Carmen Ilizarbe: 'The Boluarte government can never have social legitimacy'

[Judi Lynn]

written by Claudia Fanti



Published on
April 10, 2023

After more than three months of protests and 61 deaths at the hands of military and police forces, President Dina Boluarte is still in charge and Congress is more entrenched (and more discredited) than ever.

“Que se queden todos” (“Everyone must stay”) was the institutions’ mocking response to the slogan “Que se vayan todos” (“Everyone must go”) shouted by the Peruvian people. And as early elections become more and more of a mirage, the government seems to have decidedly embarked on an authoritarian path, as political scientist, anthropologist and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru Carmen Ilizarbe explains.

The Peruvian press has stopped talking about the protests. Has the mobilization ended?

The protests have weakened because it takes a lot of effort to carry them on for such a prolonged period of time, and all the more so when the repression is brutal, as it has been here. In the first three months of the Boluarte government, there were 1,327 protests. I believe they will continue, but with varying intensity, depending on the measures the government takes and their ability to engage sectors of the middle class that have so far remained on the sidelines. One thing, however, is crystal clear: the Boluarte government can never have social legitimacy, nor can Congress. The situation is entirely precarious: it remains to be seen who will endure for longer, the government or the protesters.

None of the demands of the protesters have been met: no early elections, no referendum for the Constituent Assembly, no resignation from Boluarte and dissolution of Congress. Looking at the bottom line, can it all be considered a failure?

More:
https://global.ilmanifesto.it/carmen-ilizarbe-the-boluarte-government-can-never-have-social-legitimacy/