Peru has experienced weeks of protests since last December due to the dismissal of Pedro Castillo from office after he attempted to dissolve the Congress on Dec. 7, 2022. After this episode, Dina Boluarte assumed the presidency, causing general discontent from indigenous citizens, who have been largely neglected by the government but felt represented by Castillo.

Despite the fact that some protesters are Castillo’s sympathizers, the main cause for discontent is the country’s political system. The country’s Constitution, adopted in 1993, has been subject to multiple reforms, creating ambiguity about the division of power between the Congress and the President. Although the Constitution states that Congress can limit executive power, it is vague enough to allow for presidents to dissolve the Congress. Furthermore, due to the electoral system of the country, proportional representation, there is a great variety of political parties in the Congress, making decision-making harder as it is difficult to get the majority of votes needed to approve decisions. In addition, as the recent protests demonstrate, Peru is a deeply divided country along ethnic, racial, and economic lines. Daniel, a Peruvian protester, commented in The Guardian: “I don’t want Castillo to come back, because sadly he did something illegal. But he was the first Indigenous president to be elected, he was our champion. When he took office, the media began to attack him. But we trust him, because he was like us — a farmer, a teacher in a rural school in a very poor town. We feel betrayed.”.

Protests, mainly concentrated in the south of the Andes, were met with violent government response. In only Boluarte’s first two months as president, 56 deaths were reported by the Defensoría del Pueblo. Protesters call for Boluarte’s destitution, the formation of a new assembly to create a new constitution, and the convocation of new elections as Boluarte’s government is seen as illegitimate because she was not elected by the people.

However, Boluarte has stated that she won’t leave office before the next elections which are expected to happen in April 2024.

The protests escalated on Jan. 19th 2023 with the “marcha de los cuatro suyos” that references the four cardinal points of the Inca empire and the “toma de Lima”, when protesters from all over the country took to the streets of the capital, Lima, to demand Boularte’s demission and the Congress’ dissolution. The government’s response to the protests was the deployment of 11,800 police members, 120 vans and 49 military vehicles, as well as the military.

Political analysts from Peru recognize the situation is not black and white and there is no straightforward solution. The government’s response to the continuing protests and the date of the next elections could determine the length of the protests, but a system accused of being corrupted could remain an indefinite source of discontent for Peruvians.