Protests in Peru: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Structural Crisis

Abstract

This conversation is the result of an event that took place on 18 April 2023, as a collaboration with the Humanities Institute of the University of California, Santa Cruz, that aimed to create a space for collective reflection on the multidimensional crises Peru had been facing since early December 2022 when protests erupted in the wake of former President Pedro Castillo’s unsuccessful attempt to shut down Congress to avert an impeachment and in response to the extreme violence exerted by the Peruvian state under Dina Boluarte’s presidency. For this conversation we take as our starting point the lens of Aldair Mejía, a young Peruvian photojournalist who covered the protests in the country with a perspective focused on justice and intent on challenging the dehumanising representation of the protesters in traditional media. Furthermore, to understand this structural crisis from multidisciplinary perspectives, the event also brought together Peruvian academics from the humanities and the social sciences, who contemplated the historical, social, cultural, economic, and political implications of the current crisis for the future of Peru.