https://youtu.be/wSO-nSCND_o
“Peruvian society is deeply marked by political and cultural divisions that began in the past and continue to influence it to this day,” said Mag. Nicolás Saldías—Latin America and Caribbean analyst at The Economist Intelligence Unit, PhD candidate in Political Science (University of Toronto), Master’s in Political Theory from the University of Toronto, Bachelor’s in International Relations from York University (Canada), and Senior Fellow at CESCOS—during the online conference “Peru, a Democracy at a Crossroads.”
The event, which took place on Thursday, July 15, 2021, was organized by the Department of International Studies and proposed by the Center for the Study of Contemporary Open Societies (CESCOS).
Castillo's victory
“The outcome of the 2021 elections came as no surprise when we consider how geography and economics intersect with ethnic and cultural differences in Peru,” said Saldías.
The expert noted that Pedro Castillo, Peru’s president-elect, embodies the identity of people living in the country’s interior. His attire and manner of speaking reflect the rural population.
This is the first time a representative of the orthodox left has been elected president of Peru. He will also be the first president not to come from Lima’s elite. For these reasons, half the population rejects his policies, contributing to a highly polarized political landscape.
His administration has taken office in a weakened state but with an ambitious agenda, a situation that will likely prolong the institutional crisis. Castillo proposes a new constitution, greater representation for rural areas in the government, and a change in the country’s income distribution, rejecting elements of the neoliberal model that has been in place since the 1990s.
The route
In 2016, Keiko Fujimori—the daughter of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori—ran in the general election and came in second place. Saldías noted that this was “a missed opportunity for Peru,” since “she could have used it to build a legitimate party in a constructive way, but she did not.” From that point on, a series of internal political conflicts arose in Peru that deepened the existing crisis.
From March 2018 to November 2020, Martín Vizcarra served as president of Peru. In 2019, Saldías explained, the country was experiencing “massivefragmentation of the political system.” Vizcarra faced obstacles to his reforms from Congress. That same year, Peruvians elected a new Congress.
Between 2016 and 2020, Fuerza Popular—the party founded in 2010 by Keiko Fujimori—saw a sharp decline in its vote share. This shift was influenced by the house arrest imposed on Fujimori by the courts in 2018, which caused her popularity to drop.
Finally, in 2020, Peru’s Congress impeached Vizcarra over corruption allegations. “After that, there were three presidents in two weeks,” Saldías said. “This is the backdrop to the 2021 elections, in which Peru sought an outsider who could represent a change amid this serious crisis of legitimacy.”