WORLD WORLDWIDE ARGENTINA News Journal Update - (en) Argentina, FORA, Organizacion-Obrera #96: NOT PLACES (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 December 2022. Pedro Castillo[1]announces the dissolution of Parliament in Peru:

"We made the decision to establish an emergency government aimed at establishing
the rule of law (...) Temporarily dissolve Congress and establish an exceptional
emergency government" . The decision was questioned by the opposition (which
described it as a "coup") and the security forces. Over the course of days,
officials resigned in a climate of mobilizations, confrontations, and general
confusion. ---- The Congress of Peru has great power over the course of the
destiny of the territory and the relationship with Castillo was never good. The
latter, in addition to resolving the dissolution of Congress, had called for a
constituent assembly within a period of no less than 9 months. The members of the
legislative assembly decided to remove the president by 101[2]votes in favor.
Seven days into the month of December last year, Dina Boluarte took over as
president of the country.

In her first speech, the president recognized that what Castillo had done was an
attempted coup[3], promising that her management would unite the people of Peru
("I am a Peruvian citizen and mother who is fully aware of the high
responsibility that history puts on my shoulders"). The bullets were not long in
arriving, staining the streets with blood where Boluarte's response to the deaths
registered during her regime would be that they were not her responsibility. "The
Armed Forces are behind. They have no contact with the people who are protesting.
We have to protect the life and tranquility of the 33 million Peruvians. Puno is
not Peru. Those who are generating violence, I believe that the international
press should also communicate that the government is not generating violence,
that the government wants peace and tranquility"[4].

Puno became a "non-place", a fact that is not accidental in Boluarte's
colonialist discourse. The city, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, is one of the
most important commercial centers in Peru[5]. With a strong identity linked to
the Inca empire and cultural celebrations that have survived throughout the
centuries. The erasure of ancestral heritage and the repression of farmers,
artisans, peasants, and workers would mark a dividing line between those worthy
to be considered as citizens and alterities whose erasure would be necessary for
the "pacification" of the country.

It should be noted that the religious syncretism activities that take place in
the month of January allow the entry of very important currencies for the
country. For example, the celebration of the Virgen de la Candelaria projected an
income of 64 million soles, approximately four billion Argentine pesos (change to
March 2023).

According to the World Bank (September 2022)[6]Peru's macroeconomics is solid:
with a low public debt to GDP ratio, international reserves and a reliable
central bank. The agency states that among the country's challenges is to reduce
the informal economy (which provides employment to three quarters of workers in
low-productivity segments), and improve the quality of public services, such as
education, health and water supply.

"The World Bank maintains an active portfolio of USD 2.4 billion, which includes
17 investment projects and 2 operations for development policies (USD 850
million) in support of policies aimed at achieving a more resilient, green and
inclusive economic recovery, and policies aimed at protecting the accumulation of
human capital and investing in it. The projects focus on the sectors of health,
infrastructure (transport, water), justice, urban development and environment"
(World Bank, 2022)[7].

For 2023, growth between 2 and 4%[8]is expected, depending, among other things,
on mining sites such as Quellaveco (a mine owned by the Anglo American company),
one of the main copper producers. The mine uses 22 million cubic meters of water
from two rivers near Quellaveco and for this reason it had been the focus of the
Ministry of Agrarian Development. However, the Peruvian government (ignoring the
communities that are impacted not only on their socio-environmental health but
also on the possibility of producing) did not cancel the contracts because the
company maintained that its activities will not affect the supply of water to the
communities.[9]Quellaveco is one of the many mining ventures found in the
country[10].

During 2009, the indigenous women of Peru warned about the progress of
extractivism and its consequences:

"United the Andean-Amazonian indigenous women, we are jointly building our own
agenda to participate in a leading way and with the proposals that are being
worked on to defend life, our PACHAMAMA and YACUMAMA; Faced with neoliberal
policy, which is leading to the destruction of the planet, the consequences of
which are already affecting us with the scarcity of fresh water due to the
contamination of extractivist activities, transgenic foods, monocultures that
destroy our biodiversity, and for this reason we do not know the signing of the
FTA with the US and we reject the CAN-EU FTA (...) We make the defense of our
TERRITORIES AND NATURAL RESOURCES a priority, and we reaffirm that our life and
culture are based on it, we develop our economy, we manage our food, health and
we generate our new plant species not only for intra-communal benefit but also
for humanity. We propose to embody our agreements to ignore the government of
Alan García, actively participate in the process of disobedience and uprising of
the peoples against the policies that affect us" (Indigenous Women of Peru, 2009).

What would have been Castillo's attitude towards these demands? Would it have
been part of the call to disobedience? Although the answers to these questions
are counterfactual, they allow us to see that there are many beneficiaries of the
existing crisis and of Boluarte's opportunism; whose hand does not tremble to
send murderous bullets to the communities.[eleven]

Roberto Espinosa (2009) put into figures the complaints of indigenous communities
about the emptying of common property in Peru:

"The offensive is expressed in more than 33 million Has. Amazon auctioned to oil
companies; more than 3,000 Andean communities with mining claims superimposed on
their territories; tiny jobs and miserable taxes paid by these companies;
impunity for the depredation and contamination of the extractive industries;
state refusal to title 250 Amazonian communities, extension of titles to hundreds
of communities in crisis due to population growth and to establish territorial
reserves for peoples in voluntary isolation; and the pressure from Cofopri to
fragment and privatize community titles and open the "land market" claimed by the
neoliberal right".

Faced with the organization of workers and communities, the response is very
similar to what happens in the pampas: criminalization and bullets, as was the
case of the 34 people killed and 136 wounded by bullets in the Bagua massacre.

The alerts ceased to be such when on January 15, 2022, the much-feared ecocide
occurred at the La Pampilla refinery (owned by the Repsol company): In the midst
of unloading the Mare Dorium oil tanker, there was a spill equivalent to 6,000
barrels of crude oil at sea.[12]

What is the price of so-called "progress"? For whom? For the corporations, the
puppet governments? Can the workers' organization transcend the mere wage claim
or work conditions and propose agreements that guarantee life? Why does it seem
that workers are on the margins as a collective of socio-environmental issues? Is
it a question of identity? Could it be that they do not recognize themselves as
inhabitants of the communities? Or perhaps they have fallen into the trap of that
bloody capitalism that they insist on denouncing?

While these questions orbit in the air, Boluarte sends bills to criminalize the
protest (PL 4271/2022-PE): not only is Puno not Peru, it seems that those who
protest will not be part of the territory either, being confined to jails with
sentences of up to 12 years during the state of emergency.[13]

"Today, conflicts have reached unprecedented levels of escalation, but the elites
seem to inhabit another world, betting on disinformation technologies, massacres,
and the adoption of secret public policies, all of which transform the formal
democratic system. , in a living room and desk dictatorship" (R. Cusicanqui,
1986:18).[14]

Yesterday like today, the extractive model continues to claim the lives of
workers and communities.

New dawns will bring the possibility that the "non-places" gain the strength of
the mountain communities of Peru, who walk and organize themselves with a view to
a different way of life.

Will the workers' organization be able to start a similar journey?

[1] Pedro Castillo was born in Puña (1969). He was a schoolteacher and leader of
the education workers union, winner in the second round of elections as the
candidate of the Peru Libre party for the presidency of the country. "This
government has come to govern with the people and to build from below. It is the
first time that our country will be governed by a peasant. I am also a son of
this country founded on the sweat of my ancestors" (07/28/2021). After a year and
a half in power, he was ousted and arrested for "rebellion."
[2] The Peruvian Congress is unicameral. It comprises 130 representatives elected
in 27 constituencies by direct election, through multi-member proportional
scrutiny using the D'Hondt system with open lists.
[3] Available at: https://youtu.be/D1jLcd7_sy0
[4] Available at: https://youtu.be/wGRErGPdXds
[5] Puno is the only department in Peru that produces tin and the main national
producer of alpaca fiber, sheep wool, quinoa, potatoes, trout, gold, and coffee.
[6] Available at: https://www.bancomundial.org/es/country/peru/overview
[7] Idem reference number 6
[8] Guillen Uyen (2022). Peruvian economy: Balance and perspectives for 2023.
Available at:
https://www.esan.edu.pe/conexion-esan/economia-peruana-balance-y-perspectivas-para-el-2023?gclid=Cj0KCQiA9YugBhCZARIsAACXxeLUPFVsKOiahAOJkKtxAulgpKcUH6sTJ-0KnQxi1lkvabGS9MLC4
[9] Reuters (2022). Available at:
https://es.euronews.com/next/2022/10/10/peru-mineria-quellaveco
[10] Available at:
https://www.biodiversidadla.org/Noticias/Pronunciamiento_de_las_mujeres_indigenas_del_Peru
[11] According to the newspaper El País (02/10/2023) the number of deaths in the
protests amounts to 58 deaths and 1,229 injured civilians. Available at:
https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-02-10/los-heridos-en-las-protestas-en-peru-que-ya-no-volveran-a-ser-los-mismos.html
[12]  Available at:
https://www.biodiversidadla.org/Multimedia/Audio/Derrame-de-crudo-en-Peru-Un-crimen-socioecologico
[13]  Available at:
https://wayka.pe/dina-boluarte-busca-modificar-codigo-penal-para-aumentar-penas-de-carcel-que-criminalizan-la-protesta/
[14] Oppressed, but not vanquished. Aymara and Quechua peasant struggles. The
Wild Look, 1986.

https://organizacion-obrera.fora.com.ar/2023/03/06/no-lugares/
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