Thousands take to the streets of Peru following the fall of yet another government

Sunday 19 October 2025, by Jorge Escalante






The fall of Dina Boluarte from the Peruvian presidency was driven by Fujimorism and its reactionary allies in parliament. Congress decided to remove the president from office a few months before the presidential elections, scheduled for 12 April 2026. The controversial president of Congress, José Jerí, took over the presidency.


The first objective of this manoeuvre was for these sectors to wash their hands of the great crisis generated by their own ultra-conservative coalition, throwing all the dirty water at Boluarte. The second objective was to defuse the mobilization process initiated by young people, along with transport strikes, amid the enormous discontent of a population suffering from insecurity (5,000 people have already been murdered by hired assassins).

But the reactionary coalition that raised Boluarte to power and then overthrew her failed to dismantle the process. The call for a national day of struggle on 15 October gained strength. The interim government of José Jerí Oré tried an old formula of decompression, with a call for dialogue, always seeking to defuse the social mobilization that was already shaping up to be one of the largest since the days of December 2022.

Jerí’s plan was to propose a dialogue table, convened for October 14, in coordination with the mayor of Pataz. This mayor decided to lower the flags of struggle, trust Jerí, and not take part in the day of action on the 15th, much to the disappointment of the thousands of protesters who had marched more than a thousand kilometres. At the same time, the new president set up a series of meetings with governors, mayors, university rectors, and artists, along with a group that claimed to represent the Federation of Students of Peru (FEP).

Everything was designed to convey the image of a state willing to listen. But in reality, it was an operation of political decompression, opening small valves so that social steam would not blow up the boiler.

While talking about dialogue, José Jerí appointed an even more reactionary cabinet with a coup-mongering past. He put Ernesto Álvarez Miranda, an ultra-conservative who was a magistrate of the Constitutional Court and dean of law at the USMP, at the head of the Council of Ministers. Jerí made it clear that this would be a government with repression as state policy. He had already labelled the mobilized youth on his social media accounts as “a gang that wants to storm democracy” and “heirs of the MRTA”. This was not rhetorical eccentricity, but rather ideological preparation for repression: criminalizing protest to justify the use of force.
The events of October 15

The mobilization, initially driven by Generation Z youth groups, grew into a national movement involving older students, teachers, artists, streamers, unions, and grassroots communities, as well as organizations of the Peruvian left. The main demands of the protesters were directed at Jerí himself and Congress. They called for the resignation of the new president, who is part of the coup-plotting mafia in parliament and the target of an allegation of attempted rape. Many called for the closure of the current Congress.

Protests were held in all 24 administrative regions. In Arequipa, the marches coincided with the visit of the King of Spain to the International Congress of the Spanish Language, creating a symbolic scene: young people confronting both the coup regime and the old colonial order. In Lima, the day ended with dozens injured and stained with the blood of Eduardo Ruiz Sáenz (“Trvko”), a 32-year-old rapper. Ruiz was shot dead in Plaza Francia, far from the epicentre of the day’s events. Eduardo’s murder further fuelled popular anger. In addition to the young man’s death, there was another murder and hundreds of people were wounded by pellets. The demand for punishment for the killers is an important rallying cry.

Witnesses stated that it was a plainclothes police officer from the Terna group who fired the shots. The government responded cynically: Jeri spoke of “a small group of infiltrators,” attempting to erase the dead man and turn the tragedy into noise. The blood of Eduardo Ruiz was not “police excess.” It was confirmation of the repressive nature of the coup regime of Jeri and his Congress.
Elections in the midst of struggle?

It is highly unlikely that the 2026 general elections will take place without incident. Something that workers, students, and the Peruvian people in general so desperately needed is becoming a reality: a social alliance has begun to form between high school and university students, marching alongside teachers, artistic guilds, neighbourhood collectives, and indigenous movements, all with the goal of repealing all the laws passed by the mafia-like Congress and bringing to trial and punishment those responsible for the murders committed by the police. So 15 October is a historic date, a day when the youth, workers, and peoples of Peru broke the passivity imposed by fear and fragmentation.

But every spark needs organization to become a fire. The moment is very delicate and complex. We are six months away from the general elections, in which 43 parties will participate, 99% of them right-wing or centre-right. The coalition still in power wants only right-wingers to reach the second round. On the left is the Venceremos alliance, which is the unity of Nuevo Perú por el Buen Vivir and Voces del Pueblo, joined by Unidad Popular, Tierra Verde, and Patria Roja, as well as some unions such as the CUT and social movements. It is essential to fight on this terrain as well.

If the presentation of a united left-wing alternative in the electoral process is a necessity, the most challenging task is to help the youth, workers, and popular movements move from indignation to the construction of a large, united, and democratic space for coordinating the struggle against the regime. A space that is not taken over by bureaucracies or sectarians, that democratically discusses the steps to be taken, the next actions, and a national plan of struggle towards a new National Constituent Assembly.

18 october 2025

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Jorge Escalante is leader of the Súmate, part of the Nuevo Peru por el Bien Vivir party.


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