Protests and a National Strike

The last couple days have been quite tumultuous for Lima and the country of Peru in general.

 Roadblocks started popping up in various cities around the country last week in protest of rising gas, fertilizer and food prices and general discontentment about how the country is being governed. Monthly inflation in Peru in March was the highest its been in 26 years.

While other countries are facing similar challenges, the discontent in Peru is exacerbated by an underlying mistrust of government officials having experienced repeated corruption scandals and unrest in recent years which has forced out three sitting presidents and means the country has had five different presidents during the last four years.

Over the weekend protests around the country became organized and announced a national strike for Monday April 4th. Highways across the country were blocked with rocks, debris, vehicles, and protestors. Toll booths along the highways were destroyed and burned. Riots broke out all over the country and stores were getting sacked by mobs of protestors.  On Monday afternoon, the Ministry of Education cancelled in-person school nationwide for at least the following day and instructed schools to continue their teaching virtually.

Late Monday evening the Peruvian president, Pedro Castillo, announced that starting at 2 am, the cities of Lima and Callao would be under a mandatory curfew for the next 22 hours. Only hospitals and pharmacies would be open. Public transportation and taxis were banned from circulating on the roads. Unfortunately, this announcement was made late at 11:30 pm and many did not hear the news before leaving for work on Tuesday morning. There were hundreds of people at bus stops across the city waiting for transportation that would never arrive.

By Tuesday afternoon, groups of people had taken to the streets in Lima and started walking towards the Plaza San Martin, one of the emblematic plazas in the historical center of Lima. At the same time, President Castillo was meeting with members of Congress. When he emerged a couple hours later around 5 pm, he announced that the mandatory curfew was cancelled. More and more people took to the streets and headed towards the center of Lima. As night fell, what started as a peaceful protest quickly turned more violent and protestors were demanding a presidential resignation.

At this point, it is worth mentioning that since President Castillo took office in July 2021, he has always received a poor approval rating. Unlike in the United States were there are small handful of political parties, in the 2021 presidential election here, there were 18 candidates from 18 different political parties. Since the candidate needs to earn a majority of the vote (at least 51%), typically there is an election to narrow down the candidates (kind of like the US primary) and then a second election between the top two candidates.

In the first election, Castillo came in first place with just 19% of the country’s vote. From the beginning, he never was favored by the country. A former schoolteacher from the provinces, he campaigned on fighting for the campesinos (field workers) and repeatedly was heard saying “no more poor people in such a wealthy country.” In the second election, which took place a few months later, he barely received enough votes to win, just a mere 0.25% more than his competitor, Keiko Fujimori.

In his short 9 months as president, Congress has attempted to impeach Castillo twice, and most Peruvians believe that he has made no progress on any of his campaign platforms and multiple times has proved himself unqualified for the position. Needless to say, the population is not happy with how the country is being governed. The mandatory curfew announced late Monday night was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Castillo has yet to resign, and it is uncertain what the future holds for the country. Moody recently reported that they predict Castillo will not finish his 5-year term, whether he resigns or is vacated from the position.

Join us in praying for the country and its leaders. Pray for wisdom, for the population to remain calm and a peaceful agreement to be reached between both sides.