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Peru is living a real crossroads. After the most dramatic week in its recent history, the country already has a new president, the roots of the system that unleashed this and other crises are far from being eradicated. How long will he live in political uncertainty?
Francisco Sagasti is the third president of the Peruvians in eight days. Martín Vizcarra was fired on November 9, accused of corruption, and Manuel Merino had to resign on Sunday, harassed by popular pressure and the death of two demonstrators at the hands of the police, who repressed the protests.
Today Merino is under investigation for “abuse of authority and intentional homicide.” His chief of staff, Ántero Flores Aráoz, and his Interior Minister, Gastón Rodríguez, will also have to answer for the deaths of Inti Sotelo (24 years old) and Jack Pintado (22), apparently due to pellets fired by the police, in a protest on Saturday night.
Sagasti will have to close the political crisis that deepened in the fleeting Merino government, but which leaves incalculable damage. It will govern, if Congress allows it, until July 28, 2021, when the elected president takes office on April 11 of next year. Thus Sagasti barely exceeded 60 votes to be elected, which again shows the thousand and one interests that exist in the Legislative.
Because the particular interests of the forces that make up Congress were the ones that generated the crisis that destabilized the country for the third time since 2016, the year in which the parade of heads of state began. There are four: first, Pedro Pablo Kuczcynksi, forced to resign, followed by Martín Vizcarra, Manuel Merino and now Francisco Sagasti. The country has had two Congresses for four years.
“The November 9 decision interrupted the democratic regime after 20 years and involved extreme aggression against the figure of the presidency. The simple fact that the country has several presidents in a few days means a devaluation of a stability achieved with the efforts of all, “said the newspaper the Republic in your editorial.
See more: Who is Francisco Sagasti, the new president of Peru?
“That the vacancy was unconstitutional and that to decide it was resorted to treason, the blackmail of legislators and an alliance with corrupt and undemocratic groups increases the conviction that its executors acted with treachery,” he added.
For his part, Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir, professor of International Relations at the Universidad del Rosario, explained that Peru is a different case from the countries of Latin America, “because since the 90s it has tried to become a semi-presidentialism and the Congress has functions that in another country no “.
Political chaos is the responsibility of all Peruvian sectors. Today former president Martín Vizcarra had such a strong confrontation with Congress that he ordered its closure in September 2019. Before that, Vizcarra had submitted a proposal to end the re-election of congressmen to a referendum.
“The non-reelection eliminated any incentive for a congressman to take responsibility – at least vis-à-vis his constituents – for his decisions. As in Macondo, Peruvian democracy was so recent (18 years) that to mention some of its elements, one had to point the finger at them. One of them was a political career. Before this decision, and since the return to democracy, the reelection rate has been one third of the congressmen. With the Vizcarra measure, the possibility of having professional politicians disappeared ”, explained Jonathan Castro Cajahuanca, in The Washington Post.
See more: Manuel Merino, the most fleeting and tragic presidency of Peru
In this crisis, analysts pointed out, the true role of political parties was seen. Alianza Popular, the Frente Amplio of the left, seen by many as “the useful fool” in the vacancy, backed Merino in pursuit of its own interests; We are Peru, the religious of the Frepap and even the Fujimori Popular Force party of Keiko Fujimori also helped to unleash the crisis and then became unmarked as if nothing had happened.
The ultra-nationalist Union for Peru (UPP), the group that instigated Vizcarra’s vacancy, and Podemos Peru, led by José Luna, owner of private universities, investigated for corruption, sought political revenge after Vizcarra promoted the university reform.
Congress is one of the institutions with the worst image in Peru. On the last day as president, Vizcarra reminded the Peruvian people that 68 congressmen have open processes, and asked them if they should not leave their positions.
“Peru is outraged by what is happening in Congress. Their fight against corruption is a lie: they are negotiating ministries and our democratic right to elect in 2021. What is not defended in Parliament will be defended in the streets ”, assured the leader of the Purple Party, which yesterday made president .
See more: Corruption, the root of Peru’s political crises
What’s next for the country? Uncertainty and a complicated scenario in a nation hard hit by the pandemic, the economic crisis and now the moral crisis.
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