In this way, three moments can be recognized: the first was carried out by the “hard core” of the Castillo base, which came out to protest demanding the release of the former president, a new Constitution, the closure of Congress; in the second moment -started approximately on December 15, after the death of nine protesters in Ayacucho at the hands of the security forces-, a broad sector joined in demanding justice and reparation for the victims. Finally, in a third moment, actors with multiple and specific demands related to issues such as mining, labor rights, environmental care and basic services joined the mobilizations.
All of them call for early elections in 2023. According to reports prepared by the Ombudsman’s Office between 2006 and 2022, in Peru a social conflict arises every week. However, these Phone Number List conflicts with fairly limited, isolated and concrete platforms that, until recently, did not find a great unifying story that made them transcend. Today they have one. Castillo managed to link the different identities excluded from the country and frame them in a collective narrative. With his fall, these sectors, already empowered, have achieved a new level of cohesion.
The protests are made up of various actors mobilized against the establishment who have endorsed a platform of struggle that responds to the creation of a common and conjunctural enemy: Congress and Dina Boluarte. In addition, they point to a fundamental political objective: a new Constitution that establishes a new relationship between the individual and the State. For their part, Boluarte and Prime Minister Otárola have endorsed the delegitimizing discourse of the country’s far-right groups that demand a heavy hand and reject the demonstrations. This discursive strategy is centrally based on two main ideas. The first is that foreign agents have managed to infiltrate the peaceful protests of citizens to sow violence.
