Peru is in the grips of a deepening political crisis, which began in early December with the impeachment of former President Pedro Castillo.
The Peruvian legislature voted on December 7 to remove Castillo from office after the left-wing leader announced plans to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.
His removal, and subsequent arrest and detention on allegations of “conspiracy” and “rebellion”, have sparked widespread protests and spurred the government to declare a nationwide state of emergency.
Here, Al Jazeera lays out how the unrest has unfolded:
December 7, 2022
Castillo, a former teacher and union leader from rural Peru who took office last year, announces plans to “temporarily” dissolve Congress ahead of the third impeachment attempt of his embattled presidency.
He argues the move aims to “reestablish the rule of law and democracy” in the country. But opposition politicians and other observers slam his announcement as contrary to Peru’s constitution, and Congress overwhelmingly votes in favour of removing Castillo.
Shortly after the vote, Castillo is arrested by police and Congress swears in his former vice president, Dina Boluarte, as Peru’s first female president.
Protesters gather in the capital, Lima, to support Castillo, while others celebrate his removal.
December 8, 2022
A Peruvian judge orders Castillo to be detained for seven days as authorities investigate charges of “rebellion and conspiracy” against him. He is held at a police facility near the capital, Lima, where former President Alberto Fujimori is also arrested.
Castillo’s defence team argues he was arbitrarily removed from the presidency on trumped-up charges of rebellion.
“It is clear that the crime of rebellion was not committed” because it did not materialise, one of his lawyers says.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reveals that Castillo had called his office to request asylum in his country’s embassy, which he planned to grant, but the Peruvian leader was arrested before arriving.
Boluarte, Peru’s new president, pleads for a “truce” after years of political chaos. After initially saying she would serve out Castillo’s remaining three-and-a-half years as president, she suggests that calls for early elections among Castillo supporters are “respectable”.
Peru’s new President Dina Boluarte waves to the press as she leaves her home in Lima, December 8, 2022 [Martin Mejia/AP Photo]
December 9, 2022
More protests break out, particularly in rural areas that make up Castillo’s strongholds.
Local television shows footage of hundreds of farmers blocking a stretch of Peru’s main coastal highway to demand early elections. And in Lima, several hundred protesters trying to reach the Congress building clash with police, who use canes and tear gas to push them back.
The protesters are demanding Castillo’s release from prison, as well as early elections, the dissolution of Congress, and Boluarte’s removal.
“We have no authorities. We have nothing,” says Juana Ponce, one of the protesters. “It is a national shame. All these corrupt congressmen have sold out. They have betrayed our president, Pedro Castillo.”
Demonstrators gather during a protest demanding presidential elections and the closure of Congress, December 9, 2022 [Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters]
December 10-11, 2022
Boluarte names her new cabinet. She appoints former state prosecutor Pedro Angulo as prime minister and diplomat Ana Cecilia Gervasi as foreign minister, among others.
The protests continue in several cities in Peru’s interior, including Cajamarca, Arequipa, Huancayo, Cusco and Puno, and the first deaths linked to the unrest are reported.
Clashes on December 11 between protesters and police in the southern city of Andahuaylas leave two dead and at least five injured – including a police officer – as demonstrators attempted to storm that city’s airport.
December 12, 2022
Boluarte announces plans to move elections forward to April 2024 in a bid to quell the unrest. She also declares a state of emergency in areas of “high conflict”, allowing soldiers to take more control.
But the demonstrations expand, most notably in Peru’s northern and Andean towns, and the death toll rises to at least six. Hundreds of protesters block an airport runway in the country’s second-largest city, Arequipa. Flights are cancelled and interprovincial transportation is also suspended.
Amnesty International urges the Peruvian authorities to “put an end to the excessive use of force against demonstrations and guarantee the right to peaceful protest”.
Meanwhile, Castillo releases a handwritten letter on social media that calls his successor, Boluarte, a “usurper”. The former president vows he “will not resign” and says “the people should not fall for their dirty games of new elections”.
The governments of Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia issue a joint communique in support of the ex-president.
December 13, 2022
Supreme Court Judge Cesar San Martin Castro rejects Castillo’s appeal to end his preventive detention as authorities build their case against him.
The judge says the former president’s effort to dissolve Congress was “not a mere act of speech, but the concrete expression of a will to alter the constitutional system and the configuration of public powers”.
Earlier in the day, Castillo says he is being “unjustly and arbitrarily detained”. He thanks his supporters for taking to the streets and calls on Peru’s police and armed forces to “lay down their arms and stop killing these people thirsty for justice”.
“We have one simple objective, and that is to shut down this corrupt Congress and change direction,” 57-year-old protester Juan De La Cruz Gonzalez, from Lambayeque, tells Al Jazeera in Lima as the demonstrations continue.
Castillo is escorted at a police station in Lima, December 7, 2022 [Renato Pajuelo/AP Photo]
December 14, 2022
Boluarte’s administration declares a nationwide state of emergency for 30 days. The measure allows authorities to curtail freedom of movement and assembly, as well as grants the police and armed forces the power to exert more control.
Peru’s Supreme Court meets to consider prosecutors’ request to extend Castillo’s detention by 18 months, but it later suspends the session for a day.
Castillo calls on his supporters to come to the police facility where he is being held and urges the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to intercede on his behalf. “Enough already! The outrage, humiliation and mistreatment continue. Today they restrict my freedom again with 18 months of pretrial detention,” he writes in a message posted on Twitter.
Boluarte says the date of Peru’s next elections can be moved forward again, to December 2023.
Police officers stand as supporters of Castillo gather outside the police prison where he is detained, in Lima, December 14, 2022 [Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters]
December 15, 2022
A Supreme Court panel extends Castillo’s detention by 18 months as prosecutors continue their investigation into the criminal charges against him. A judge says the former president posed a flight risk after trying to seek asylum at the Mexican embassy in Lima.
Protests erupt in Peru’s southern city of Ayacucho, with clashes between demonstrators and the military killing at least seven people.
Authorities say at least 15 people have died across the country to date, while the ombudsman’s office put the number of injured at 340, with the police saying at least half of that total is from their ranks.
Late in the day, the government imposes a curfew in 15 provinces, mostly in rural Andean regions.
Supporters of Castillo block the Pan-American North Highway to protest his detention in Viru, Peru, December 15, 2022 [Hugo Curotto/AP Photo]
December 16, 2022
Protesters continue to block key roads, forcing the closure of five airports across Peru. Around 5,000 tourists are stranded in Cusco, the Peruvian city that leads to the popular tourist site of Machu Picchu, a local mayor says.
Authorities say the death toll from the protests has now reached at least 18.
The head of the Peruvian ombudsman’s office, Eliana Revollar, tells the AFP news agency that a criminal investigation must be launched into deaths reported a day earlier in clashes between protesters and the army at the airport in Ayacucho. “People died due to gunshot wounds,” she says.
Meanwhile, in Lima, Boluarte’s government suffers a series of high-profile blows as Peru’s Congress rejects the constitutional reform needed to bring elections forward to December 2023.
Education Minister Patricia Correa also resigns from the new president’s cabinet, followed by Culture Minister Jair Perez Branez. Both decry the rising death toll from the protests.
“State violence cannot be disproportionate and cause death,” Correa writes on Twitter, with Perez Branez expressing similar sentiments. “I call on the highest level and all powers to reflect and take action to bring peace to the Peruvian people. Not one more death,” he says.
Bus passengers who have been stuck for days wait in Chao, December 14, 2022 [Hugo Curotto/AP Photo]
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
