The Latin American Report # 579
Peru's controversial president Dina Boluarte celebrated this Friday a recent ruling by the South American country's constitutional court that, for now, mandated the interruption of a series of judicial processes targeting her. I am against all the immunities protecting those who hold public office, including the president, except in this specific case where there is an imminent or ongoing situation of war or another major threat to national security, validated by the legislative branch.
However, despite criticism of the judicial decision from left-wing organizations and activists who execrate Boluarte, and who had seen great hope in the cases that involve her for possible illicit enrichment or her alleged role in the bloody repression that followed the chaotic overthrow of former president Pedro Castillo, the truth is that the Peruvian Constitution somehow shields the person managing the affairs in the Pizarro from being accused unless they have, allegedly, committed treason, prevented the holding of elections, or dissolved Congress through unconstitutional means.
In that case, I find the conduct of the Public Ministry to be very irresponsible, since the constitution is very clear in this regard. Yes, it would be very good to reform its Article 117, in line with very lucid proposals like those expounded here—which insist on explicitly including corruption or moral incapacity declared by the legislative branch as grounds for accusing the sitting president—, but current law must be respected and, if necessary, modified through the legally enabled channels.
This is not an argument in favor of Boluarte—who, by some estimates, is the most unpopular presidency in the entire region—, although it now, in practice, contributes to "saving" her in this instance. Then, I hope that, when possible, her responsibility for the commission or not of the crimes she is accused of is settled in accordance with the law, and in accordance with the law, if applicable, she pays her debts to a nation where corruption metastasized long ago. Since last week, four former Peruvian presidents coincide in the sadly infamous Barbadillo prison.
Regional news brief
Despite having the largest oil reserves in the world, and still having a relatively decent production—without discounting how much it has diminished since the late Hugo Chávez came to power at the end of the last century—, the poor management of energy infrastructure in Venezuela continues to push the country into peaks of crisis within a sustained state of instability, especially in certain regions. This Friday, for example, failures in the electrical system were reported in several areas of the capital, from blackouts to fluctuations in the voltage served, as well as in other states like Miranda and La Guaira. The state-associated television channel linked these problems to "the torrential rains and strong winds" that allegedly affected a substation located on the outskirts of Caracas. As EFE reports, it is common for the government to attribute the occurrence of damages to sabotage against the electrical grid, but this does not speak well of its capacity to secure the critical power network at sensitive points.
In the violent state of Guerrero, forces from the Mexican Navy Secretariat seized nearly a ton of cocaine, according to a statement from the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Claudia Sheinbaum's government. With this new interception, authorities are very close to reaching 50 tons of narcotics seized during the current administration, which has striven intensely, and to a certain point succeeded, to show substantive results that somehow please Donald Trump, who raises and lowers their grade as he sees fit as part of his political-communication strategy, with tariffs or threats of the active use of military forces in operations against the cartels as the main punishments hanging over the heads of the Aztecs.
