Political crisis in Peru: the new president was sworn in by the Church with an anti-rights cabinet

The feminist and sexual diversity movement mobilized through social media and in the streets

November 11, 2020

By Verónica Ferrari

The area surrounding the Peruvian Congress has been filled with popular demonstrations for the past two days to protest the removal of President Martín Vizcarra, who was forced to resign amid corruption charges. He is Peru's third president in four years, following Vizcarra and former President Pablo Kuczynski. Manuel Merino was sworn in yesterday and will serve as president until the elections in July.

https://twitter.com/GahelaJP13/status/1326209233696792578

But Congress is not immune to these accusations: most members of Congress are facing legal proceedings for various crimes, and their political parties have formed alliances to cling to power in the face of elections that were not expected to garner them enough votes. This allows them to control, according to their interests, the Constitutional Court, the National Elections Board, and the National Board of Justice ahead of the upcoming April elections, which are also at risk.

🚨 Violent protests in downtown Lima left several citizens injured and detained due to excessive police repression on the first day of Manuel Merino's de facto government. Photos: José Vidal / Juan Zapata
Published by Wayka in Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Who is Manuel Merino?

Merino comes from the right-wing Popular Action party and was one of the least voted-for congressmen in his region (just over 5,000 votes in Tumbes). He was involved in the first attempt to impeach former president Vizcarra, making calls to high-ranking military and police officials to help him assume the presidency; a month later he succeeded.

In his oath he stated his commitment "to uphold and enforce the Constitution, respect freedom of worship and the importance of the Catholic Church," which gives an indication of the ideological bias of this new government, which will last until July unless protests remove it before then.

Merino sparked controversy by making sexist remarks comparing the strained relationship between the Executive and Legislative branches to a courtship where the girlfriend is finally listening to the boyfriend: “This is like a courtship. The girlfriend is finally listening to the boyfriend, we're understanding each other, and Peru is the winner, and that's what we want.” Following a series of protests, he had to apologize to “those who felt offended.”

A cabinet with racist and homophobic members

A right-wing cabinet headed by Antero Flores Aráoz has been confirmed. Flores Aráoz, an ultraright-wing politician, played a significant role in massacres like the Bagua massacre of the Amazonian indigenous population, which he justified by claiming he didn't even consider them human. , Flores Aráoz has made racist, misogynistic, and homophobic statements and was already considered a politically irrelevant figure in Peru, but he is the only politician who might accept the role of supporting a coup d'état.

This government that has just usurped power will not advance any of the progressive projects that were being formulated to implement the gender approach in education, the possibility of abortion in girls under 14 years of age who have suffered sexual violence, or the strengthening of the secular State, after the blow that was the refusal of the Constitutional Court to rule in favor of equal marriage days before.

The feminist and sexual diversity movement mobilized through social media and in the streets, pointing out the anti-democratic intentions of the impeachment and calling for continued mobilization in the streets to prevent the coup's objectives from being met.

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