For a Sovereign and Popular Constituent Assembly, They Should All Go!
Communist Party of Peru (ML)
What happened today, Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at noon in Peru, has not been an unplanned event or just an outburst of adventurism of former President Pedro Castillo, who gave a televised speech to dissolve the Congress of the Republic and thus seek to put an end to the disputes between the Executive and Legislative Branches. This dispute trapped many bills that could provide some solutions in the current context of food, energy, economic and political crisis that the country is experiencing. There are major elements that we cannot lose sight of, so as not to become foolish victims of the deception of others and our own, and to unmask the class interests that have been in contest in the current situation, in the face of which we cannot be naïve.
The OAS mission, stationed in the country weeks ago, was more than a mission to contribute to the stability of Peru, the possibilities of establishing a transitional government within the framework of maintaining calm in the region. This was one of the directives of US imperialism; of which the government of Pedro Castillo did not affect any of its interests, but on the contrary gave it more possibilities to consolidate its domination, following the recommendations of the IMF and World Bank.
The mission of the OAS and the interests of US imperialism should have been to seek stability, so that the forces of the left would no longer raise the demand for the “Call for a Sovereign and Popular Constituent Assembly.” This would lay the foundations for a new economic model that would enable national development and the improvement of the living conditions of working people. In addition to this, it would avoid a new government that would bring Peru closer to Chinese and Russian influence, after the constituent assembly.
There exists in the world a context of inter-imperialist contention, which puts us in danger of war. The United States, the countries of the European Union, Russia and China, are fighting for a new redivision of the world in the context of the economic, political, food and energy crisis on a global scale. For this, US imperialism had to cool the foci that would make possible the progress of the left forces and pay more attention to the inter-imperialist contradictions.
There is a very important background in which the Peruvian oligarchy plays a role, because that plotted that Pedro Castillo would feel confidence in the support of the Armed Forces and Police so that in his speech he would “temporarily dissolve Congress” and in the end be abandoned. This would provide all the tools to proceed with a Constitutional Vacancy from the Congress of the Republic, in which First Vice-President Dina Boluarte assumed the leadership of the country, For a long time she had been the transition card for the parties of the right and had already prepared a speech that denounced Castillo’s attempted self-coup and raised the banners of the defense of the Constitutional Order and respect for the institutionality of the Armed Forces and Police.
Pedro Castillo wanted to carry out a coup d’état in the Fujimontesinista style, repeating the unhappy phrases that lead us to remember the origin of the violent plan of establishment of neoliberalism in Peru. Marx said “History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” The farce in which Pedro Castillo fell undoubtedly means a blow to the banners raised by the popular movement for the change in the Political Constitution, to limit the action of the monopolies and oligopolies, to put an end to the subsidiary role of the State and to stop the blatant sale of our natural resources to the transnational companies.
The workers are in the streets raising their voices in protest against this maneuver of the oligarchy and US imperialism, who with a false call for “national unity” are trying to divert our attention from the danger that is currently being experienced by the peasant and indigenous communities and national agricultural production. There are more than 46 mining mega-projects that they want to carry out by grabbing communal territories, without a social licence and without fully evaluating the impact on the environment and agricultural production. At the same time, they limited the use of the referendum to make changes to the 1993 Constitution. This is in the context of a food crisis, which so far in the first national productive stage has already lost 20% of agricultural production due to the absence of rain. There is no fertilizer production or petrochemical plant that industrializes our gas; all this will affect the food supply starting with the second two months of 2023.
The monopolies that control the import of food, the financial system and the press that agitated for the vacancy, in order to continue to receive money for state propaganda, are the ones that benefited the most by this right-wing coup d’état, orchestrated by US imperialism and that does not prevent the movement in the streets of the workers and organized people. We the Peruvian Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) call on the workers and peoples to remain in the streets in order to defend the popular programme, to counter the attempt of the parasitic bourgeoisie to impose transnational projects and interests on the country. They should advance in an organized manner to demand that all the corrupt ones leave and convene a Sovereign and Popular Constituent Assembly, in which the organized forces of the people can discuss the model of country that we currently need.
Recent experience has shown us that the electoral path of bourgeois democracy has its limits and should not be the only way in which the working people express their will. Likewise, it is clear that the Armed Forces and National Police are always at the service of the ruling classes in the country and we cannot believe that the changes that the people and country need can be made by the Congress and the new presidency of the country. There will be no caudillo who can replace the role of the organized working people in the task of building a People’s Democratic Republic, or to defend their interests.
Neither the forces of nationalism of a pro-fascist-tendency that covered the escape of Montesinos in 2000, nor social democracy and the NGOs (which want new elections without changing the Constitution) are sure paths for the fulfillment of the programme of the popular movement.
Only the organized people can save the people!
Down with the Parliamentary Coup d’état plotted by the
right and US imperialism!
For a Sovereign and Popular Constituent Assembly, all the
corrupt ones must go!
Nilo Candela
Secretary General
For the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the
Peruvian Communist Party (M-L)
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