from thefreeonline by Internationalist 360° on
Ollantay Itzamná
There is no certain hypothetical scenario in the short term for Peru in mourning between the state weapons and the streets. The only certainty is that this criminal state conjuncture unveiled what for centuries the State and official Peruvianity tried to hide: racism and authoritarianism are constitutive elements of the State and of bicentennial Peru.
Those who plotted and executed the overthrow of President Pedro Castillo in Peru December 7, never imagined, nor calculated, the popular rural insubordination in and from the impoverished and plundered territories of the bicentennial republican state.
At some point it will be understood what factors activated this simultaneous and sustained massive and unprecedented collective action in the history of the country. Regularly, even the historical accumulation of social force is activated and agglutinated around some nuclear leader. In this case, there is no leader.
It seems that one of the unifying elements of the popular uprising is the indignation at the pain caused by the massacres, and the growing popular agenda that is gaining space in the national political narrative: Everyone resign, new elections, new Constituent Assembly, Castillo released.
The anti-democratic dismissal of Pedro Castillo was the last straw for the patience of the rural popular sectors who were annoyed by the abusive actions of the business agents of the neo-liberal system in different territories in the interior of the country, including the colonizing and abusive presence of the Peruvian nation-state itself.
Lima’s intellectuals overwhelmed by reality. Regional intelligentsia almost silent.
With honorable exceptions, Lima’s intelligentsia have always been loyal to the interests of the bicentennial “project of internal colonialism” established by the Peruvian Republic. Not only did it try to install from the hegemonic academic institutions the fiction of the Peruvian national project in the imaginary of the middle class and popular sectors, but it expressly intellectualized the congenital racism of the bicentennial Creole State, expelling from the theoretical and narrative corpus of official Peru the presence of the peoples of “all bloods” as citizens or socio-political subjects.
Peru Ministers Visit Protest Zone As Families Bury Their Dead
Now that the popular rebellion has broken out, with its own narratives, the Lima intelligentsia have opted to discredit and “terruque” the Quechua and Aymara people who have mobilized in the streets. Failing to delegitimize them as authentic socio-political subjects in the country of darkness, they now simply watch from the sidelines.
The majority of regional intellectuals are also confused at this mournful and overloaded juncture, between loyalty to the State and companies that pay their salaries and sensitivity to the pain of their blood brothers and sisters afflicted by the criminal State.
Corporate press repudiated by mobilized sectors
The corporate press based in Lima has been virtually exposed in its constitutive racism by the mobilized actors in the streets, who, cell phones in hand, have been showing live everything that the Lima press has hidden or tried to obscure.
If the popular rejection of the corporate press was already growing even before the massacre of the 50 Peruvian men and women mobilized, now, this growing rejection became popular repudiation. Even going so far as to expel corporate reporters from the social protest events, and in some cases even physically attacking their facilities and infrastructure.
Army and National Police without authority, forced to kill their own family members.
The political and economic elites of Peru, having lost control of the impoverished population’s behavior (through the manipulation of fears and desires), through their media, proceeded to exercise their ultimate weapon of historical colonial control: punishing and chastising the insubordinate population via mano militari. In less than two months, the usurper president has issued three states of emergency, including a curfew. But, the mobilized population, far from being frightened by the massacres, continued, even during curfew hours, self-convening, blocking roads, occupying public and private spaces and buildings.
The mobilized population lost their fear of the State’s weapons, and the State lost its authority even with its monopoly of violence. Currently the main highways of the country, several departments, provinces and districts are in a State of Emergency, but rivers of people of all bloods continue to arrive in Lima to participate in the national strike.
Desperate oligarchy
The Peruvian oligarchy, unable to build state authority throughout the territory of Peru, survived two centuries of republic between the fear of “brutality of the Indians coming down from the hills” and the exercise of its violent authoritarianism (punishing, chastising the rebellious Indians).
At the moment, they have punished and chastised the peoples and popular sectors mobilized in the streets, with 50 people murdered by state bullets, but the insubordinate “plebs”, far from being frightened, roar with more force and advance directly, from different routes of the country, to the very political and economic heart of the Peruvian oligarchy: the city of Lima.
In this dismal and tense situation, the usurper Dina Boluarte, who no longer controls any decision in the Executive, is only waiting for the fatal moment of her fall and her immediate imprisonment for dozens assassinated and wounded.
Those who make the political and military decisions in the country are the two former military men strategically placed in power by the Peruvian oligarchy: the President of the Council of Ministers and the President of the Congress of the Republic.
There is no certain short-term hypothetical scenario for Peru in mourning between the state’s weapons and the streets. The only certainty is that this criminal state conjuncture unveiled what for centuries the State and official Peruvianness tried to hide: racism and authoritarianism as constitutive elements of the State and bicentennial Peru.
Related
Peru: Born to Be Servants, Now Ruling the Bicentennial Nation
What Lessons Can We Learn from the Coup d’Etat in Peru?
Former Officials of Lima’s Oligarchy Torpedo RUNASUR
The Free 