by LUCERO CHAVEZ
Inspired by a global wave of protest, Peru’s youth protesters have turned social media outrage into mass mobilization against corruption and repression.
Dozens of protesters jump for joy outside the Peru’s Congress of the Republic. It’s October 10 and President Dina Boluarte has just been removed from office by the same lawmakers who shielded her for almost three years.
The day before, Peru’s long-running social and political crises reached a boiling point. Presidential candidate Phillip Butters was attacked with stones during a provocative visit to a southern town whose protesters he had long denounced as “terrorists.” In Lima, a brutal shooting at a concert by a well-renowned cumbia band left five musicians injured, heightening the sense that crime was spiraling out of control. Hours after the shooting, in the early hours of Friday morning, Boluarte was impeached by Congress after a quick hearing she chose not to attend.
But public anger at the government has much deeper roots. The current wave of outrage and discontent began on September 20, when dozens of young people took to the streets of downtown Lima to protest a pension reform law that would require them to contribute to the national pension fund from the age of 18. Police responded to the demonstration with force.
“There was too much repression,” says Jessica, a 19-year-old college student who only provided her first name out of security concerns. “They fired directly at the protesters’ bodies. One boy was hit in the chest by a bullet. If he hadn’t put his arm up, he would have died,” she says.
This violence has continued in the protests that followed. At a demonstration in Lima on September 21, the police detained Samuel Rodríguez, a young man who had tried to help an officer but ended up being arrested. Later that week, 18 protesters were injured at another demonstration in Lima, including an elderly man whose assault quickly went viral after being caught on camera.
As with recent protests in Nepal, Morocco, and Madagascar, young people have been leading the charge in denouncing Peru’s crisis—and demanding change. Like their global counterparts, Peru’s youth have rallied under a flag with a smiling skull and straw hat from the anime show One Piece, whose main character, the young pirate Monkey D. Luffy, embarks with his crew on a journey to overthrow corrupt powers and find freedom. It’s a fitting symbol for the the philosophy of Generation Z: to change everything.
A Violent State in Ruins
Social tensions in Peru, the product of a deep-seated political crisis, have been on the rise since 2022, when former President Pedro Castillo staged a failed self-coup in an attempt to overcome congressional obstruction. Boluarte, his vice president at the time, took office as president and soon colluded with center and right-wing forces to remain in power.
Boluarte’s presidency, marred by corruption scandals, failed to address even the most basic concerns of Peruvians. “There is a growing sense of unrest,” says Omar Coronel, a political scientist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. “Not only among young people, but throughout the country. Since 2023, polls have been very consistent, giving the president and Congress an approval rating of less than 10 percent.”
NACLA for more