• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Democracy Chronicles

Towards better democracy everywhere.

  • AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
  • WORLD DEMOCRACY
  • POLITICAL ART
  • more
    • election technology
    • money politics
    • political dissidents
    • THIRD PARTY
      • third party central
      • green party
      • justice party
      • libertarian party
    • voting methods
  • DC INFO
    • author central
    • about
    • advertise with DC
    • contact
    • privacy policy
You are here: Home / Democracy News Headlines / International Democracy / Peru’s Democracy Is Under Threat

Peru’s Democracy Is Under Threat

March 15, 2023 by DC Editors Leave a Comment

FacebookLinkedInPinTweet

Peru’s Democracy Is Under ThreatPeru’s democracy is facing increasing backsliding due to political corruption, economic instability, and rising crime rates, threatening the country’s democratic institutions. Democracy and Society’s political scientist Wolf Grabendorff has examined this development. Here is an extract from the article:

Three months after the ‘rebellion at the top of the state’ and the ousting of President Pedro Castillo by the parliament on the grounds of ‘permanent moral incapacity’, violence is now dominating Peru’s political disputes. The parliament-elected president and former vice-president under Castillo, Dina Boluarte, is now responsible for at least 60 dead and almost 2,000 injured – mostly on the social protest side. Due to the massive use of force by the police and military against the protests that have flared up again and again throughout the country, the public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against Boluarte, along with the head of the Council of Ministers, the interior minister, the defence minister and other members of her cabinet, who have since resigned. In Peru, democracy is currently under as much threat as it was in the 1990s, when dictator Alberto Fujimori also came to power in a ‘coup d’état from above’ and over 10,000 people were killed in the almost civil war-like purges in the conflict between his government and the radical Maoist movement Sendero Luminoso.

However, the extent to which President Boluarte and the members of the government will be sentenced can hardly be predicted, since the legal proceedings for ‘official misconduct’ in Peru usually begin only after the end of the respective term of office and associated loss of immunity. But, once possible, it occurs with very clear results: five of the last six presidents have been condemned in this way. Since his conviction in 2009, ex-president Alberto Fujimori has been held in the same prison as ex-president Pedro Castillo, who is currently awaiting sentencing. He is initially in pre-trial custody for 36 months on charges of rebelling against state authority.

Why have the protests in the provinces gotten so massive and violent since Pedro Castillo was removed from office? They are above all the reaction of those who were not involved in Peru’s positive economic development – in other words, the representatives of the ‘other Peru’, first and foremost the poorer part of the population, for whom the ex-president was a beacon of hope. The protests are directed at the opposition to Castillo – in parliament, among the business and political elites and in the media – which was initially against his very close electoral victory and later against his attempts at political reform, which in any case were unsuccessful. Above all, however, it is a reaction to the form of his ‘constitutional’ ouster for his attempted coup ‘à la Fujimori’ – which Castillo carried out without realising that he could not count on the support of either the military or a majority of the population.

Read the full article here.

FacebookLinkedInPinTweet

Filed Under: International Democracy Tagged With: South America

Some highlighted Democracy Chronicles topics

Africa American Corruption American Local Elections American State Elections Asia Capitalism and Big Business Celebrity Politics China Democracy Charity Democracy Protests Democrats Dictatorships Education Election History Election Methods Election Security Election Transparency Europe Internet and Democracy Journalism and Free Speech Middle East Minority Voting Rights Money Politics New York City and State Elections Political Artwork Political Dissidents Political Lobbying Redistricting Republicans Russia Socialism and Labor Social Media and Democracy South America Spying and Privacy Supreme Court Third Party Voter Access Voter ID Voter Registration Voter Suppression Voter Turnout Voting Technology Women Voting Rights Worldwide Worldwide Corruption

About DC Editors

We are your source for news on the all important effort to establish and strengthen democracy across the globe. Our international team with dozens of independent authors are your gateway into the raging struggle for free and fair elections on every continent with a focus on election reform in the United States. See our Facebook Page and also follow us on Twitter @demchron.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

democracy chronicles newsletter

democracy around the web

  • Belarus opens criminal cases against more tha...
    Source: Committee to Protect Journalists Published on: 1 hour ago
  • “Disputed North Carolina race offers playbook...
    Source: Election Law Blog Published on: 1 hour ago
  • Taliban intelligence detain journalist Sulaim...
    Source: Committee to Protect Journalists Published on: 1 hour ago
  • “Auction to Dine With Trump Creates Foreign I...
    Source: Election Law Blog Published on: 1 hour ago
  • Who Wins or Loses in Louisiana if the Supreme...
    Source: Election Law Blog Published on: 4 hours ago