Photo: Martin St-Amant via Wikimedia Commons

Despite this, Prime Minister Denisse Miralles, serving under Peru’s recently seated interim President José María Balcazar, stated to the press: “There is enough fuel of all kinds: GLP, diesel, everything. Therefore, there should not be a price hike. Prices rise when there is a shortage, but that is not the case; what we have is hoarding and speculation.”

Nonetheless, repairs to the affected section of the disabled pipeline are being carried out. The cause of the incident is being investigated by Peru’s Supervisory Organism for Investment in Energy & Mining (Osinergmin). (Jurist, Andina, BNAmericas)

Photo: Ministerio de Defensa del Perú via Wikipedia

President Jerí on Oct. 15 appointed as head of the Interior Ministry the former commander of the Peruvian National Police (PNP), Vicente Tiburcio Orbezo. Tiburcio’s tenure as PNP commander only lasted three months, as he was sacked by then-president Pedro Castillo in May 2022, in apparent retaliation for having ordered the arrest of his nephews in the corruption probe against his administration. But Tiburcio has had a long career fighting organized crime and armed insurgents, having been part of the team within the PNP’s Special Intelligence Group (GEIN) that carried out the arrest of Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán in 1992. He subsequently served in campaigns against both the Shining Path and  Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). He was chosen by Jerí with a mission of addressing the crisis of “citizen security” in Peru. (InfoBAE)

Peru is currently grappling with a surge in gang-related extortion and contract killings, with extortion cases skyrocketing from a few hundred in all of 2017 to more than 2,000 per month this year, according to PNP data. Dozens of bus drivers targeted by extortion rings have been killed on the job in the past two years, and several stores and other small businesses have been attacked with explosives. (NYT)

Boluarte had been seeking emergency powers to crack down on illegal mining, which remains an outstanding problem. On Oct. 6, the Andean Community regional trade bloc ruled that Peru is failing to meet its commitments to curb illegal gold mining and mercury trafficking. The bloc ordered Peru to urgently reform its laws, seize dredging machinery and other mining equipment, and end extensions of a registry for titling informal miners that critics say shields illegality. This comes as the price of gold is soared, fueling the illegal trade. It is estimated that 50% of all the illegal gold exported from South America originates in Peru. (AP, PRI)

The illegal gold rush has cleared 140,000 hectares (540 square miles) of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon since 1984, and the rate of loss is accelerating, according to the Andean Amazon Monitoring Project (MAAP) and its Peruvian partner organization, Conservación Amazónica. (The Guardian)

Photo: Wikipedia

Peru is also facing a devastating environmental crisis due to widespread fires that have ravaged various regions of the country. On Sept. 18, President Dina Boluarte declared a state of emergency in the regions of Amazonas, San Martín, and Ucayali. Approximately 3,500 hectares of natural areas and crop or pasture lands have been affected, mainly in those regions and La Libertad, Cuzco and Cajamarca.  According to the National Institute of Civil Defense (INDECI), the fires have claimed 20 lives and left around 150 injured, some from burns and others from inhaling smoke

On Sept. 23, the Executive Branch presented a bill to Peru’s Congress aimed at establishing a legislative framework for the prevention and control of forest fires. The bill imposes criminal penalties for setting fires, and proposes measures to restore affected areas.

Bolivia is also seeing its highest levels of wildfire emissions since record-keeping began 22 years ago. (PRI, BIJ, Jurist)

Deforestation, mainly for mining and agricultural purposes, has led to the loss of 12.5% of the Amazon’s forest cover from 1985 to 2023, according to Brazil’s Amazonian Network for Spcio-Environmental Information (RAISG)—an area the size of Germany and France combined. (RFI)

Photo: Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace via Mongabay

A year after the height of a protest wave that swept Peru, demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, we finally see an initial step toward justice for the some 50 slain by security forces in the repression unleashed by her regime. On Jan. 6, Judicial Power, Peru’s justice department, ordered the “preventative detention” of Joe Erik Torres Lovón, an officer of the National Police, as he is investigated in the slaying of a Cuzco youth, Rosalino Florez Valverde, last January. (El País)

On the other hand, there is outrage that Luis Flores Solís, a National Police general and a former agent of the elite Special Intelligence Group (GEIN), has been named as the new chief of the Counter-Terrorist Directorate (DIRCOTE)—despite the fact that he is under internal investigation by the police force in connection with the killing of protesters in Andahuaylas. (Wayka)

Meanwhile, Pedro Castillo, the president whose removal from power and replacement by Boluarte in December 2022 sparked the protest wave, remains imprisoned on pre-trial detention orders. (Al Jazeera) But on Dec. 6, ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year term for corruption and human rights abuses, was released from Lima’s Barbadillo prison on order of the Constitutional Tribunal, Peru’s highest court. The ruling reinstated a contentious 2017 pardon on supposed humanitarian grounds. The octogenarian former strongman was released in defiance of a 2018 ruling of  the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). The Inter-American Court ordered Peru Dec. 5 “to refrain from implementing the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling,” pending an IACHR review of the pardon.

“Fujimori’s release is a slap in the face to victims of atrocities,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The [Organization of American States] should examine the release in the context of very serious erosion of the rule of law and the protection of human rights in Peru.” (Al Jazeera, HRW)

Photo: Wayka

However, the vote was harshly condemned by former foreign minister Héctor Béjar, who said the estimated 700 US troops will be disposed to support operations by the security forces against Peru’s social movements, now preparing a new mobilization: “It is obvious that the presence of these soldiers is a deterrent, part of a policy of intimidation of the Peruvian people, who have announced new protests for next July.” (Prensa Latina)

The ouster of Pedro Castillo as president last December set off a wave of mass protest across Peru. The country’s security forces carried out extrajudicial or arbitrary killings and committed other “egregious abuses” against demonstrators during protests that swept the country from late last year through February, Human Rights Watch found in a new report.

A briefer US troop deployment was approved last year by Castillo’s own government, after Héctor Béjar had been removed as foreign minister in a perceived tilt to the right. However, the deployment was protested by voices within Castillo’s own left-populist Partido Perú Libre (PPL).

Photo: IndymediaArgentina

The announcement came a day after 17 were killed, including two teenagers, as protesters attempted to occupy the local airport in Juliaca, Puno region. One National Police officer was also killed and several injured in the confrontation, as protesters launched fireworks at security forces. That same day, another protester was killed in the nearby town of Chucuito, as police moved against a road blockade.

These deaths were immediately acknowledged by Peru’s official human rights ombudsman, the Defensoría del Pueblo, which issued a statement calling on the security forces to act with restraint. But on the day of Benavides’ announcement, another protester was killed in the city of Cuzco. (InfoBae, La Republica, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, CNN Español, Jurist)

Jennie Dador, executive secretary of the non-governmental National Human Rights Coordinator of Peru (CNDDHH) blamed “indiscriminate use of force” for the deaths. “What happened yesterday was really a massacre,’” she told the media. “These were extrajudicial killings.” (NYT) A leader of the social movement in Puno, César Quispe Calsin, said: “What happened in Juliaca is a genocide.” (Pachamama Radio)

Peru’s southern regions of Puno, Cuzco, Arequipa and Madre de Dios have been almost entirely cut off by roadblocks since the protests remobilized on Jan. 6. (RPP Noticias) The giant Antapaccay copper mine in Cuzco region, operated by the Swiss multinational Glencore, was also occupied by protesters, who set two company vehicles on fire and attacked a worker housing complex at the facility. (Reuters)

Senderismo panic
In what appears to be the latest effort to smear Castillo’s supporters as linked to the Shining Path guerillas, police in Ayacucho region on Jan. 13 announced the arrest of Rocío Leandro Melgar on charges of collaborating with the now-moribund Maoist insurgency. Police said Leandro, president of the Defense Front of the People of Ayacucho (FREDEPA), is actually a guerilla operative known as “Comrade Cusi.” Leandro and five other FREDEPA members were flown to Lima, where they are being held in “preventive detention.” According to media reports, Leandro had served nine years at the notorious Chorrillos Women’s Prison in the late ’80s and ’90s for links to the Shining Path. (RPP Noticias, La Republica)

Boluarte intransigent
After the Fiscalía’s announcement, Boluarte purged her cabinet yet again, with Vicente Romero, a retired National Police general, replacing Rojas as interior minister.

But Boluarte insisted that she will not step down, a key demand of the protesters. “Some voices that have come from the violent and radical factions are asking for my resignation, provoking the population into chaos, disorder and destruction,” Boluarte said in a televised address Jan. 13. “I will not resign. My commitment is with Peru.”

She also dismissed a second demand of the protesters, that a constituent assembly be called to draft a new constitution. Refering to herself in the third person, she said that such a decision “is not in the hands of the executive, nor of Dina Boluarte.” (AFP, InfoBae)

The total death toll in the unrest since Castillo’s ouster now stands at 47, according to the Defensoría del Pueblo, including the police officer killed at Juliaca and seven civilians killed in traffic accidents related to the blockades. The remaining 39 were civilians killed by the security forces. (NYT)

On Jan. 14, Boluarte declared a 30-day state of emergency in the cities of Lima and Callao as well as throughout the regions of Cuzco and Puno and selected provinces of Apurímac, Madre de Dios and Moquegua. The decree suspends freedom of assmebly, and gives the army special powers to maintain social order. (InfoBae, DW) A nationwide state of emergencydeclared last month was about to expire.

Photo: Max Nina/Pachamama Radio via Wayka

The Defense Fronts for the People’s Interests (FEDIP) are regional alliances of campesino organizations, village self-defense patrols (rondas), and labor unions that are coordinating the national paro (civil strike). In light of the permanent political crisis—six presidents in five years, an intransigent right-wing bloc paralyzing Congress—the FEDIP summit in Arequipa put forth a list of demands for a radical reformation of the country.

These demands include, first and foremost, the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and the release of the imprisoned Castillo; as well as imprisonment of Boluarte for the deadly repression that has claimed at least 27 lives since she took power on Dec. 7. But the demands also include the dissolution of Congress and immediate new elections, as well as the calling of a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution, with the participation of popular organizations. (Peru21, PRI, Resumen Latinoamericano)

Photo: Malú Ramahí/Wayku via Twitter

Defense Minister Alberto Otárola on Dec. 13 announced that a state of emergency has been instated in seven provinces of Apurímac region, including Andahuaylas. The Defense Ministry tweeted an announcement that the armed forces will take control of strategic points including airports and hydroelectric plants in the affected areas. Alarmingly, neither announcement even mentioned Peru’s new president, Dina Boluarte, who was sworn in by Congress hours after lawmakers voted to remove Castillo.

Boluarte did issue the official decree instating the emergency. Supreme Decree No 139-2022-PCM initially declared a 60-day state of emergency. The following day, Dec. 14, Supreme Decree 143-2022-PCM extended the state of emergency nationwide for 30 days. This extension was also announced on Twitter by Otárola.

The declaration officially suspends the rights of “personal security and freedom,” including the rights of assembly and freedom of movement. Authorities also will be able to conduct forcible home searches without judicial order.

Castillo appeared in court Dec. 13, where he called on the security forces to stop killing people who he said were “thirsty for justice.” (Jurist, AP, PRI, PBS, MercoPress, TeleSur, InfoBae, Gestión, La República)

Castillo reportedly refused to appear at his next court hearing on Dec. 15, with his attorneys telling the judge that he considers the process against him to be a farce. Castillo faces conspiracy charges for his attempt to dissolve Congress and instate a “government of exception,” which only precipitated his removal from office and arrest. The current hearings are to determine if he will remain in “preventative detention” while the charges are pending. (InfoBae, Gestión)

On Dec. 12, a hand-written note by Castillo was released from his cell at the headquarters of National Division of Special Operations (DINOES), the elite corps of the National Police. In the note, Castillo asserted that he is still the legitimate president of Peru and assailed Boluarte as an “usurper” and “snot and slime of the coup-mongering right” (mocos y babas de la derecha golpista). The missive, released in facsimile on his Twitter account, signs off with slogans demanding his “immediate freedom” and calling for a “constituent assembly” to forge a new constitution for Peru. (InfoBae, RPP Noticias, DFSud)

Photo via KawsachunNews

Photo via Twitter