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Peru to debate advancing elections as protests boil

Photo: Juan Carlos CISNEROS / AFP

January 30 | By AFP | Carlos Mandujano |

Peru’s Congress is due on Monday to debate for the second time in days a bill to bring forward elections in a bid to end weeks of protests that have at times turned violent and left dozens dead.

The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily street protests since December 7, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

In seven weeks of demonstrations, 48 people — including one police officer — have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, according to the Ombudsman’s Office of Peru.

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The unrest is coming mainly from poor, rural Indigenous people from southern Peru who had identified Castillo as one of their own who would fight to end poverty, racism and inequality from which they suffer.

President Dina Boluarte has urged Congress to act, warning that otherwise she will seek constitutional reform to make a vote happen.

Last month lawmakers moved up elections due in 2026 to April 2024, but as protests show no sign of abating, Boluarte now wants them held this year — a call that Congress rejected late on Friday.

“Vote for Peru, for the country, by moving the elections up to 2023,” the president said in an address to the nation on Sunday. 

“Tomorrow you have a chance to win the country’s trust.”

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Last week’s vote on bringing elections forward to October was defeated by 65 votes against and just 45 in favor, with two abstentions.

If lawmakers again refuse to advance elections, Boluarte said she will propose a constitutional reform so that a first round of elections will be held in October and a runoff in December.

Protesters are demanding immediate elections, Boluarte’s resignation, the dissolution of Congress and a new constitution.

First death in Lima

According to a survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies, 73 percent of Peruvians are calling for elections this year.  

“I urge parliamentarians to reflect responsibly on the decision to be made,” tweeted legislature leader Jose Williams, a right-wing retired military general who is the first in the line of succession if the president resigns.

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Monday’s reconvening of Congress will coincide with the wake of Victor Santisteban, 55, a demonstrator who died Saturday after receiving blunt force trauma to his head according to a medical report. 

Santisteban was the first recorded death from the protests in Peru’s capital Lima since nationwide demonstrations kicked off in December with Castillo supporters blocking highways, causing shortages of food, fuel and other basic supplies. 

According to the Ombudsman’s Office, Saturday’s protest in Lima saw at least seven others wounded and hospitalised, after police deployed tear gas against protesters flinging stones and cement pieces.

Geronimo Lopez, leader of the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers, said protesters would “not cease their struggle” if Boluarte does not step down.

He called for a national march for Tuesday afternoon under the slogan “Dina resigns now.”

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But Boluarte, who as Castillo’s vice president was constitutionally mandated to replace him, has insisted that “nobody has any interest in clinging to power.”

Analyst Giovanna Penaflor from research firm Imasen told AFP the situation is going to get worse.

“Today we are (seeing) an unstoppable number of deaths related to political issues and this cannot continue like this,” Penaflor said.

Apart from those who have died in protests, an additional 10 civilians, including two babies, died when they were unable to get medical treatment or medicine due to roadblocks, the Ombudsman’s Office said.

The protest movement has affected Peru’s vital tourism industry, even forcing the closure of the world-renown Machu Picchu Inca citadel ruins.

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International

Venezuela claims that the US seeks to ignore and delegitimize the presidential elections

The Government of Venezuela affirmed that the United States is trying to ignore and delegitimize the presidential elections of next July 28, after the Joe Biden Administration asked for the participation of all anti-Chavist candidates who wish to do so.

“Venezuela categorically rejects the statement of March 27, 2024 of the United States Government in which, finally, the heads of the operation against Venezuela show their face, as owners of a circus that tries to ignore and delegitimize the next presidential elections,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement published in X.

He argued that the United States intends to minimize the participation of 37 “political forces” at the national level, “which, covering the broad ideological spectrum that exists in the country, registered 13 presidential candidacies, including 12 that identify themselves as opposition.”

The Venezuelan Executive stated that it has fully complied with the legal regulations and with “every point” of the Barbados Agreement to hold the presidential elections.

“In the face of this new claim of the State Department, to take the path of extremism against Venezuelan democracy, Bolivarian dignity will make them fail again and again,” he said.

On Wednesday, the United States insisted on the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, to allow the participation in the July 28 elections of all opposition candidates who wish to do so.

The Biden Administration thus reiterated its position on the disqualification of the main opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, and the impossibility of her formation, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), to register the academic Corina Yoris as a replacement.

“The acceptance by the CNE of only those opposition candidates with whom Maduro and his representatives feel comfortable goes against competitive and inclusive elections,” warned the spokesman of the State Department, Matthew Miller.

Faced with the difficulties of the opposition platform to nominate a candidate, the Governments of Brazil and Colombia, allies of the Venezuelan, expressed their concern about what happened on Tuesday.

The PUD reported on the same Tuesday that it managed to register, provisionally, Edmundo González Urrutia, who may be replaced from next April 1, as long as he does not have any administrative sanction or impediment.

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International

Palestinian Prime Minister chosen by hand by Abbas presents new government with 22 ministers

The Palestinian Prime Minister, economist Mohamad Mustafa, presented on Thursday to President Mahmud Abbas the composition of a new government with 22 ministers, including at least three women, and in which he himself will head the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

“The Prime Minister-designate, Muhamad Mustafa, presented the work program and the composition of the government to President Mahmud Abbas,” the official Wafa news agency reported today, “consequently, the president issued a decree law giving confidence to the nineteenth government and issued a decree approving its formation.”

The new cabinet will take an oath this Sunday, March 31, and in its program one of the priorities is the Gaza Strip, including a plan to increase access to humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of the enclave, as well as create a stable Palestinian Authority, since it has been dejured by the majority of Palestinians for years.

Mustafa will hold the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, replacing Riyad Al Malki; while Zyad Mahmoud Mohamed will serve as Minister of the Interior and Omar Akram Al Bitar, former Middle East executive of one of the world’s major consulting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be Minister of Finance.

Sharhabel Yusef Sad Edin will serve as Minister of Justice and Majid Awni Mohamed Abu Ramadan in Health, according to the official list. Among the ministers Mona Muhamad Mahmoud al Jalili will lead the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Ahed Faeq Atef Bseiso, will be in charge of Public Works and Housing. Samah Abdel Rahim Hussein Hamad will be Minister of Social Development.

On March 14, President Abás appointed Mustafa as prime minister of the ANP, which controls the occupied territory of the West Bank in a fragmented way, and commissioned him to form a new government after the resignation two weeks before the entire cabinet along with the then prime minister, Mohamed Shtayeh.

Shatyeh’s resignation was understood as part of Abas’ efforts to reform the ANP with a technocratic government that can take control of the Gaza Strip when the war ends in the Palestinian enclave, something that is in the US future plans but not in those of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The ANP ruled in the Gaza Strip until 2007, when Hamas forcibly took power from the enclave after failing the attempts of a government of national unity with Fatah, after the Islamist group won in the 2006 legislative elections.

Although weakened and without any influence in Gaza – in December 2023 60% of Palestinians supported the dissolution of the ANP and 92% the resignation of Abas, according to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research – the ANP is the only entity accepted by Israel and a large part of the international community as an interlocutor of the Palestinians.

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International

Changing the time has an impact on the economy and your health: this entity asks to end the measure in the EU

The non-profit organization Time Use Initiative (TUI), which promotes the right to time around the world, demands an end to the time change in Europe in the electoral programs that will be presented for the next elections in the European Parliament (June 9).

The entity, according to a statement issued on Monday, defends the end of this measure because changing the clocks to an incorrect time zone “negatively affects individual and collective health, as well as the economy.”

During the last 30 years, he adds, “it has been shown that living in the wrong time zones has a negative impact on energy savings, on the risk of cancer and other diseases, on the performance of workers and students, or on GDP, among other issues.”

Specifically, according to TUI, 20% of European citizens and 34% of women with children “suffer from time poverty,” which means “affects both individual well-being and social cohesion.”

The roadmap set out in the EU Manifesto focuses especially on sectors that may experience a greater impact, such as emergency and transport services, and includes a public awareness campaign.

The platform’s request, whose main objective is to encourage public debate on how to collectively organize time to improve the well-being of citizens, coincides with the time change on European clocks on March 31.

According to the entity’s statement, ending the seasonal time change for 2026 is one of the 12 measures included in the EU Manifesto on time policies promoted by TUI to guarantee the right to time in Europe.

According to TUI, the fact that no changes have been implemented in this aspect responds to “beliefs and myths about the need to maintain daylight saving time that persist between public opinion and political debate.”

Three examples:

One of those myths, in the opinion of this entity, is that daylight saving time saves energy.

The platform responds that this “could be spending more energy, given the current consumption patterns, which increase the expenditure on cooling and heating.”

Another myth that TUI points out is that the end of the time change could harm the economy, especially certain sectors such as tourism, leisure or retail trade.

With regard to this argument, experts mention issues such as that the current configuration already causes lack of sleep and, therefore, less productivity and work accidents, or that it is not daylight saving time, but summer and good weather that drive tourism and leisure.

And a third myth: the belief that ending time changes means changing daily habits.

TUI mentions the argument of the International Alliance for Natural Time (IANT), which assures that, since habits are already constant throughout the year in terms of time, they can remain the same.

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