Peru Archives | puntorojo

March 3, 2023

Crisis in Peru: a Marxist analysis

On December 7th, Peru’s embattled head of state, the left-populist Pedro Castillo, declared a state of emergency and called for Congress to be dissolved and replaced with a newly elected constituent assembly, which would draft a new constitution. The same day, the Peruvian Congress voted to impeach Castillo. After the impeachment, Castillo was arrested on charges of sedition and treason and his vice president, Dina Boluarte, assumed office. The vast majority of Peruvians oppose the impeachment and arrest of Castillo and hundreds of thousands have gone on strike, protested, and set up blockades to resist the power grab of the Congress and Boluarte.

To date, the police and military have murdered at least 47 demonstrators. Boluarte and her new right wing allies want to hold new elections in the midst of rampant political repression under the guise of “restoring democracy”, but the protesters are demanding a new constitution will transform the state itself and deliver real democracy to Peru.

August 25, 2020

by Héctor Rivera

The Resurrection of José Carlos Mariátegui

The last couple of years have seen an increased interest in the life and work of the Peruvian Marxist José Carlos Mariátegui. Several left publications in the United States [1,2,3,4] have introduced readers to this original thinker and even the Economist [5] featured a sympathetic but characteristically bourgeois profile on the revolutionary. The global relevance of Mariátegui and his contributions to the art world were also featured last year in an exquisitely curated exhibition that travelled to Madrid, Spain, Lima, Peru, Austin, Texas, and Mexico City–which I was able to view firsthand [6].
This newfound interest in Mariátegui is a welcomed development, since this thinker hasn’t always enjoyed such popularity outside of Peru, the academy, or latinamericanist Marxist circles. However, translations of some of Mariategui’s key works have been available in the US since the 1970s. In 2011, Monthly Review Press published a lengthy anthology edited by Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker that is bound to become a reference text for Mariátegui studies. [7] Nevertheless, the work of this pioneering Marxist is being slowly embraced, and he is rapidly gaining a following in the English-speaking world.