By International Socialist League – Peru
While the Peruvian Congress was putting together a huge media circus with the debate and vote for the presidential vacancy and while we were celebrating the legitimate joy with the national soccer team, the Constitutional Tribunal ratified the ruling declaring the pardon of the criminal Alberto Fujimori admissible and ordering his release.
Last Monday, the right wing failed to obtain the 87 votes necessary to provoke the fall of Castillo, who was accused of an alleged moral incapacity. The movement in the benches did not stop until the last minute, just a few hours before the plenary session where the motion was debated. Castillo’s defense, the arguments of his own lawyer and the altercations with the pro-Fujimori bench, kept the population in suspense for the entire day. Finally, only 55 congressmen voted in favor of the vacancy, far from the expected 87.
Congress itself took note that among the popular sectors of Peru vacancy does not represent a solution for the workers and the people to the political and institutional crisis, and this pressure was felt by some congressmen. The mobilizations against the pardon to Fujimori were also an alert because once again, the willingness to confront the plans of the ultra-right was demonstrated in the streets.
Castillo and his “search for consensus”
Faced with this threat, Pedro Castillo accelerated his policy of conciliation with the economic powers, renouncing his already lukewarm campaign promises, giving out space to the most conservative sectors who continue to impose the political agenda in the country nowadays. This is why Castillo’s government is going from one setback to another, from crisis to crisis and the reason why the president’s popularity has declined exponentially.
In 8 months of administration, Pedro Castillo has changed 16 ministers and 4 premiers; we can say then that the threat of permanent vacancy is a conditioning tool to make the Executive poder move further to the right based on the “search for consensus”.
From the first day he assumed his mandate as President, Castillo maintained the validity of the current economic model, prioritizing large private foreign investment to the detriment of the interests and needs of the workers and the people. In addition to this, the government renounced its proposal for the Constituent Assembly and assumed the defense of the 1993 Fujimori Constitution, calling to build a great front for “governability” hand in hand with the national and foreign bourgeoisie, to which Pedro Castillo called on repeated occasions to invest in Peru, since his government declared itself respectful of the rules established in the Constitution of 1993.
Today, Castillo maintains the presidential sash, but he has to pay favors, cede quotas of power, free dictators, continue guaranteeing continuity and forget about the changes he promised. It is no coincidence then that at the same moment and almost silently the ruling of the Constitutional Court in favor of Fujimori’s pardon was confirmed.
Unity and Mobilization against the Pardon and the Constituent Assembly
The Castillo government does not deserve the slightest confidence from us and we do not expect from it any measure that would really benefit the working people; in spite of this, we categorically reject the presidential vacancy since – as we said – this is a reactionary and anti-democratic way out that is aimed at strengthening the ultra-right even more.
We also reiterate the call to the workers, the popular sectors hit by the crisis, the peasants and the youth, to take up once again the mobilization that puts ahead an agenda of their own, of the workers and the people and the need to take up again the struggle for the Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly. This is a necessary response to overcome the recurrent crises of the Executive power and the current delegitimization of the parliament also expressed in the weakening of public institutions, political parties and their main figures, all acting with their backs turned to the needs of the great majorities.
For us this Constituent Assembly is a step towards the struggle for a government of the workers and the popular sectors, which should also have the power to implement an emergency plan that puts the demands of the great majorities first. We must bring about the broadest unity of political, social, trade union, peasant and student movements to confront impunity and find a political solution.
We ratify that the current situation in our country does not admit superficial changes, but deep changes that turn the tables, so that those who have never governed can govern. Let’s put forward the broadest mobilization to recover our natural and energy resources to achieve national development to restore justice, against impunity, for a free and sovereign Peru. On this road we call on you to walk together in the exciting task of fighting for what is indispensable, that the future of the country be decided by the working people.