MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2022) An organizer of the demonstrations in Peru shared with Sputnik why they were determined to continue the struggle against President Pedro Castillo amid violent clashes between protesters and police officers in the recent weeks.
Castillo has been facing corruption allegations, with mass protests taking place across Peru demanding that the president resign. A nationwide strike and a new round of protests are scheduled for Sunday, the day of the arrival of the diplomatic mission of the Organization of American States in Peru for an analysis of the political situation in the country.
In July, Peru's prosecutor general's office announced that it was investigating Castillo, after accusations were made by former minister of the interior Mariano Gonzalez, who alleged that Castillo had covered for people from his immediate entourage, against whom criminal cases had been initiated. In early August, Peruvian prosecutors raided the government palace in the capital city of Lima, as well as the home of the country's president in Chota, northern Peru, looking for Yenifer Paredes, the sister of the country's First Lady Lilia Paredes Navarro, who, like the head of state, is suspected of corruption. At the end of August, Yenifer got 30 months of preventive detention.
Castillo has denied all accusations made against him and his family members.
Silvia Caballero Crousillat had been living in the seaside resort town of Mancora in Peru and managing a beachfront hotel in previous five years, when she saw the results from the first round of the presidential election in April last year.
"I was traveling in Mexico, when the first round of the presidential election took place. Only Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Castillo received enough votes to go to the second round of the election. In the middle of that, I started my fight," Crousillat, 54, told Sputnik.
In the second round of the presidential election, Castillo defeated Keiko Fujimori to become the 63rd president of Peru.
As someone who always paid attention to politics but never took any action, Crousillat felt it was time for her to do something because of the injustices she witnessed during the presidential election.
"The thing is I am a full Fujimorist. I saw that Keiko Fujimori didn't win in the 2011 election because of only 10,000 to 20,000 votes. And then in 2016, it was the same. She was going to win, but she lost again over very few votes. That's very strange. This time, I hated the injustice I saw," she said.
Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who held office from 1990 to 2000. The former president is a controversial character in Peru because he faced charges of corruption and human rights abuses. After fleeing to Japan in 2000, he was extradited to Peru in 2007 and received multiple prison sentences.
Nevertheless, the former president's daughter, Keiko Fujimori became an important politician in Peru by serving as a congresswoman and taking part in presidential elections in 2011, 2016 and 2021.
Crousillat explained why she supported the controversial former president.
"Half of Peru hated Alberto Fujimori, the other half loved him. We loved him because he stopped terrorism and the economy grew from 1990-2000. He went for a third election and I voted for him. I didn't care if he would be president for 30 years because he was doing great things," she said.
From living a peaceful life in front of the beautiful beaches in Mancora, the hotel manager jumped into action by starting to connect with others who shared the same cause and called on them to join her to protest in the streets of the Peruvian capital Lima.
"I was in Mexico and I started to make groups. I started to talk with a lot of people who were fighting about this because the president of the National Election Jury is (Jorge Luis) Salas Arenas. He's a Marxist and he hates Fujimori. Everybody started to understand what was happening and why Keiko was not winning the elections all the time. I went to Lima and I started to organize a protest in the streets. I started to protest everyday with a lot of people," Crousillat said.
Despite her efforts in May and June last year, the mass demonstrations led by activists like Crousillat were not enough to change the results of the second round of the presidential election.
"Everything was prearranged. It's a big steal. It was very frustrating for everybody. I was very mad about this. They named Castillo as president on July 28 last year. But everybody said he's not my president. It's illegal. That's the moment when I started to make this group on Facebook (banned in Russia). I started to go into the streets to protest everyday for three months. I got very sick and started to develop a pneumonia. You can't believe how I lived last year. It was horrible," she said.
The Facebook group Crousillat created was called Demócratas Unidos Por La Vacancia (Democrats United for Vacancy), which attracted over 10,000 members who shared over hundreds of posts each day in support of the struggle against president Castillo.
The Peruvian National Police had to fire tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters marching against president Castillo on Nov 5. But for activists like Crousillat the escalating violent tactics from the police did not dissuade them from continuing their fight.
Members of Crousillat's group and other similar political active Peruvian groups on Facebook have shared posters for another major protest against president Castillo scheduled to be held on Sunday.
Being a multicultural and multiethnic country, the political division in Peru often went along the cultural and racial lines.
For activists like Crousillat, who is of European descent, they're usually supporters of right-leaning policies that favor market economy and free competition. At the same time, other Peruvians from indigenous ethnic groups often support left-leaning policies that focus on equal distribution of wealth.
"Everyday, I'm fighting. I can't be like lying down because it's about the future of my kids... Peru is very divided. People from the mountains (regions) hate us. You know, in Peru, there's a difference of culture and race. There's a lot of racism from both sides. People from the mountains, they hate us white people," Crousillat said.
The activist said she believed the accusations against those who live a more prosperous life in Lima were unfair as people there "worked hard all their lives."
Nevertheless, Crousillat said she understood these frustrations, but argued that left-leaning politicians like Castillo have been trying to manipulate the voters from other ethnic groups to their advantage.
"The president feeds them with the hate. They try to create more divisions... Everything is becoming more expensive. Castillo didn't do anything in the one year and a half in office. He only installed his family members into the government. He changed the ministers every month or every three months. In one year and a half, we had more than 100 ministers who worked for him. Many of the ministers ended up in jail. Castillo says: 'Everybody hates me because I'm poor and I'm from the mountains. That's the reason they want me out.' That's just manipulation to all the citizens," she said.
The activist expressed concerns that if the divisions in Peru continued to deepen, the country could plunge into a civil war.
As for herself, Crousillat left Peru earlier this year due to the health problems she faces because of her activism. She had been traveling in a number of Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. She has continued her activism on social media networks including Twitter and Facebook and plans to return to Peru in early December to join the fight personally once again.
