Canada has recognized Dina Boluarte as the new president of Peru and has sent its ambassador in Lima to convey a message of support to the new government in person — putting Ottawa firmly on one side of a crisis that has split the hemisphere into two rival blocs.
In a media statement, Peru’s new foreign minister Ana Cecilia Gervasi — who was until recently Peru’s consul-general in Toronto — said she had met Canadian Ambassador Louis Marcotte and “reiterated Peru’s gratitude for the commitment of his country to work with President Dina Boluarte.”
On Thursday, a Lima court ordered deposed president Pedro Castillo held without bail for 18 months as he awaits trial on charges of rebellion after a failed attempt to suspend Peru’s congress and constitution last week.
Castillo, an unpopular left-wing president whose term in office has been marked by scandals, shocked the country on December 7 when he went on national television and announced that he would rule with emergency powers.
Peruvian President Pedro Castillo gives a press conference at the presidential palace in Lima, Peru on Oct. 11, 2022. (Martin Mejia/The Associated Press)
But his attempt at what South Americans call an “autogolpe” or “self-coup” turned into farce when it became clear he had no real backing from Peru’s armed forces, police or judiciary — or even his own cabinet.
Within a few hours, his family abandoned the presidential palace and headed for the Mexican Embassy in search of asylum. But his own bodyguards stopped his motorcade and instead took him into a police station. There he was placed under arrest and then criminally charged by his own attorney-general, while Congress voted to depose him and swear in his vice-president as his replacement.
Dina Boluarte became Peru’s first female president just hours after Castillo’s announcement, flight and arrest. But that proved to be just the beginning of Peru’s latest crisis.
On Thursday night, as disturbances rocked cities across the country, the Peruvian government declared several regional curfews on top of an existing national state of emergency. At least eighteen people have died in clashes between Castillo supporters and police.
Supporters of ousted Peruvian President Pedro Castillo work together to roll a boulder onto the Pan-American North Highway during a protest against his detention in Chao, Peru on Dec. 15, 2022. (Hugo Curotto/Associated Press)
Mexico has emerged as Castillo’s strongest international backer. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (widely known as “AMLO”) has acknowledged that he spoke with Castillo prior to the Peruvian president’s arrest. He has accused Peru’s upper classes (“pitucos”) of treating Castillo with disdain because of his peasant origins.
AMLO has since said Mexico doesn’t recognize Castillo’s removal from office — declared by Peru’s congress in accordance with the country’s constitution after a vote of 101-6 — and does not recognize Boluarte as president.
On Thursday, Peru recalled its ambassador from Mexico. It also pulled its ambassadors from Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia after those countries signed on to a Mexican statement deploring the removal of Castillo.
On Wednesday, the ALBA bloc of nations formed by former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, meeting in Havana, also expressed its support for Castillo. The group unites Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela with six Caribbean nations: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
But while Castillo received widespread support from the Latin American left, there were two major voices missing from the chorus.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro gives a press statement at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia on November 1, 2022. (Adriano Machado/Reuters)
It was no surprise when Brazil’s lame-duck president Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist, accepted the removal of a president backed by a Marxist party. Much less certain was the attitude of his rival on the left, Lula Da Silva of the Workers Party, who recently defeated Bolsonaro at the polls and will take office on January 1.
But Lula accepted that it was Castillo who broke Peru’s legal order by attempting to suspend the constitution.
“It is always regrettable that a democratically elected president has this fate,” he wrote. “But I understand that everything was forwarded in the constitutional framework.”
Chile’s “democratic socialist” President Gabriel Boric took the same view, expressed in a communique from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “The Government of Chile condemns the rupture of constitutional order in Peru and appreciates that the political crisis coming out of it is being addressed through institutional channels.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President of the Republic of Chile Gabriel Boric participate in a Q&A session with local students in Ottawa on Monday, June 6, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
The United Nations and the Organization of American States also have both accepted the transition as legitimate and have recognized the new government.
With the U.S. also taking the position that Castillo was the author of his own downfall, the western hemisphere appeared thoroughly split on the question of who is the legitimate president in Peru.
On one side, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, the U.S. and Uruguay all back the new government.
Ranged against them are Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Paraguay, Guatemala and El Salvador appear not to have taken a clear stand as yet.
The European Union and the United Kingdom also support the new Peruvian government. Russia also appeared to acquiesce in the transition to a new government, choosing not to side with its close allies Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The most significant opponent of Peru’s new government may be AMLO, who had cultivated a relationship with Pedro Castillo and who offered him asylum as his planned takeover fell apart.
AMLO is accused by many in his own country of trying to weaken democratic institutions.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has emerged as one of Castillo’s most prominent political supporters. (Fernando Llano/The Associated Press)
On Thursday, his MORENA party approved a new law that abolishes Mexico’s independent elections authority — a move critics say aims to roll back decades of democratic progress in Mexico.
And on Tuesday, AMLO joked about the possibility of a “Plan B” — which would involveclaiming that it’s impossible to hold elections and giving himself a second term in office that would last until 2030.
“There’s always a little devil. He’s great, and sometimes he gives me tips,” AMLO said, laughing, adding that the devil was encouraging him to launch Plan B.
Electorally, the left is currently ascendant in Latin America, following a string of victories culminating in Lula’s return to power in Brazil. It is also disunited.
While the split that has emerged over Castillo vs. Boluarte to some extent echoes the debate over Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his rival Juan Guaido in 2019, it also reveals growing fractures within the left on questions of democracy and rights.
Chile’s Boric in particular has aggravated countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua by condemning their rights abuses, and saying that the Latin left needs to stop making excuses for authoritarianism.
Castillo, meanwhile, appears to have been re-energized by his international backers. Last week he said through his lawyer that he could not even recall giving his televised speech, claiming that he had been given a drink beforehand that left him “befuddled.”
This week, he tweeted from his jail cell that he would “NOT RESIGN OR ABANDON MY HIGH AND SACRED FUNCTIONS” and denounced the words of his former vice president as “the snot and spittle of a coup-mongering Right.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
