The CPUSA International Department and Peace and Solidarity Commission denounce the ongoing coup in Peru that was engineered by the right wing using parliamentary maneuvers. Following the illegitimate removal of center-left President Pedro Castillo, Peru has seen nationwide mass resistance and bloody repression at the hands of security forces. We regard the protesters’ demands as appropriate, among them: removal of de facto President Dina Boluarte, as well as the convening of early elections and a constituent assembly.

We call upon regional and international organizations and agencies that are dedicated to the survival and thriving of working people to take concrete steps on behalf of popular demands in Peru, specifically, for immediate restoration of governmental processes and, beyond that, for a new era of social justice.

We stand in solidarity with the working people of Peru. Abused and exploited throughout modern history by national and international corporations and big landowners, they are peasants and small farmers, miners, factory workers, fishery workers, service providers, and indigenous peoples. CPUSA has special regard for Peru as the homeland of Jose Mariátegui. That original thinker in the Marxist tradition highlighted the semi-colonial nature of Peru’s 20th century economy and the subjugation of indigenous people. Revolutionary change, he declared, must take both realities into account. Multinational mining companies alone extracted no less than $159 billion in profits from Peru in 2021, as one source reports.

The CPUSA calls to account those actors beholden to, and complicit with, the U.S. government, such as multinational corporations that have endorsed and supported the coup. We condemn U.S. collaboration with Peruvian security forces, evident in the visit of the U.S. ambassador to Peru’s Defense Minister the day before President Castillo was removed from power. We point to long-standing U.S. military deployment in Peru and undue U.S. military influence in the country.

The U.S. government, representing the interests of U.S. corporations dominating the global economy, seeks cover under the discredited Monroe Doctrine and Organization of American States, to control the political and economic life of the peoples of the Americas. The CPUSA condemns the U.S. government’s complicity with plunder in Peru, and joins with allies to oppose U.S. imperialist operations in the region and throughout the world.