She has lasted only 38 days as president of the Congress of a paralyzed country, mired in an unprecedented political crisis. Laws are no longer debated, but motions of censure against presidents and ministers
Nine months after inaugurating his first left-wing government in the last thirty years, Gabriel Boric, president of Chile, is experiencing his first crisis and is forced to replace five ministers after losing a plebiscite in which the draft of a new Constitution that improved the instituted at the time of the dictator Augusto Pinochet. Colombia is going through the experience of just electing a left-wing man, a former guerrilla, for his government in more than 200 years of democracy. Brazil faces elections next month convulsed by a fight between the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, and a former president, Lula da Silva. Right against left. Conservatives versus progressives. The “I’m still the same” before the “I want change”.
What happens in Peru is a little more of the same but with a little more spice. It’s a ceviche with all the cilantro you want. There is no name that fits what is happening in the country that holds the record for impeached presidents. This is a nation in which laws or projects that allow the progress of citizenship are not debated in Congress. No. The favorite sport is the motion of censure against ministers, tax complaints, how we imprison the president, bring forward elections or cause a coup. Private interests before those of a people that does not escape the global crisis. Peru is an epidemic, the country survives with a virus that does not kill, but is as bad as Covid.
The latest victim of Peru’s disastrous politics has been the president of Congress, Lady Mercedes Camones Soriano. Contrary to the party of President Pedro Castillo, she had only been in office for 38 days. She was leading a session in Parliament when she was surprised by the presentation of a motion of censure against her. A ruse based on some audios in which the leader of her party, APP (Popular Alliance for Progress), César Acuña invited her -it also seemed like an order- to commit the crime of influence peddling, at the same time as the operation Implicit among its objectives was the fall of the current president. The strategy turned out to be an own goal. The APP lost the presidency of Congress and, in exchange, won an investigation for influence peddling.
With Keiko Fujimori
Lady Camones had broken into politics four years ago at the hands of Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the dictator, by unsuccessfully leading the Popular Force (FP) lists in her region. She was of little use then to her 15 years as a public official at the head of the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status: she was only able to obtain 3% of the popular support for her candidacy. But just over a year ago, she finally managed to become the first vice president of Congress.
Throughout her speeches during the 12 months she held that position, the APP deputy made it very clear that she considered that the impasse in Peru should be resolved with Castillo’s resignation due to his “lack of preparation,” “little knowledge », «incapacity» and the constant corruption scandals that dot him. But her staunch opposition to the Peruvian president has lasted only 38 days since he became president of Congress.
In Peru every day there is a case that incriminates a deputy. Not even the highest authority escapes it. On August 9, the President of the Republic himself experienced his most dramatic moment when a special team of prosecutors and police officers infiltrated the President’s house looking for evidence against his sister-in-law, who was persecuted by the courts. And there began what some media have called “the revenge.” The revenge of Pedro Castillo.
The president is aware that the opposition does not want him to govern for another day. His opponents have already requested a “vacancy” twice and were preparing a third because they also say they have cases in which the executive can be denounced for corruption and influence peddling. But the worst thing is that the Government and the political parties have gained more mistrust than credit. It is not in vain. The Ministries of Culture, Health and Interior have already been subjected to a motion of censure, and the Ministry of Transport, Agricultural Development and Irrigation is in perspective.
Rematch
Castillo understands that he is being the object of an attack that wants to end his presidency sooner than imagined. And that is what is now called revenge. The president embraces the comments that say that the majority of Peruvians endorse his management, but it does not prevent the country from thinking that there is a crisis of responsibility, that the executive receives many complaints of corruption, that changing the cabinet so frequently only causes more mistrust .
For several political analysts, asked by this means, it is clear that “there is a weakness of the political parties, which says very little about Peruvian democracy,” they point out. Other media believe that the country needs more reflection to prevent democracy from weakening further and having less confidence in elected parliamentarians.
The removal of Lady Camones does not end the internecine wars that occur every day. Peru is indecipherable. He has Alberto Fujimori in jail with a sentence of 25 years. And three other former presidents have pending accounts to be processed. Another president, Alan García, in whom the whole world believed, preferred to shoot himself in the head rather than live in jail. And with a moving epitaph: «I leave my corpse as a sign of contempt for my adversaries».
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