Thread by @FiorellaIsabelM

Why Pedro Castillo’s removal from the Presidency was INDEED A COUP & how it’s historically tied to neoliberal, far right western-backed influence in the country. Quick history LESSON on Peruvian politics from me: I was there for his election & am Peruvian American. 🇵🇪 A thread🧵

Pedro Castillo of Peru Libre won his election held on June 6, 2021 clinching 50.12% of the vote against pro multi-national corporation & pro Western, right-wing (neoliberal) candidate for Fuerza Popular, Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President & dictator Alberto Fujimori.

Alberto Fujimori, her father & clear influence in her politics, is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights abuses he enacted as President under the guidance of the CIA, particularly under his right-hand man, Vladimiro Montesinos.

Montesinos & the CIA were to oust the “Shining Path”, a Maoist guerrilla group turned radical, using funds to fight their “reign of terror.” Instead they ended up personally enriching themselves & sanctioning state murders & forced mass sterilizations on indigenous women.

On April 5, 1992, Alberto Fujimori staged a coup in the country, dissolving congress & dismantling the judicial system. (I’ll return to this). The government took control of all media & free institutions, proclaiming a return to normalcy within a year, which did not occur.

On July 18, 1992, as an offensive to Fujimori, the Shining Path set off two car bombs in the wealthy district of Miraflores in Lima, killing 18 people & wounding 140. Fujimori’s administration had failed to relieve Peru’s economic depression even with a U.S. backed dictatorship.

A reported 4.5 million people were living in dire poverty lacking electricity, water & basic needs. According to The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an estimated 70,000 were killed as a result of the civil war between the government and the Shining Path. Bear with me here.

So who were the Shining Path? The Maoist guerrilla group began w then professor Abimael Guzman in the 60s when he taught philosophy at San Cristóbal of Huamanga University & recruited young academics from rural regions, teaching them about left-wing politics including communism.

Their power dynamic was heavily centralized, focusing on Guzman w reverence rather than decentralized, cell-based structure. But the rural, indigenous populations were already suffering drastically with exploitation, wealth inequality, land confiscation, racism & discrimination.

Since colonial times Peru has been a largely racist country. Years of unanswered pleas radicalized the population & by the 1980s Guzman launched his campaign to overthrow the Peruvian government & establish a dictatorship of the peasantry. This is all key to understanding TODAY.

The group set up military schools to train recruits on tactics & weaponry & by this time the rural peasantry had enough. Since they focused on rural regions, the jungle & mountains, they were in direct opposition to more urban & conservative regions in Peru. So began a civil war.

It lasted until the early 2000s, with the group targeting mayors, governors, bureaucrats, police & local politicians. By 1983 Sendero Luminoso focused on land-owning peasants & state agency heads, using violence & threats of abduction for subjugation.

They then launched attacks against local organizers, left-wing activists, & liberal intellectuals, who they saw as complicit in maintaining the status quo. This pushed away many Peruvians who did not want to embrace the “violent” route.

So when many peasants in rural provinces lost their lands & economic means they often turned on the group. During this time, the Alan Garcia & subsequent Fujimori administration used bribery & intimidation to go after local citizens for more information on The Shining Path.

The Garcia & the Belaúnde government before it both tortured & randomly assassinated citizens- mostly peasants-for their alleged backing of the group even if the accusations had no merit.

Stick w me because this is where I make more key connections to Peru’s politics of today.

The “ronderos'' were key in defending the rural peasantry against attacks from both The Shining Path & government. Pedro Castillo is known as a “rondero,” coming from the modest, rural region of “Cajamarca,” & was also a former teacher & strike leader-rare in Peruvian politics.

His politics & indigenous, working class origins stand diametrically opposed to Keiko’s & the current, largely far-right Peruvian congress which embraces western ideology, big business, & corporate structure. His campaign slogan was, “No more poor people in a rich country!”

His intent was to keep more of the money created in Peru inside the country, as about 70% of the wealth created is exported to foreign nations & their investors. He proposed the nationalization of certain economic sectors, specifically in mining, gas, oil & hydroelectric tech.

Note that Peru’s city of Puno, bordering Bolivia, sits on recently discovered 2.5 million tons of lithium. Castillo threatened to create a new Constitution free of the “Fujimorismo” he said does not represent the people & wanted to reduce the salaries of wealthy business owners.

He clearly posed a threat to the establishment & they knew it from the start. Keiko boasted of “free-market” privatization, especially in Peru’s mining sector. Her platform wanted to “boost” Peru’s economy via big business & foreign investors who spent millions on her campaign.

She was & remains under investigation for corruption & money laundering during her previous election campaigns, among other accusations. Many questioned how she was even allowed to run. But in spite of her failed allegations of election fraud which carried no validity, she lost.

I say this as someone who follows elections all over the world particularity in the US and Latin America. Peru’s elections are full of a clear chain of custody, paper ballots, public counting and clear, transparent process. I dive into all this here… open.substack.com/pub/fiorellais…

Anyway she & her party “Fuerza Popular” remain largely influential in Peruvian politics. From the moment Castillo was sworn in on July 28, 2021, Peru’s Independence Day, the majority right-wing congress has been trying to get Castillo out, under the guise of corruption charges.

For months congress accused Castillo of corruption while the former president denied them. A few months into his presidency there were attempts to impeach him with evidence leading to congress members using support from Europe to do so. They also prevented him from traveling.

Castillo could not attend the inauguration of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, because the plenary of the Peruvian Congress decided he might flee the country, since they slapped him with a criminal tax investigations for alleged corruption crimes.

He was also denied permission to go to Europe and Mexico to attend the Pacific Alliance Summit, based on these charges. He is now the 6th ousted PRESIDENT in the country in 7 YEARS. All of them have been slapped with corruption charges & ended up in jail, at least for some time.

What people need to understand is that in Peru, congress has far too much power. Presidents basically need their approval to do anything. And congress in Peru as mentioned is dominated by the neoliberal, pro West factions that made it impossible for Castillo to get anything done.

A common tactic used in Peru is to plant evidence using the bought media, buying off politicians & police officers, & framing people of crimes or washing crimes off of an actual criminal. Whatever is needed to maintain power. It happens all the time & he had a target on his back.

A common thread we’ve seen launched at leaders who threaten the establishment. Lula da Silva was arrested in 2018 on corruption charges (Operation Carwash) with US backing when he was about to run for office. He was later found innocent of all charges but many don’t know still.

VP of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner is facing 6 yrs in prison & a lifelong ban from holding public office for fraud charges. She’s denied the charges & will appeal. Note she was favored to win in Argentina’s 2023 presidential elections, & was victim of an attempted assassination.

Imran khan of Pakistan has also been accused of corruption & has had assassination attempts against him, which he & others alluded came with western backing. He has denied the charges & said they’re being used to stop him from running. Khan is highly popular with the people.

Castillo made several mistakes, landing him as weak, even by some supporters. He went in with a knife but when he got in, he tried to please everybody & it clearly didn’t work out. He became estranged from Peru Libre & refuse to get closer to the left that put him in office.

He failed to build upon & strengthen social movements, peasants, rural workers & use their support to his advantage, instead trying to work with the right-wing, pro west factions that were never going to accept him or his cooperation in good faith. Their aim was for him to GO.

From messages I’ve seen from neoliberals in Lima, Miami & how they talked about Castillo he wasn’t just disliked for his politics but because he represented the poor. Peruvians are largely, especially in Lima & similar to countries like Brazil, ashamed of the poor, peasant class.

Call it a form of self-hatred, an inferiority complex that I’ve noticed in MANY non-western nations, or a remnant of colonialism, they see peasantry as failure, the indigenous as backward. The rural people are less than. It’s a mentality that’s kept Peru from KNOWING its history.

Bolivia in contrast has largely embraced & understand their history. Though as you’ve probably noticed in the coverage of the 2019 coup, it has its fascist elements that are always in the corners attempting to come back, especially as if this year. But I digress. I’ll end now..

Without knowing all of this Castillo’s attempt to dissolve congress & establish a national emergency might seem authoritarian, but knowing ALL of this context he knew this was a coup against him & this was his Hail Mary. You could see his paper shake as he made this announcement.

He should have done this sooner IMO but with of course the backing of movements & building coalitions in the military & police. We’ve learned from history & Bolivia’s coup against Evo Morales comes to mind again, that you can’t protect yourself without an army of support.

By doing this congressional dissolution in this way though he fell into the trap of being framed by congress, misinformed Peruvians, and the majority of the international media as the one pushing a coup, when the coup that had long been engineered against him was finally peaking.

The OAS & Luis Almagro immediately of course recognized Peru's VP, who was ousted from the Peru Libre party & also faced her own corruption scandal. Her swearing in was set for the same time that the OAS Permanent Council met to discuss “the situation in Peru.”

Castillo has been offered asylum in Mexico by AMLO, and when he tried to get to the Mexican embassy the far-right neoliberal Peruvian elite & their propagandized minions tried to prevent him from doing so…

Evo Morales is one of the few who gets this entire context, & rightfully understands it’s a coup. Perhaps because he shares similar origins of rural peasant class as Castillo & perhaps because of the cultural similarities the two countries share.

He said, “we verify once again that the Peruvian oligarchy and the US empire do not accept that union and indigenous leaders reach the government to work for the people…Right-wing enemies of the people do not accept anti-imperialist governments”.

“The political crisis that affects the brotherly Peruvian people, especially deep Peru, was caused by the permanent conspiracy of the Fujimori right-wing and right-wing media against a government elected at the polls whose "unforgivable crime" was representing the poorest.”

“As we warned, the hybrid war of the international right has perpetrated two coups against governments of the people in the last 48 hours. They began with the judicial coup against…Cristina Kirchner & continued with the congressional vacancy against…Pedro Castillo”.

Apologies for this unbelievably long 🧵 as I’ve seen way too many people speak about this w/o historical context & as you all know we can’t speak about wars or issues that began years ago as if they began today. It makes for inaccurate reporting, analysis & aloes revisionism.

So yes I resent anyone not calling this a coup. IT IS A COUP. It’s a coup against the people of Peru, more than against Castillo. A coup orchestrated by the global elite, right wing neoliberal factions trying to privatize Peru’s rich resources that belong to its people.

But he’s hardly the first victim & will not be the last in a country so self-hating & propagandized by its corrupt media & love for westernization. To free themselves Peruvians must first know their history. Embrace indigenous roots. Understand Simon Bolivar & anti-colonialism.

These factions won’t stop until they bring back Fujimorismo’s authoritarian control. Until they wipe out rural folk. Until they sell all of Peru abroad & westernize it. And when they try there must be firm opposition to combat it or the country will descend into full chaos.

One + thing. The specter of communism is why I mentioned the Shining Path. The group has been used to spew fear of anything remotely pro people in the country, which is why it’s been so instrumental to maintaining many urban poor in support of neoliberalism. This has to end.

Btw Castillo was by no means a “communist,” he’s left wing but more so in terms of workers and advocating for economic gains. When he took office he moved to the center as most politicians do. That is often their mistake. They must do what people who elected them need them to do.

I grew up being told TSP were the worst thing that’s ever existed. But that’s just false. Fujimorismo is what led Peru down the path to neoliberalism & corruption. Anti imperialism cannot coexist with lies from the empire & disdain for your own people at their behest.

Right now a group of Peruvians are marching in the streets of Lima to demand the closure of the right-wing majority congress that today ousted Pedro Castillo via a legislative coup. There are reports that rural communities are coming into the capital tonight.

Reminder that these communities were the ones shouting, “Peru is not Lima,” referring to the fact that the forgotten peasant, rural people are a force and that force can make a difference in elections. Some of their signs read “Fujimori never again!”

Remember that Fujimori also dissolved congress but clearly as a dictator trying to control all aspects of government, not as pushback to a coup attempt. Ironically this coup against Castillo is being waged by the majority of fujimoristas in congress.

But without understanding the context of everything that’s happened, ignorance will make a despot out of Castillo, as was intended by the actual despots.

I put this entire thread 🧵 into an article format and added and will be adding a few things as they come. fiorellaisabel.substack.com/p/why-peruvian…

Another predictable ally calling the coup in Peru what it is, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro: "They are the oligarchic elites that wont allow a simple teacher to reach the presidency of Peru to try to govern for the people."

Trying to keep all on this thread even if I make new posts, so people can follow. I’ll also update the article tonight.