Peru:  Either the Abyss or the Dawn is What Lies Ahead

By Juan Guahán on June 13, 2021

Photo: @PedroCastilloTe

According to news agencies, thousands of members of the peasant patrols, communal organizations for the defense of their territories and born from the will of the neighbors, were preparing their march to Lima. It was at the beginning of the week and they wanted to make sure that the white gentlemen from the coast would not snatch away the electoral victory they were achieving.

Our well-known Jaime Durán Barba -former advisor to Macri- who is characterized for being conservative but not stupid, said it with all the letters: “The peasants of Peru, who are a millimeter away from power for the first time, would not recognize a defeat”.

When in the first hours of the electoral recount there were doubts about the direction of the vote. A seasoned diplomat stationed in Lima, with a deep voice and without or doubt, hit the key saying. The right wing has the possibility of fraud. In Peru, the votes are destroyed at the place of election and only the minutes, which are easier to replace, are left inside the ballot boxes. The synthesis could be: “Actas…kill votes”, only the fear of the rebellion of the peasants and inhabitants of the “young towns”, the “villas” of the big cities could change this destiny and allow those who were denied and exploited for centuries, to reach the administration of the State for this time.

The course of Castillo’s triumph, a rural teacher who jumped to certain public knowledge when -four years ago- he took the lead of a teachers’ strike, is an unknown. In the Parliament he is in a clear minority, it will be difficult for him to pass laws that go in the direction of his Government Program. The opposition is in a position to remove him from office through the figure of “vacancy”, applied last year to oust President Martin Vizcarra. It is also possible that he may get entangled in negotiations that will put an end to his discourse of implementing drastic changes. But, it cannot be ruled out that, supported by the mobilized people, he may start new institutional mechanisms through the Constituent Assembly that he proposes to convene.

From the individual point of view, everything is possible! But from the collective, the advances of the people are the path along which history moves.

What cannot be denied is that in the cultural depths of the common people other voices resound that feed this present. There is the memory -from years ago- when General Juan Velazco Alvarado announced -in 1969- an Agrarian Reform. The same one that allowed the illiterate parents of the elected President to stop working for the boss and have their own land.

In that act, that little-known President said: “To the man of the land we can now say in the immortal and libertarian voice of Tupac Amaru: Peasant, the boss will no longer eat from your poverty!”

Thus the threads of history are spun. The rebellious and dismembered Tupac left the memory of his deed; that Agrarian Reform, discarded after that President was thrown out, but also leaving its traces in the accumulation of power that the peoples are carrying out.

We will have to see if these individuals, in charge of executing these times of history, are up to the struggles and needs of their peoples. The opportunity is there!

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano