Youth-led protesters ousted Peru’s president, and they’re not done

This article Youth-led protesters ousted Peru’s president, and they’re not done was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Since Sept. 13, thousands of protesters have been marching in Lima, the capital of Peru, demanding new leadership. They say the conservative administration, which has overseen the murders and extortion of protesters and journalists, is corrupt and does not represent them.

Protests have been ongoing in Peru since 2022, when the conservative government of President Dina Boluarte took power after Congress impeached and removed former President Pedro Castillo, a progressive leftist leader who had a background in organizing. More than 50 protesters were killed under the Boluarte regime. 

However, the protests picked up in recent months when the Boluarte administration implemented a pension reform law that mandates contributions by everyone 18 and over — favoring the nation’s private pension fund over its public fund — and limits early withdrawals at a time when employment for many Peruvians is unstable.

“Peru is experiencing a profound political and social crisis, marked by more than three years of impunity, assassinations and persecution of our brothers and sisters who have been systematically criminalized and stigmatized for protesting,” said Gabriela Villaverde, an organizer with Tejiendo Redes Comunitarias, or Knitting Community Networks, a feminist collective that fights for social and political justice in Peru.

Through decentralized campaigns coordinated over social media like WhatsApp, TikTok, Discord and Telegram, young people have organized mass demonstrations in Lima that spread around the country. They were quickly joined by bus and taxi drivers, whose unions have been mobilizing short strikes for over a year to protest extortion.

The protests led to Congress ousting scandal-plagued President Boluarte on Oct. 10. But Congress’ appointment of José Jerí as Boluarte’s successor did not appease protesters. Jerí has a similar history of corruption scandals, he voted to impeach Castillo in 2022, and he is expected to be susceptible to the influence of the conservative Congress. He has also been accused of sexual assault.

“They’re putting in another person who obviously doesn’t represent us at all,” Villaverde said.

Yackov Solano, an organizer with Jóvenes Líderes por el Perú , or Young Leaders for Peru, a collective of university students, said that the protests are very decentralized and have been organized by neighborhoods, unions, collectives, transport workers and more through social media, and that participants range from youth to adults to elders. The protests have been held in both more colonized, urban areas like Lima and more Indigenous states in the Andes Mountains like Cusco and Arequipa. Solano said there have also been protests on college campuses.

“Due to various social issues, they’re all coming together now — it’s a much bigger problem than just the [pension privatization] law,” Solano said. “It’s about making the problems visible.”

The demonstrations continue in the face of repression by squads of as many as 5,000 riot police who have brutalized, kidnapped and killed protesters. 

“We were robbed, pushed and beaten,” said Dorcas Tadeo, an organizer who has been involved with the mobilizations in Peru since January. “We have comrades who were injured by nonlethal pellets, and several comrades who were attacked while tending to the wounded. The police don’t respect the brigades, nor those who demonstrate peacefully, because there is a constant criminalization of anything that represents an organization in our country.”

Several protesters have been unjustly imprisoned, with dozens more injured, Villaverde said, in an attempt to silence them.

Although the Peruvian National Police claim to use rubber bullets, she said she has seen videos on social media of people being shot with metal bullets and then disappeared by law enforcement before they could seek help. 

Tadeo said that protesters have had their phone lines blocked and been cut off from their groups during demonstrations. People leaving protests have also been forced off buses and detained for as long as a day.

Despite the repression, Tadeo said, “We held firm, we stayed united.”

Luis Javier is part of Hamutay Colectivo, or Reflective Collective — whose name is drawn from the Quechuan word “hamut’ay,” meaning to reflect or consider — a group of independent photographers, filmmakers and communicators documenting the demonstrations. He said the mainstream media in Peru has misrepresented, stigmatized and criminalized the protests, making it even more crucial for the collective to create an archive of images and to circulate them in community spaces. 

“We accompany the mobilizations, we’re present in the streets, in the marches, in the vigils, in days of remembrance,” Javier said. “We’ve been documenting all of that. And our role is to be a witness and a form of accompaniment.”

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Paolo Cruzalegui, founder of the anti-capitalist collective Los Ronderos de las Redes, or Patrollers of Social Media  — whose name references the “ronderos” that defended their rural Peruvian communities against armed anti-government insurgents — said the protests were especially inspired by Nepal, where youth organizing led government officials to flee office. 

“That’s what excited the youth of Peru to take it upon themselves — and now Dina Boluarte is ousted,” Cruzalegui said. Even with the new Jerí regime, he does not anticipate the protests losing steam.

Cruzalegui said additional inspiration came from recent anti-government protests in the Philippines, Ecuador, Morocco and Indonesia. He has spotted Peruvian youth flying the “One Piece” flag, an international anti-corruption symbol popularized by the protests in those countries. The flag’s skull and crossbones references a Japanese anime series about pirates who fight a repressive world government.

While Peruvians are looking forward to the presidential elections in April, many are concerned that the right-wing politicians backed by Congress will use it as a scheme to reenter office legitimately and stay in power for five or more years. Some protesters favor reinstating former president Castillo, who has been incarcerated since 2022. Many also want a new constitution that will fund social programs, recognize Indigenous peoples’ land rights and re-nationalize many sectors that were privatized.

However, Cruzalegui said the organizers are not sitting back and waiting for a new leader to arise. He believes it will take the whole community to fight back against state repression and state terrorism. In the lead-up to the election, he said they will continue protesting, correcting misrepresentative narratives and pushing for leaders that support the people.

“The protests are going to continue, most definitely — it is going to be the same style: decentralized [and led by] collectives from different organizations that are in unison for the same demand,” Cruzalegui said. “The people are conscious of the fact that this is a continuation of the dictatorship, and they’re willing to continue this fight.”

This article Youth-led protesters ousted Peru’s president, and they’re not done was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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