The Fiestas Patrias in Peru have been far from inspiring any celebratory tone and have instead made evident the widespread rejection of the Government and the political class. On Sunday, President Dina Boluarte set a new record on Independence Day by reading a five-hour speech — the longest on record — which did not convince the audience, left the feeling of a deep disconnection between the Executive and the people and, as if that were not enough, caused Foreign Minister Javier González-Olaechea to fall asleep and caused dozens of congressmen to become drowsy, who left the chamber en masse. And the long holiday ended for the president and six former ministers with a complaint from the Public Ministry for the protesters who were killed, as well as those injured, during the mobilizations in her first months of government between 2022 and 2023.
The position of the Catholic Church, highly valued compared to other societies, has also been critical of those who hold the reins of the country, although without specifying names. During the Te Deum mass, in the cathedral of Lima, Monsignor Carlos Castillo remarked that “whoever uses and runs the State, giving priority to their interests, lives in institutional disloyalty,” “that people do not follow those who do not show sincere signs of credibility,” and “that frivolity is a serious spiritual problem.” Within this framework, Castillo hopes that “the 2026 elections will be a great opportunity for all sectors to be effectively represented.”
For the moment, the Attorney General’s Office accuses the president of the alleged crimes of aggravated homicide, serious and minor injuries, against the victims Cristian Alex Rojas Vasquez, Teofilo Ramirez Ortega and Miguel Angel Velasquez Chilingano, among others. The complaint also reaches six former ministers, who made up the power elite of Boluarte at that time: Alberto Otárola Peñaranda and Pedro Angulo Aranda (Presidency of the Council of Ministers), Jorge Luis Chavez Cresta (Defense), and Cesar Cervantes Cardenas, Victor Rojas Herrera and Vicente Romero Fernandez (Interior). On the other hand, the Public Ministry decided to file the charge of genocide against Boluarte and these suspects as it did not find sufficient elements to qualify the events as such.
However, in the statement, they describe that in the social protests, which took place in the regions of Apurímac, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cusco, Junín, Ucayali, Puno, Lima and La Libertad, 44 people died (41 by gunshot, 3 by blows from a blunt object), 116 people suffered serious and minor injuries (78 caused by firearm projectile, 27 by blows with a blunt object, 6 by tear gas and 5 by other objects).
The document from the Prosecutor’s Office emphasizes that there are 303 files in the regions where 824 people are being investigated for the following crimes: obstruction of the operation of public services, attack on public transportation, violence against the authority, riots, damage to public and private property, homicide and injuries, to the detriment of the State, members of law enforcement and other citizens.
A couple of weeks ago, Amnesty International published a report establishing the possible responsibility of President Boluarte as supreme commander of the Armed Forces and Police in the deaths of protesters. “(Boluarte) met several times with the commanders of the Armed Forces and Police, which gave him multiple opportunities to condemn the widespread unlawful use of force and order a change of tactics on the ground. However, instead of using his frequent meetings for this purpose, he continued to publicly praise the security forces while vilifying protesters as “terrorists” and “criminals,” without providing evidence of this. Moreover, instead of holding his subordinates to account, he decided to promote key officials to higher positions, even though they directly oversaw the police and military operations that caused multiple deaths,” they explain.
Following the formalization of the constitutional complaint by the Attorney General’s Office, it will now be the Congress’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations that will have to prepare a report on the matter and submit to a vote whether to declare the complaint admissible or not. If it obtains enough votes, the complaint will be passed to the Congress’s Plenary Session.
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