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Ecualung t1_j73f2jw wrote

Reply to comment by Icydawgfish in Lakes in the Peruvian Andes [OC] [4000x2667] IG @andrew.rimanic by andrewrimanic

Massive political unrest.

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Icydawgfish t1_j73f5rc wrote

Can you explain more? Genuinely curious

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_MANSAV_ t1_j73xsu8 wrote

I'm sure I have some details wrong, but this is the gist according to my Peruvian wife and her family.

The old president, Pedro Castillo, tried to get rid of the current congress. This is a power that the president of Peru has, but they obviously need support of the military and other government entities to actually give the action the weight that it requires. Unfortunately for Castillo, the congress can also impeach him, which they did saying he was corrupt. The military supported the decision of congress, so Castillo was out. He tried to flee the country as is typical in a failed coup (if you want to call it that), and he was imprisoned.

Although the process is totally legal, the people are mad because of who is in charge of the government now, the new, unelected, president does not share the same views as Castillo, I forget her name. Just like most countries, they have the right wing and the left wing. Castillo represented the left wing saying he would look after the people. It seems that he was corrupt and totally self-serving, (as is common in governments, especially in South America).

The right wing is the typical right-wing party wanting to give a lot of power to businesses (for the kickbacks, it would seem). One example is that they want to give companies the rights to mine on indigenous, protected, land. There are many more examples, but the people don't feel represented, and want special elections. So far, it's heating up, they have closed some main roads to get around the country, and places like Machu Pichu are closed for the time being. This is a major blow to the economy of the already struggling country. The protests started in far away provinces and towns, but have spread into the capital city of Lima. The government is trying to quell the protests to the point that they have started using physical violence to get the people in order and have killed some protestors and bystanders. This naturally causes the unrest to grow.

There is even rumors that Chile and Bolivia are looking to capitalize on the unrest and claim southern Peruvian territory, which wouldn't be the first time. It's a mess.

TLDR: Its a mess because of a change of political power.

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diego7319 t1_j74emtn wrote

  1. Castillo is corrupt, the fiscal of the nation has more than 4 cases against him, plus a lot more against people he was surrounded by.
  2. To be able to close the congress, he needed some requirements. He didn't have it, so it was unconstitutional and of course, ILEGAL. He is capture because of it. 3)when you vote for a president, you vote for him and 2 other vicepresidents. So when someone voted for him, it was also voting for the current president who was his vicepresident.
  3. Leftist want to change the current constitution, when you ask them what they want to change. They don't know.
  4. most of the protests in Lima are made by people who came from other cities. 6)The protests are supported by Evo morales, he was giving speeches in some of the cities where the hardest protests were happening. 7)People from Bolivia has been detained in the protests.
  6. The police is not acting fair in the protests, some people have been killed by bullets and there has been a lot of abuses.
  7. Protests are for changing the constitution and new elections. 8)The congress wants to stay until the end of the normal cycle(almost 3 more years)
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diego7319 t1_j74eqmv wrote

On average he was changing one minister every week mostly because of corruption.

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colaroga t1_j74uqk2 wrote

Ever since December 8 2022, lots of roads and airports were closed due to political demonstrations in southern cities. Some of it has been cleared, but it's resumed in Lima - my friend arrived there one week ago and the roads across the mountains were shut down again, and buses weren't running. They had to take car rides along the back roads which took longer. I recall hearing more than once that Machu Picchu was closed and tourists were stranded as a result. The other comments describe the why and how, but getting around certain parts of Peru are somewhat difficult at the moment.

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