Peruvian President Dina Boluarte at an event on Friday in the Apurimac region of southern Peru. /AFP
Surrounded by protests, blockades and supplies shortages, Peru’s President Dina Boruarte called on Congress this Friday to push forward general elections until December 2023, giving the country a seven-week balance sheet. I asked you to get out of the “quagmire” in which you have suffered. 46 people died.
At a government ceremony held at a military airport in Lima, Bolarte said he had “presented this bill for ministerial consideration to advance the elections until December 2023” at “a date and time to be specified by Congress.” rice field.
If (the political parties) Fuerza Popular and Alianza para el Progreso demand what they have already proposed (advancing elections to 2023), we are asking them to reopen this proposal in this sense. The quagmire we are in.”
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte.
The proposal could begin debate in parliament this Friday.
The legislature had already approved the elections to go ahead with April 2024 in the first ballot, but “the protests continue and there will be further blockades and violence,” Bolarte acknowledged.
In Peru, protests have continued for seven weeks calling for the resignation of leftist President Pedro Castillo, who took office as vice president after he was arrested on December 7 for attempting to dissolve parliament.
Protests and roadblocks demanding Boluarte’s resignation, early elections and the call of a Constituent Assembly have not given up, causing shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies.
As soon as parliament decided to go ahead with the elections, “soon we executives will convene those elections,” Boruarte said.
“No one is interested in clinging to power, no one is interested, and I, Dina Volarte, are not interested in staying president. I am here because I am constitutionally and I am here until Congress (…) to say an election on such a day,” he argued.
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After seven weeks of protests and lockdowns, areas of the southern Andes and jungles began running out of fuel, liquefied domestic gas and some food this week. These areas are poor and historically marginalized due to Lima’s centralism.
“There’s no gas, no petrol. You get only non-perishable food in warehouses, and everything is very expensive, up to three times as much as normal,” said Ica-based marketing expert Guillermo Sandino Friday. told AFP.
Located about 200 kilometers from Lima and a hub for land transportation between the capital and southern Peru, the city’s Chinatown is one of the key points in a strategy of more than 100 imposed roadblocks.
The Ministry of Defense and the Interior Ministry announced on Thursday that police and troops will lift the blockade of highways in the country occupied by protesters.
“The Peruvian National Police, with the support of the National Armed Forces, will unblock the roads of the national road network on which the state of emergency has been declared,” the statements of both portfolios said.
The lockdown has complicated health services in various parts of the country, in addition to shortages of basic supplies.
Meanwhile, in the historic center of Lima, a peaceful demonstration was called in a square as groups of hooded men armed with stones and explosives confronted responding riot police with tear gas canisters and pellets. continue.
Source: Diario.Elmundo
