent them from voting?

How is it possible that the pig that’s called president is currently celebrating his “well-earned” victory?

Countries like Chile and Peru are already making statements that they will not recognize the results given by the CNE (the Venezuelan electoral system)

FREAKING ELON MUSK IS MAKING TWEETS REGARDING THE SITUATION

I think it’s sickening how all people can do is talk about it and not do a single thing about it, especially because as a society we try to condemn any harm to human rights just like how we did Russia, who by the way, is one of the dictatorships biggest supporters.

VENEZUELA HAS BEEN FACING AN HUMANITARIAN CRISIS!!!!

People have been facing literal hell since the late 90s and people in power DO. NOT. CARE.

Educate yourself, educate others, and most importantly TALK ABOUT IT, because I’m certain we’re not the first or the last country to go through this.

This is as much as I’ll say.

I hope they all rot in hell.

🇻🇪

[mapsontheweb]

Federation of the Andes

The Federation of the Andes was a nation proposed by Simón Bolívar in 1826 that would consist in a union between the nations “liberated” by him.

There was a proposal to organize the Federation in 6 states: Colombia would be divided in 3 states (Ecuador, Nueva Granada and Venezuela), while Peru would be divided in two states (North and South). It was also planned to give away the Peruvian coast from Tacna to Tarapaca to Bolivia, exchanging it for Apolobamba and Coapacabana. Each state would be divided into departments, the departments into provinces and the provinces into cantons (not shown). As for the capital, it would be Quito or Guayaquil.

Regarding the government, there would be a "Supreme Chief for Life" with the power to inherit the leadership to whomever he wanted, a tricameral federal parliament and an authoritarian, centralized and militarized administration. It was a monocracy strongly inspired by the Consulate of Napoleon Bonaparte and the regime of the Haitian Jean Pierre Boyer.

The project failed due to the rejection of the Peruvians and the political crisis that occurred in Colombia. In January 1827, while Bolívar was in Colombia to defeat the separatist attempts, an uprising overthrew his government in Peru and the Bolivarian Constitution was abolished in June of that same year, prohibiting his entry and losing all his influence in Peru. The next country to lose Bolivarian influence would be Bolivia, after the Peruvian invasion in 1828, which ended with the overthrow of Antonio José de Sucre, Bolívar's right-hand man. Finally, Gran Colombia would end up completely disintegrating in 1830.

[apricitystudies]

what i read in dec. 2022:

(previous editions) bold = favourite

class, race, & labour

the philippines’ dangerous dependence on the exploitation of its people

the blackstone rebellion: how one country took on the world’s biggest commercial landlord (denmark)

reliance on hi-tech solutions to climate crisis perpetuates racism

china’s army of retirees seek return to work as economic toll on their families mounts

how professionalism is used as a tool for racism

gender, sexuality, & intersectionality

reclaiming dignity, reasserting agency: female labour migration in indonesia

for transgender students, a safe space in university halls is ‘great comfort’ — but not a given (singapore)

you should have been listening to octavia butler this whole time

how to be a slut

politics & current affairs

peru lawmakers propose bill to strip indigenous people of protections

the night raids (usa/afghanistan)

how a massacre of nearly 300 in syria was revealed

the cartel, the journalist and the gangland killings that rocked the netherlands

hundreds of members of extremist group oath keepers worked for us department of homeland security

japan's militarisation gets a boost from ukraine war despite pacifist constitution

history, culture, & media

barbara johns: the us' forgotten civil rights hero

‘i’m afraid one day it’s going to go’: saving singapore’s old buildings one photograph at a time

drugs killed 8 friends, one by one, in a tragedy seen across the us

seventy-five years after indian partition, who owns the narrative?

aristocrat inc.

HUMAN_FALLBACK

[zvaigzdelasas]

The following are reactions from political leaders across the Americas to the ousting of Pedro Castillo as Peru's president on Wednesday

[AMLO] "Non-intervention and self-determination is a fundamental principle of our foreign policy. That is what we stick to in the case of what happened in Peru.

"We consider it unfortunate that, due to the interests of the economic and political elites, from the beginning of Pedro Castillo's legitimate presidency, an environment of confrontation and hostility was maintained against him until it led him to make decisions that have served his adversaries to carry out his dismissal"

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

"The United States welcomes the appointment of President Boluarte and looks forward to working with her and her administration [...] [LULA] "I followed with great concern the events that led to the constitutional removal of the president of Peru, Pedro Castillo. "It is always regrettable that a democratically elected president has this fate, but I understand that everything was forwarded in the constitutional framework."

CHILE FOREIGN MINISTRY, ON TWITTER

"The Government of Chile condemns the rupture of constitutional order in Peru and appreciates that the political crisis coming out of it is being addressed through institutional channels."

LUIS ARCE, PRESIDENT OF BOLIVIA

"From the beginning, the Peruvian right tried to overthrow a government that was democratically elected by the people, by the working class seeking more inclusion and social justice."[...]

EVO MORALES, FORMER PRESIDENT OF BOLIVIA, ON TWITTER

"Our deep concern for the political crisis affecting the sister Republic of Peru.

"Beyond mistakes and successes, our brother Pedro Castillo and his family deserve humane treatment. This proves once again that the Peruvian oligarchy and the U.S. empire won't accept that union leaders and indigenous people can come to lead government."

HONDURAS FOREIGN MINISTRY

"The Honduran foreign ministry energetically condemns the coup d'etat in Peru, which is the result of a series of events meant to erode democracy and the sovereign will of the people represented by President Pedro Castillo."

8 Dec 22

[fatehbaz]

On January 18, 2023, as thousands of Peruvians were taking to the streets in Lima to denounce the spiralling political crisis in the country, Canadian Ambassador Louis Marcotte was meeting with the Peruvian Minister of Energy and Mines.

Protests have been ongoing since December [2022] [...]. Demonstrators have been met with widespread arrests and brutal violence. According to Yves Engler, since [protests began] [...] the Canadian mission has met with numerous top-level Peruvian officials in unprecedented fashion. [...] Ambassador Marcotte tweeted several photos from the meeting, using the occasion to promote mining as a benefit for communities and to express Canadian support for the upcoming Peruvian delegation who will attend the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC) annual conference in Toronto from March 5 to 8. Each year, the world’s largest mining convention draws tens of thousands of industry experts, company officials, and government representatives to talk industry trends and promote an expansion of mining -- with little concern for the consent of those most affected, including in Peru. [...]

For years, MiningWatch Canada and the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP), alongside organizations including Red Muqui, Cooperacción, Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras-Cusco and Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente DHUMA, have documented the many harms caused by industrial large-scale Canadian mining to rural communities, as well as the associated police violence that often accompanies the imposition of these projects. [...] [T]he systematic and often violent exclusion of Indigenous, peasant and rural peoples from the political economic system, as well as the legacies of land dispossession and contamination, are indeed linked to centuries of extractivism.

The ambassador’s tweet has to be taken within a context of centuries of colonial and decades of post-colonial violence against rural peoples at the behest of resource extraction. [...] Ambassador Marcotte chose to promote more Canadian mining investment in the country and plug PDAC 2023 -- where a session dubbed “Peru Day” promises to discuss “opportunities [...].” Canada’s priorities in Peru could not be more clear. [...]

---

Canadian companies invested over $8 billion in 10 projects [in 2021] [...]. Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals operates the Constancia mine; Vancouver’s Pan American Silver operates the Shahuindo and La Arena mines; and Teck Resources’, also headquartered in Vancouver, operates the Antamina mine, with a 22.5 percent ownership stake in the project. Antamina is Peru’s largest mine, ranking among the top 10 producing mines in the world in terms of volume, and is the single most important producer of copper, silver, and zinc in the country. In 2021, the mine generated over $6 billion in revenue and nearly $3.7 billion in gross profits. [...]

---

When Canadian mining companies are embroiled in a conflict with local communities [...] [in] Peru, companies benefit from state-sanctioned police protection and impunity. Companies can sign service contracts directly with the National Peruvian Police, and off-duty police officers are permitted to work for private security companies while using state property, such as weapons, uniforms and ammunition. [...]

Violence isn’t only used against rural peoples at blockades or during massive marches; it’s a daily occurrence [...].

As the Cusco-based organization Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras has demonstrated through several environmental and social impact studies related to Hudbay’s Constancia mine, these contracts not only permit explicit state violence, they also form the backdrop of racialized and class-based intimidation and threats [...].

---

These harms are not minimal: contamination of agricultural lands and waterways around Pan American Silver’s Quiruvilca mine and the criminalization of community leaders and land dispossession due to environmental contamination at Shahuindo; violation of Indigenous self-determination and the right to a clean environment around Plateau Energy’s proposed lithium and uranium mine, sitting atop the region’s most important tropical glacier; undercutting of economic benefits for communities most affected by mining operations, and more.

---

Yet the Canadian embassy in Peru has a track record of ignoring the concerns of human rights and environmental defenders affected by Canadian mining projects in the country -- even ignoring the concerns of Canadian citizen Jennifer Moore who was detained in 2017 by Peruvian police while screening a documentary film with Quechua communities affected by Hudbay’s Constancia mine. Moore, who was subsequently banned from re-entering the country [...], is the focus of a recent report by the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) on the role of Canadian embassies in prioritizing the interests of Canadian mining companies at the expense of their own policies and commitments regarding the protection of human rights defenders. [...]

But it should be made clear: when the [Canadian] embassy chooses to promote mining in Peru during PDAC, it is doing so knowing the reality of what these activities mean for people who are facing ongoing threats, intimidation, and explicit state-sponsored violence.

---

Headline and text by: Kirsten Francescone. “State-sanctioned violence in Peru and the role of Canadian mining.” Canadian Dimension. 6 March 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks and contractions added by me.]

[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.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Events in Bolivia and Brazil may signal a turning point for the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis in Latin America

Demonstrations in Bolivia in recent weeks have been directed at a seemingly unusual target: the Catholic Church.

More than three-fourths of the people in this Andean nation are Catholic, and Catholicism remained the religion of the state until 2009. Protests erupted, however, after the publication of diary entries from a deceased Spanish Jesuit priest, which detailed his sexual abuse of dozens of boys while teaching in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba during the 1970s and 1980s.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Brazil, a new book by two award-winning journalists has made the magnitude of the clerical sexual abuse crisis more visible.

Over the past two decades, sexual abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church nearly everywhere it has a presence. Latin America, where 4 in 10 of the world’s Catholics live, is no exception. Yet the church’s role in the region is distinct, as are the stakes.

Owing to centuries of Spanish and Portuguese colonization, the Catholic Church is deeply ingrained in Latin America’s societies and political institutions – a key theme in my research on 20th-century Peru.

High-profile cases have stirred public outrage in nearly all Latin American countries, notably Mexico, Peru and Chile, but concrete changes have been slow. The current circumstances in Brazil and Bolivia, I argue, could signal a new trend.

Continue reading.

[xtruss]

Latin America’s New Hard Right: Bukele, Milei, Kast And Bolsonaro! Crime, Abortion and Socialism, Not Immigration, Are The Issues That Rile Them

— April 1st 2024| Santiago, Chile 🇨🇱

A montage of right-wing Latin American leaders on a red and blue background with Donald Trump throwing maga hats at them. Illustration: Klawe Rzeczy

“Mr president!” Javier Milei could barely contain himself when he met Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington in February. The pair embraced and exchanged slogans, with Mr Trump intoning “Make Argentina Great Again” several times and Argentina’s new President yipping “Viva la Libertad, Carajo” (“Long Live Freedom, Dammit”) in response.

Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s Popular Autocratic President, had already addressed the conference. “They say globalism comes to die at CPAC,” he told enraptured Republicans. “I’m here to tell you that in El Salvador, it’s already dead.” Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s Hard-Right Former President, was a star guest in 2023. He, like Mr Trump, claimed without evidence that his bid for a second term was thwarted by fraud. His supporters also attempted an insurrection.

These scenes suggest a seamless international alliance between Mr Trump and the leaders of Latin America’s hard right. Its members also include José Antonio Kast of Chile, who has spoken at cpac in the past too. This new right basks in Mr Trump’s influence. It has turned away from a more consensual form of conservative politics in favour of an aggressive pursuit of culture war.

Its ascent began with the surprise victory of Mr Bolsonaro in Brazil in 2018, followed by that of Mr Bukele in 2019. In Chile Mr Kast, the founder of a new hard-right Republican Party, got 44% of the vote in a presidential run-off in 2021 and his party won an election for a constitutional council in 2023. Mr Milei won his own surprise victory in November. Would-be leaders of the radical right jostle in the Politics of Peru and Colombia.

Unlike its older European and North American equivalents, the Latin American hard right does not have roots in the fertile soil of public anxiety about uncontrolled immigration (although this has become an issue recently because of the arrival of millions of Venezuelans fleeing their country’s rotten dictatorship).

The new group shares three hallmarks. The first is fierce opposition to abortion, and gay and women’s rights. “What unites them is an affirmation of traditional social hierarchies,” as Lindsay Mayka and Amy Erica Smith, two academics, put it. The second hallmark is a tough line on crime and citizens’ security. And the third is uncompromising opposition to social democracy, let alone communism, which leads some to want a smaller state.

There were common factors in their ascents, too. They were helped by a sense of crisis—about corruption and economic stagnation in Brazil and Argentina, gang violence in El Salvador and the sometimes violent “social explosion” in Chile.

Cousins In Arms

But each leader has adopted a different mix of these ideological elements. The hard right in Latin America are “cousins, not brothers”, says Cristóbal Rovira of the Catholic University of Chile. “They are similar but not identical.”

Mr Bolsonaro’s constituencies were evangelicals, to whom he appealed with his defence of the traditional family, and the authoritarian right in the form of the army, the police and farmers worried about land invasions and rural crime. But he was lukewarm about the free market and fiscal rigour. Mr Bukele made security the cornerstone of his first presidential term, overcoming criminal gangs by locking up more than 74,000 of El Salvador’s 6.4 Million Citizens. His economic policy is less clear and, despite his claim at CPAC, is not self-evidently “anti-globalist”.

Mr Milei was elected for his pledge to pull Argentina out of prolonged stagflation and to cut down what he brands as a corrupt political “caste”. A self-described “anarcho-capitalist”, he is a fan of the Austrian school of free-market economics. Unlike Mr Trump, he is neither an economic nationalist nor protectionist on trade. He has only recently adopted his peers’ stance on moral issues. His government supports a bill to overturn Argentina’s abortion law, and says it will eliminate gender-conscious language from public administration. Mr Bukele followed suit.

Mr Kast attempted to put conservative morality in the constitutional draft his party championed, which was one reason why it was rejected in a plebiscite. He wants tough policies on security and against immigration. “We should close the borders and build a trench,” he says. He wants to “shrink the state and lower the tax burden”. Whereas Mr Bolsonaro is a climate-change sceptic and anti-vaxxer, Mr Kast is not.

Democracy For Thee, Not For Me

Right-wing populists also have differing attitudes to democracy. With his attempt to subvert the election result, for which he is under police investigation, Mr Bolsonaro showed that he was not a democrat. Mr Bukele is contemptuous of checks and balances. His success at slashing the murder rate made him hugely popular, allowing him to brush aside constitutional term limits and win a second term in February.

Mr Milei’s “disdain for democratic institutions is clear”, says Carlos Malamud, An Argentine Historian, citing Mr Milei’s break with convention by giving his inauguration speech to a crowd of supporters, rather than to Congress. But, Mr Malamud adds, Mr Milei may yet learn that he needs to include the parliament in government.

“I’m a democrat,” insists Mr Kast, and his opponents agree. “On security and shrinking the state, we share views with Bolsonaro,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean that we are the same as Milei or Bolsonaro or Bukele.” As Mr Kast notes, policy choices are shaped in each country by very different circumstances.

So are the prospects of the various leaders. Mr Bukele is by far the most successful, with would-be imitators across the region and no obvious obstacles to his remaining in power indefinitely. In contrast, Mr Bolsonaro’s active political career may well be over. The electoral court has barred him as a candidate until 2030 (when he will be 75) for disparaging the voting system at a meeting with foreign ambassadors. He may be jailed for his apparent attempt to organise a military coup against his electoral defeat; he denies this and claims he is a victim of political persecution.

Mr Milei’s future is up for grabs. Succeed in taming inflation, and he could emerge strengthened from a midterm election in 2025. But if he refuses to compromise with Congress and provincial governors, he may be in trouble before then. In Chile, Mr Kast seemed to overplay his hand with the constitutional draft. The election in 2025 could see the centre-right take power. One influential figure of that persuasion argues that Mr Kast is unable to represent the diversity of modern Chile.

Ultimately, the group is bound by an international network built around common political discourse and cultural references. Mr Kast chairs the Political Network for Values, an outfit previously led by an ally of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Populist Leader. Vox, Spain��s hard-right party, organises the Foro de Madrid, a network of like-minded politicians mainly from what it calls the “Iberosphere” in Latin America.

These gatherings offer a chance to share experiences and sometimes a bit more. Mr Bukele has advisers from Venezuela’s exiled opposition. Mr Trump’s activists have shown up at Latin American elections. Recently, Mr Bolsonaro took refuge in the Hungarian embassy in Brasília for two nights when he feared arrest.

But there are no signs of central direction or co-ordination. The right in Latin America has long claimed that the Foro de São Paulo, a get-together of Latin American left-wingers, is a highly organised conspiracy. All the evidence is that it is a loose friendship network. That seems to be true of its right-wing peer, too. ■

— This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "The Anti-communist International"

[huariqueje]

Peru: Statement by the Spokesperson on the ongoing protests in the country

Violent clashes between protesters and police forces have continued in Peru over the last few days. The European Union deplores the very large number of casualties since the start of the protests.

Peaceful social protests respecting the rule of law are legitimate in a democratic society. The EU reiterates its condemnation of the widespread acts of violence as well as the disproportionate use of force by security forces.

We welcome the recent visit to Peru by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to observe the human rights situation in the context of the current institutional crisis and social protests, and trust that the national institutions will investigate and bring to justice those responsible for abuses or violations of human rights. The ongoing social and political crises should be addressed in full respect of the constitutional order, the rule of law, and human rights.

The EU calls on the government and all political actors to take urgent steps to restore calm and ensure an inclusive dialogue with the participation of civil society and affected communities as the way out of the crisis. The EU is fully committed to support Peruvian efforts in this regard.

[eirinstiva]

I want to know more about Garcia's past...

With the last letter from my dear friend Watson and considering that we still don't know more about Aloysius Garcia, I tried to remember about the history of Spanish-speaking countries during the victorian era and noticed that there's a lot to analyse in 1892. Just for reference:

It was the 400th anniversary of the "discovery of the Americas", and it was celebrated in Europe and America.

In Spain ocurred the Borbon Restoration and this period was marked by political instability, economic struggles, and social unrest. Alfonso XII died in November 1885. His wife María Christina was still pregnant of his son Alfonso XIII, who was born on 17 May 1886 and became King upon birth Queen Mother María Christina was regent until 1898. Many Spaniards emigrated to America during this period.

Philippines and Puerto Rico were still under Spanish rule, while Cuba was recovering from the Ten Years' War.

Argentina was recovering from the baring crisis of 1890. Former vicepresident Carlos Pellegrini become president until 1892 the succeeded by Luis Sáenz Peña.

Chile was at the end of the Liberal Republic era, there was a civil war in 1891 and started the Parliamentary era. The war saw a confrontation between the Chilean Army and the Chilean Navy, siding with the president José Manuel Balmaceda and the congress, respectively. This conflict ended with the defeat of the Army and the presidential forces, and with President Balmaceda committing suicide as a consequence of the defeat. Saltpetre was the principal export, extracted by british companies.

México Porfirio Díaz was president (again) and this period is known as Porfiriato (Porfiriate). There were significant economic, technological, social, and cultural changes during this period.

In Paraguay the banking crisis got bigger and there was an aborted Liberal revolt in 1891.

Perú was in a period known has National reconstruction era. The government started to initiate a number of social and economic reforms in order to recover from the damage of the War of the Pacific and the chilenization in Tacna and Arica.

Brasil (I know they speak Portuguese, but I'm in LatAm, we are in the same neighbourhood, so it's important) Pedro II was deposed on November 15, 1889, by a Republican military coup led by General Deodoro da Fonseca, who became the country's first de facto president through military ascension. This period is known as República Velha (Old Republic).

There's a lot more considering other countries like Colombia or Uruguay, but I need to read a lot more to understand a bit more.

(For now, I like the idea that he could be some rich Spaniard that had a shady business with some Englishman related to saltpetre in Peru-Bolivia-Chile)

[eopederson]

Catedral desde la Plaza de Armas, Lima, 2017.

Ongoing are almost daily demonstrations, and sometimes violent protests, because of the complicated coup d'etat which removed the elected president of Peru. The plaza in front of the cathedral is a common site for such demonstrations for it also faces important government buildings. As usual, news sources in the US are all but oblivious to events in Latin America, except perhaps for violence in México and Central America, and the ongoing political problems in Perú are rarely mentioned. An exception is an interesting opinion piece in today's Washington Post (in the online edition but unable to get a working link to it) by the essayist and poet José Carlos Agüero "Opinion: Why Peru's crisis is worth studying closely by democracies everywhere." The piece is well-worth a read both for its commentary on what has happened in Perú and for what might be happening elsewhere in the world.

[beardedmrbean]

Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Peruvian President Dina Boluarte called for an end to protests demanding her resignation as demonstrators clashed with police in the capital of Lima.

Thousands of protestors converged on Lima, flooding the streets, attacking riot police and damaging government buildings. One person died and more than 30 injuries were reported.

"Once again, I call for dialogue, I call on those political leaders to calm down. Have a more honest and objective look at the country; let's talk," Boluarte said Thursday night.

"All the law will fall on those people who are committing these criminal acts of vandalism, that we are not going to allow it again."

RELATEDLima braces for protests as death toll in Peru crisis surpasses 50

A video shot from the air and tweeted by the country's national police, shows a historic building fully engulfed in flames in Lima's famed Plaza San Martín.

Another video shows hundreds of demonstrators armed with rocks, sticks and other self-fashioned weapons, pushing forward against a line of police in full riot gear with shields.

RELATEDRussian public officials sign letter condemning Navalny detention

Other photos show protestors pushing down fences and police using tear gas in an attempt to quell the unrest.

Boluarte claimed that police had managed to control the protests which she said had "no social agenda" and alleged they instead aimed only to "break the rule of law, generate chaos and disorder and seize power." She added that demonstrators who engaged in violence would not go "unpunished."

The country-wide death toll has surpassed 50 since protests first took to the streets of the country in December, demanding that Boularte step down and the reinstatement of former president Pedro Castillo. Others are calling for immediate elections.

RELATEDAs police try to clear protest site, gunfire wounds trooper, kills protester

Castillo was impeached last month after a hasty attempt to dissolve congress following previous impeachment attempts. He attempted to leave the country but was captured and jailed for 18 months, though he maintains he did not "commit the crime of conspiracy or rebellion."

Boluarte, who served as Castillo's vice president, has been dealing with unrest since taking office.

The country declared a state of emergency in late December.

She has been accused of using a heavy hand with protestors and several of her cabinet members have resigned in protest.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International accused the country's various security forces of "excessive force against protestors."

[child-of-hurin]

If you guys knew how to read Spanish you would be so into the current political situation of Peru... So many of you were losing your marbles over the successive English PM crisis, Peru's situation is a thousand times crazier, you'd all be having a grand old time if you followed Pedro Castillo's govt I think