Rising inflation agitates Peru’s labor market and fuels political conflict. In-depth analysis by Livio Zanotti, author of Ildiavolononmuoremai
What happens in Peru
At the Congress, the opposition is unable to gather the majority necessary to dismiss President Pedro Castillo, 52, and send him back to the province of the interior where he was a rural teacher , until he became the successful representative of his category to then enter politics. In the meantime, he seems to be exhausting all his capacity as a governess in finding the necessary votes day by day to stay at Palazzo Pizarro. As the country prostrated by Covid and now by the inflationary effects of the Russian aggression on Ukraine, it sinks into an economic crisis with no visible way out.
No less tenacious, however, opponents, critics (often allies of the previous week) and declared enemies of the first hour are mobilized throughout the country, determined to drive him out. The squares, although not always crowded, appear in turmoil. Favored by his now evident inadequacies, both as a politician and as an administrator (he formed and defeated 5 governments in less than a year, through which he passed from the far left of the first to the far right of the last), they don’t even care to keep hidden the conspiracies that plot against him one after the other.
In the declared intentions, Castillo’s reform initiative would have had to put his hand to the Constitution, to the most backward and inefficient sectors of the administration, from justice to the tax system, to health and education (the fraudulent competition of the plethora of private universities to that public was among other things the direct cause of the turbulent end of its institutional predecessor) has clearly been exhausted. The increase in the cost of living, as well as throughout the American continent, heats up the labor market and political confrontation to the point of red-hot the already complex Peruvian situation.
Yesterday, numerous demonstrations invaded the major cities and in Lima the clashes with the riot police departments were bloody. The defense minister admitted that in the last week 4 people have died and twenty others have suffered injuries. To further disrupt the political and social climate, we now add yet another bitter juridical-political battle for the early release of Alberto Fujimori. Her daughter Keiko with her far-right party has been fighting for years and by all means (and even on trial for active and passive corruption) to get it.
The former head of state from 1990 to 2000, originally from Japan, is now 84 years old. In prison since 2007 for aggravated corruption and continued with a sentence of 6 years, in 2009 he received another at 25 years for massacre and other very serious violations of human rights. He should therefore remain there until 2038. But in consideration of his age and poor health (in addition to his daughter’s notorious and unscrupulous political pressure), his lawyers have obtained a suspended sentence. However, the Supreme Court opposed this on the basis of essentially procedural findings. Castillo, as head of state, is also affected by this affair.
Peru experiences all the difficulties of its unfinished development: the strong dependence on the export of raw materials, the insufficient capital market and the narrowness of that of internal consumption, the inadequacy of infrastructures. But more than ever, in the last twenty years, the failure of its ruling groups has weighed: from the socialist heirs of the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria (Haya de la Torre’s APRA), to the populist military, to the collection of neo-liberal economists , finally, all protagonists or in any case seriously involved in sensational financial scandals that have led the country to bankruptcy.
“The ruin of Peru is corruption, not neoliberalism”, Alejandro Toledo repeated to me several times during the electoral campaign that in 2001 led him to the highest judiciary of the state. The humble origin of him, the young Indian face illuminated by the intelligent gaze, which among deserved scholarships and heavy porterage jobs led him to a PhD. in economics from Stanford University in California, they gave confidence. Confirmed by a brilliant career in large multinational banks and in the Peruvian high administration. Since 2017 he has been a refugee in the welcoming United States to escape the Peruvian justice that seeks him through Interpol for serious and multiple acts of corruption.
