The class struggle in Peru: The rise and fall of a left-wing president, 2021-2023
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8093-1010
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
The election of Pedro Castillo as the first left-wing Peruvian president in 2021, the candidate of the Marxist-oriented political party Perú Libre, came as a surprise for society in general and for the political Right in particular. On December 7, 2022, Castillo put an end to his presidency. In this article we intend to shed light on the reasons for Castillo’s rise to political power, his fall and the emergence of a new social movement against the authoritarian regime of Dina Boluarte. We conclude that Castillo has never been a threat to the economic interests of capital. His presidency did not have the political and social bases to start processes towards structural and radical political, economic, social and cultural transformation. Furthermore, his presidency did not have the capacities to develop and implement proposals that would harm the interests of capital. We argue that Castillo was politically, economically and socially auto-castrated. By putting an end to his presidency, Castillo took the initiative in the class struggle resulting in the authoritarian regime of Boluarte and the emergence of a new social movement based in the regions with possibilities to become hegemonic.
Peru, Pedro Castillo, left, authoritarianism, political crisis, class strugglePerú, Pedro Castillo, izquierda, autoritarismo, crisis política, lucha de clases
Caballero, V. (2023). Castillo. Breve historia del gobierno del pueblo. Lima: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial.
Dancourt, Ó. (2016). Las vacas flacas en la economía peruana. Working Paper 428. Lima: PUCP, Departamento de Economía.
Dos Santos, T. (1986). Imperialismo y dependencia. México: Ediciones Era S.A.
Gonzales de Olarte, E. (2016). Una economía incompleta. Perú 1950-2007. Análisis structural. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
INEI. (2014). Perú: Estructura empresarial 2013. Lima: INEI.
INEI. (2015). Perú: Estructura empresarial 2014. Lima: INEI.
INEI. (2016). Perú: Estructura empresarial 2015. Lima: INEI.
INEI. (2017). Perú: Estructura empresarial 2016. Lima: INEI.
INEI. (2018). Perú: Estructura empresarial 2017. Lima: INEI.
INEI. (2019). Perú: Estructura empresarial 2018. Lima: INEI.
INEI. (2020). Perú: Estructura empresarial 2019. Lima: INEI.
INEI. (2021). Perú: Estructura empresarial 2020. Lima: INEI.
Lust, J. (2023). Underdevelopment in Peru. A profile of peripheral capitalism. London y New York: Routledge.
Lust, J. (2019a). Objective and subjective conditions for the continuity of the Peruvian extractive development model. Globalizations, 16(7), 1232-1246.
Lust, J. (2019b). Capitalism, class and revolution in Peru, 1980-2016. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan.
Lust, J. (2019c). The rise of a capitalist subsistence economy in Peru. Third World Quarterly, 40(4), 780-795.
Lust, J. y Cypher, J. M. (2021). Bordeando el precipicio. ¿Puede el nuevo presidente izquierdista del Perú, Pedro Castillo, mantenerse en el poder?. Observatorio del Desarrollo, 10(29), 23-31.
Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción del Empleo. (2020). Anuario Estadístico Sectorial 2020. Lima: Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción del Empleo.
Motta Villegas, J. D. (2023). Estallido: crisis, golpe de Estado y lucha de clases en el Perú. En G. Montoya y H. Quiroz (coords.), Estallido Popular. Protesta y masacre en el Perú, 2022-2023 (pp. 67-82). Lima: Editorial Horizonte.
Quiroz, H. y Beraun, E. (2023). Insurrección y nueva utopía andina. En G. Montoya y H. Quiroz (coords.), Estallido Popular. Protesta y masacre en el Perú, 2022-2023 (pp. 173-177). Lima: Editorial Horizonte.
Roberts, K. M. (1998). Deepening democracy? The modern left and social movements in Chile and Peru. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Roberts, K. M. (1996). Economic crisis and the demise of the legal left in Peru. Comparative Politics, 29(1), 69-92.
Smith, J. (2016). Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century. Globalization, super-exploitation, and capitalism’s final crisis. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Svampa, M. (2019). Neo-extractivism in Latin America.Socio-environmental Conflicts, the Territorial Turn, and New Political Narratives. Elements in Politics and Society in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, en chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/libros/pm.5180/pm.5180.pdf (consultado 25/07/23).
Svampa, M. (2013). Consenso de los commodities y lenguajes de valorización en América Latina. Nueva Sociedad, 244, en chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/art_revistas/pr.13326/pr.13326.pdf (consultado 25/07/23).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.