The most democratic five-year period in Peru?

Does the complex situation that Peru has been going through for a couple of weeks respond to the most democratic period of government in its history since the return to democracy after the fall of the Fujimori regime? The answer is yes, and this short article will explain why.

To begin, we must situate ourselves from the end of the general elections in 2016, in that process, the Fuerza Popular party obtained 39.86% in valid votes, managing to place a total of 73 of 130 congressmen in the Legislative Branch, this implied a strong campaign to support his opponent in the second round, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, since they sought not to have the Fuerza Popular party in the Executive Branch, when it already had assured control of the Legislative Branch. That is why, after a cloudy campaign of reparations between both contenders, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski won the victory by a margin of 41,057 votes, which would mark the long-awaited separation of powers.

During the first months of management between these parties, with an openly right-wing political cut, a consensus was sought that would allow a good government, agreeing to a meeting between both leaders, with the Catholic Church as an intermediary, to specify a single course for the country. ; however, the political game prevented both powers from establishing a single path together, which led to the polarization of the country. In this scenario, the discourse from Fuerza Popular was to make its government plan from Congress, since the Executive party only had the votes of 19 congressmen.

The constant friction between these powers led to the withdrawal of congressmen from both sides, the Executive's political strategy being clear to reduce the power of Fuerza Popular in Congress, and thus obtain more congressional votes to support their proposals. This was evidenced by the approach of another leader within Fuerza Popular, Kenji Fujimori, to the government party, since he had the objective of freeing his father, former president Alberto Fujimori, from jail, through a presidential pardon. .

Although the pardon was granted and the former president was placed under house arrest, the political impact that this generated mobilized organized civil society, and pressure was exerted for the annulment of the pardon, which shows the strong polarization that still exists. exercises in Peru, the figure Fujimori. Consequently, the pardon granted is annulled, and former president Fujimori returns to jail, which did not frustrate Kenji Fujimori's aspirations to continue, with his faction of congressmen, supporting the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

The corruption scandal of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht that shook all of Latin America, put Peru in instability, since the now president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, at the time was a high-level public official in the country, and was immersed in the case of corruption, which was investigated by Congress, with the aim of vacating it.

The country continued the process of investigating many long-standing political figures, while a vacancy motion for permanent moral incapacity was being presented in Congress, a figure that requires the vote of 87 congressmen to achieve it. This process not only weakened the president, but also that of his vice presidents Martín Vizcarra and Mercedes Araoz, who maintained a clear confrontation, given the lack of clarity of support for President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, by the first in line of presidential succession. .

In this sense, Martín Vizcarra, if the vacancy materialized, would assume the presidency under these conditions, after he did not feel supported by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in the face of the audios that were leaked to the press, and that exposed pressure on the Comptroller of the Republic, to carry out an important investment project for the country, before which he lost his position as Minister of Transport and Communications, and was sent as ambassador to Canada.

During the first weeks of 2018, an agreement was speculated between Congress and Martín Vizcarra to vacate the president, having the support of Congress when he assumes the presidency; This is how the presidential vacancy motion is presented, given the constant indications of the president's intervention in the Odebrecht corruption case, the leaking of audios and videos where an alleged act of buying votes to support the president, by not only former Fuerza Popular congressmen, but also ministers and even the president's lawyer; On March 23, 2018, he presented his resignation to Congress, and it accepted it with a total of 105 votes in favor, making it clear that they did not support the resignation letter attached by the outgoing president, considering it not in accordance with what was being investigated. On that same date, Martín Vizcarra returns to Peru, who assumes the presidency as the first vice president.

The situation of those days in the mass media raised not only the betrayal of the now President Vizcarra, but also the alliance he had with Fuerza Popular to come to power, which led not only to the total fragmentation of the Peruvians for Kambio party in Congress, but instead produced an Executive without congressional support, since it did not take long for it to distance itself from the Fuerza Popular party. At that time, the only path that would allow Martin Vizcarra to govern would be popular support and the mass media.

Congress continued its implementation of political control of the Vizcarra government, which also distanced itself from that of his predecessor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who was in house arrest for the corruption cases accused of him, which is why the executive he continued with the “obstructionist” parliamentary speech in order to rise up in the public opinion polls.

The next political scandal came from the Judiciary, in which audios were leaked in which Supreme Court magistrates converse with each other for their personal benefit, which led to widespread outrage among the public and was taken over by President Vizcarra. In order to put together his political discourse in the fight against corruption, it is so that the Executive presents a series of constitutional reforms so that they can be reviewed and approved by Congress, which, as they are constitutional reforms, required approval in two consecutive legislatures. ; However, President Vizcarra sought a national vote that would serve as the basis for his legitimacy as ruler, which is why he calls for a referendum, on October 10, 2018, in which the population would be asked to approve 4 constitutional reform projects that had already had a favorable vote in Congress, so the date was scheduled for December 9 of the same year.

The population went to the polls to answer the following questions:

1.- Do you approve the constitutional reform on the formation and functions of the National Board of Justice (formerly the National Council of the Magistracy)?

2.- Do you approve the constitutional reform that regulates the financing of political organizations?

3.- Do you approve the constitutional reform that prohibits the immediate re-election of parliamentarians of the Republic?

4.- Do you approve the constitutional reform that establishes bicamerality in the Congress of the Republic?

Of which only the last one received the rejection of the population under the open support of President Vizcarra, since he developed the discourse of a misrepresentation that his bicameral project suffered, and this would be used by Congress to be able to be re-elected in the following general elections of the 2021, so the discontent with the work of Congress continued to worsen, while the polls gave Vizcarra wide popularity, who with the referendum felt legitimized by the population.

From Congress, investigation processes were followed on political figures for the Odebrecht corruption case, at the same time that they exercised political defense of the leader of Fuerza Popular Keiko Fujimori, which generated greater political wear on the institution, which also made the media their enemies massively by promoting a law that prohibited advertising paid for by the state to these media, which led to a strong campaign against that law, calling it "biting" because they considered it a mechanism to silence the press that did not agree with his political line.

Although the leader of Fuerza Popular received preventive detention for the corruption cases that are being investigated and the statements of effective collaborators who denounce her as a recipient of bribes, this did not diminish the constant friction between these powers, to the maximum point in the which, during a complicated succession of events, President Vizcarra dissolved Congress on September 30, 2019, at the same time that Congress vacated it and swore in second vice president Mercedes Araoz. However, upon receiving the support of the armed and police forces, in reality, President Vizcarra continued his work, while police forces surrounded Congress and prevented access to Congressmen who were not part of the Permanent Commission, which was supported by the population due to the widespread rejection of parliamentary work.

Despite the filing of a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court of Peru, this term failing months after the events (January 14, 2020), with a call for congressional elections already underway, and despite declaring the process of dissolution of the Congress by a majority of 4 votes to 3, it is made clear that his actions, if he had been contrary, would have generated another political crisis in the country, this not being one of his functions as the ultimate guarantor of the Peruvian constitution.

Once the parliamentary election process was completed on January 26, 2020, with the participation of more than 18 million eligible voters, the parliamentary blocs were reconstituted, with political forces such as APRA and Fuerza Popular being severely punished with the vote. while the Popular Action parties, Podemos Peru, FREPAP and Alianza para el Progreso, were the most voted. This would mark the beginning of the complementary parliamentary period, full of figures outside of politics and with little or no experience in office.

The pandemic reached Latin America and with it the process of confinement to citizens, granting greater power to the executive in terms of managing the country, and in the Peruvian case to continue with the process of polarization between both powers, which came and went in measures of a populist nature from Congress, such as the cancellation of the payment of tolls to the concessionaires, which was later reversed, or the constant deception of President Vizcarra about the culmination of the confinement, with Lima being one of the first to reopen economically despite its notable increase in cases of COVID-19 and the increase in deaths, but it is not politically appropriate to have the center of political power in confinement, with the possibility of taking to the streets and not obeying government orders.

In the midst of the entire process that placed Peru among the worst countries in managing the pandemic, despite the constant public policies that were being implemented from the government, Congress continued with its desire for strict control, and in view of the disclosure of audios from the closest environment to the president, which would reveal alleged conversations to accommodate statements in a corruption process that had been being investigated, Congress opted to initiate the presidential vacancy process, which was openly classified as unnecessary, not only because the president, but by the mass media. Given this, a jurisdictional claim was filed before the Constitutional Court, to stop the attempts to vacate Congress, and define the figure of permanent moral incapacity; However, this presentation of the vacancy motion did not gather the necessary votes to reach the plenary session, so that constitutional process ended at that moment.

After a month and a half, testimonials from effective collaborators and conversation chats with President Vizcarra are revealed, regarding his functions as governor of one of the regions of Peru, this being taken as the basis for the presentation of a new presidential vacancy, pending the answer to the appeal presented by the president on the first motion. This followed his procedure, despite the continuous message from the press that it was not appropriate in the midst of the pandemic and the thousands of deaths that he has left in the country.

On Monday, November 9, after President Vizcarra appeared before the plenary session of Congress, and in his speech, he delegitimized the investigations and accusations made against him, because in that state power, many of its members are immersed in legal proceedings. . Congress voted for the vacancy due to permanent moral incapacity, this being favorable by 105 votes (the same number reached for the vacancy of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski) and proceeding to rule that, given the prior resignation of the vice presidency of Mercedes Araoz, the position of the Executive it must pass to the President of Congress, who must immediately call elections and set up a transitional government.

In this case, the president of Congress was Manuel Merino, who took office on Tuesday, November 10, being supported by the military and police forces, but not by the media or the social and academic sectors, who immediately called a series of mobilizations in different parts of the country, in direct rejection of the government of Manuel Merino.

In the midst of daily protests, two young people who participated in the protests in the capital died, which would end in the resignation of President Merino on November 15, who called for calm during his speech and assured that the process of 2021 general elections are still underway, without taking a real stock of what happened during the protests in the capital.

In such a situation, Congress accepted the resignation of President Merino, and also that of the President of Congress, for which the process of electing a new board of directors was carried out, which would determine who would be the next president or president in charge of the nation.

On November 15, an attempt was made to elect a new board of directors that did not obtain the required votes and therefore Peru had to wait one more day for the election of a board of directors, headed by Francisco Sagasti, a member of the Purple Party, who voted against the vacancy of President Vizcarra, and therefore rose as a figure of consensus among his peers, in addition to receiving the important support of communication, social and academic groups, which are beginning to advocate a period of calm before the political turbulence that the country suffered during the last week of November and that as of the date of writing this article (November 18, 2020) there has been a decrease in citizen protests, but that they still maintain their supervisory momentum over the following actions to be taken by the new president in charge.

In this sense, I will go on to detail the democratic milestones that Peru has passed during this five-year period that has not yet ended:

1.- Elections 2016, in which the Executive and Legislative powers have a clear separation of leaders.

2.- Acceptance of resignation from the position of president by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and subsequent assumption of command by his first vice president Vizcarra.

3.- Call for a referendum for the partial modification of the Constitution in 2018.

4.- Closing of Congress in 2019 and call for complementary congressional elections.

5.- Complementary congressional elections in January 2020.

6.- Presidential vacancy for Vizcarra on November 9, 2020.

7.- Inauguration of Manuel Merino as president in charge on November 10, 2020.

8.- Resignation of Manuel Merino as president in charge on November 15, 2020, as a result of the constant manifestations of the citizenry, and the death of 2 young people as a result of them.

9.- A new board of directors is elected in Congress that leads Francisco Sagasti as the new president in charge of Peru on November 17, 2020.

These 9 milestones described, mark a clear democratic participation of Peru, which was constantly expressed not only through the citizen vote, but also, before the use of constitutional tools for the solution of controversies between the powers of the State. Such complexity of situations can be seen from two perspectives, a negative one, which would be the precariousness of the democratic institutional framework in the country, which I do not share, and a positive one, which implies the use of the means provided by the constitution that divide the roles of the powers and that, in the face of controversies, there are autonomous bodies such as the Constitutional Court, which provides the guarantees for a correct development of the Rule of Law in the country.

Finally, the events that have marked the recent history of Peru show a young democracy, which optimistically sees the hard process of consolidating its institutions, and encouraging political culture in young people, as the best development option for the country. which has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.