Peru

With just a few days until the second round of the presidential election in Peru, Pedro Castillo has only a very narrow advantage over his rival, Keiko Fujimori. The election reveals the enormous political polarisation in the Andean country, which has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sunday 11 April, the first round of the presidential elections in Peru produced a major surprise: the victory, against all the odds, of Pedro Castillo, the leader of the 2017 teachers' strike. In the second round, he will face the reactionary, right-wing candidate of Fuerza Popular, Keiko Fujimori, in a clear expression of enormous political polarisation in a country ravaged by the economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yesterday, the Peruvian congress elected a new leadership headed by Francisco Sagasti, who will be sworn in as the new country’s president today. The election of Sagasti (Partido Morado) at the head of a list composed exclusively of congressmen who did not vote for the impeachment of president Vizcarra on 11 November is a desperate attempt to maintain the continuity of the institutions of discredited bourgeois democracy and to rebuild their legitimacy.

Events are moving very fast in Peru. On 9 November, the president Martin Vizcarra was removed from office; a week later the new Merino government has fallen under the pressure of the mass movement unleashed in recent days. The crisis in the bourgeois state has opened the floodgates of the class struggle in the streets and the working class and the youth have defeated the regime in this first battle.

A severe crisis has opened up in Peru, with the Garcia government being pressurised by the mass movement, involving hundreds of thousands of workers. The government can now either step back and try and gain time or go on the offensive with repressive measures. Whatever they do, the movement will not go away.

On July 9th tens of thousands of workers and peasants took to the streets in Peru as part a national strike. The strike had been called to protest against the right wing economic policies of the government of Alan García.

On Wednesday July 11, Perú was paralised by a National Day of Struggle called by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP). These protests could mean the beginning of the end for the Alan García government, which could be overthrown by the mass movement, just as other governments in Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina have been overthrown in recent years, as part of the revolutionary wave that is engulfing Latin America.

The recent election results in Peru and Colombia were hailed by the Latin American bourgeoisie and their imperialist backers as “anti-Chavez” victories. But if one looks more closely at the figures one sees that in these two countries there is a growing radicalisation to the left. Although a little delayed, they are part of the same process.

We are happy to announce the setting up of the website of the Peruvian El Militante (http://peru.elmilitante.org ), the journal of the Marxists of the Fuerza de Izquierda Socialista. The site has been running for some time and is now fully functional. We believe it will play an important role in bring the genuine ideas of Marxism to the workers and youth of Peru.

Following on from yesterday's article, Fred Weston, updates the situation as it is unfolding in Peru. At least one student has already been killed in clashes with the security forces, and the movement does not look at all as if it is prepared to back off.

Late Tuesday Alejandro Toledo, president of Peru, declared a 30-day state of emergency. This was the Peruvian government's response to growing social tension in the country. A wave of strikes has been sweeping the country over the past two weeks with more and more workers coming out.

After a week of protests and virtual uprising in the south of Peru, the government has backed down on its plans to privatise the water and electricity in the region.