PERUVIANS TAKE TO THE STREETS FOLLOWING PRESIDENTIAL IMPEACHMENT

KARISA YUASA

In his second impeachment vote in three months, Peru’s president, Martín Vizcarra, was removed from office on Nov. 9 over allegations of corruption—resulting in widespread protests throughout the country.

Thousands took to the streets of Peru to protest the removal of Vizcarra—a leader who remained popular among the general public due to his anti-corruption work, according to The Guardian.

Vizcarra denies the allegation that he accepted $280,000 worth of bribes from a construction company while a governor, prior to becoming president. According to Al Jazeera, the president claimed the investigation by the opposition-held congress was a plot against him due to their frequent clashes over his anticorruption work.

“Every time you try to defeat that virus of corruption, it defends itself by attacking,” Vizcarra said, as reported by Al Jazeera. “When you hit powerful interests, they don’t stay calm.”

The head of Peru’s Congress and prominent figure in the impeachment process, Manuel Merino, was sworn in as interim president a day after Vizcarra announced he would be stepping down.

Critics have argued the impeachment and following appointments were illegitimate, some even referring to the events as a coup by Congress.

“The removal of President Martín Vizcarra is a coup d’etat,” said Pedro Cateriano, former prime minister and constitutional lawyer, according to The Guardian. “Without any doubt, the Congress has violated the constitutional order.”

Tens of thousands of Peruvians angered by the removal of Vizcarra and the appointment of Merino have shown up to demonstrations across the country. Protests have turned violent when protestors have clashed with the police.

“All of Peru is fired up, we’re all very angry,” said José Vega, a protester in Lima. “They treat us poorly. We’ve only come to protest against injustice…we are all feeling pain. So, I’m saying to everyone let’s not give up.”

At least 27 people were injured in the first four nights of protests, 11 of whom were injured on Thursday, Nov. 12 when police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd.

“This political crisis is generating a human rights crisis due to the violent repression of the protests. The authorities must prioritize the protection of the population over any political interest,” said Marina Navarro, executive director of Amnesty International Peru.

The Health Ministry reported 102 people were treated in hospitals due to protest-related injuries and 41 people were missing, according to BBC.

On Nov. 14, police dressed in riot gear used force in an attempt to stop a protest in Lima, which allegedly led to the deaths of ARTISTS PERFORM DURING A PROTEST. RODRIGO ABD/AP PHOTO

two demonstrators. The next day, Merino announced his resignation—just five days after taking office.

“The unfortunate events that occurred in the last few hours aggravate the crisis that we were already going through and that produced a few days ago the presidential vacancy of Mr. Martín Vizcarra...all of Peru is in mourning. Nothing justifies that a legitimate protest should trigger the death of Peruvians,” Merino said.

Francisco Sagasti, a center-leaning first-time legislator who was one of the few to not vote to impeach Vizcarra, was sworn in on Nov. 17, becoming Peru’s third president in a week.

“This is not a moment for celebration; we have too many problems, tragedies and difficulties. It is a moment to ask ourselves: Where did we lose our way?” Sagasti said.

Sagasti is intending to hold office until July when a new president is formally elected.

“It is absolutely necessary to remain calm, but do not confuse this with passivity, conformity or resignation,” Sagasti said in an address to Congress.

According to Reuters, Sagasti is not expected to quell the anger in the long term, as many of the frustrations with the government run deeper than the presidency. According to a poll, approximately 90% of Peruvians surveyed disapproved of Congress. It is estimated that 68 out of the 130 legislators are currently under investigation for fraud or other types of corruption.

Protests, consisting mainly of young people, continue as they seek tangible changes in the way the government is run. A poll by think-tank IEP found that over half of the people aged 1824 that they surveyed had participated in an anti-government protest this month.

“We want to fix the mistakes of past generations,” said Grace Yarango, an 18-year-old Peruvian, as reported by Reuters. “I feel part of this bicentennial generation, we want a better country.”

“The great citizen movement today belongs to the youth,” Sagasti said in his inaugural address. “We have to call on the youth of all ages because there are adults who have a young spirit of rebellion, the youthful spirit of seeking a better country, and that is what we need.”

QRC HOSTS SERIES OF EVENTS FOR TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

DYLAN JEFFERIES

“We need solidarity because we’re not protected.”

“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free,” said Hollis Kinner, queer and trans students of color resources and retention coordinator at Portland State.

He was quoting civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and speaking at a virtual event entitled “Black and Trans in the PNW,” which was organized by the PSU Queer Resource Center (QRC) and Pan-African Commons (PAC).

The QRC held a series of virtual events in November for Trans Empowerment, Resilience and Resistance Days (TEMPRR), an annual month of programming leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on Nov. 20.

Most events were held between Nov. 18–21 for the Trans Action and Care Conference (TACC), a weekend of events put on by the QRC for Transgender Awareness Week .

TDOR memorializes transgender people who have been murdered, and recognizes onging violence and oppression that transgender people endure. Transgender actvist Gwendelyn Ann Smith began TDOR in 1999 to memorialize Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was murdered in 1998. The day is now annually observed by communities around the world.

Transgender Awareness Week, held to raise awareness about transgender people and the issues members of the transgender community face, takes place the week leading up to TDOR.

Events held by the QRC throughout November included a weekly book club, documentary and film screenings, panels about gender questioning, transgender inclusion and allyship and multiple speakers.

A virtual vigil was held on the night of Nov. 20. A vigil commemorating all the transgender lives lost to anti-trans violence was held during the first TDOR on Nov. 20, 1999. Vigils and memorials have since been held annually by communities and individuals who observe TDOR. At these events, the names of all the transgender lives lost that year are often read aloud.

“As of today, there have been 36 murders of transgender and gender non-conforming people in the United States this year. This year is higher than last year, and is likely higher than reported due to police misgendering people,” Kinner said at one event. “We will speak their names with utmost diligence and dignity. Trans lives matter. Black Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter.”

BLACK AND TRANS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST One event held on Nov. 18 was billed as “an interstate dialogue on activism, resistance and resilience,” and included two speakers—Jaelynn Scott, executive director of Lavender Rights Project, and Zeloszelos Marchandt, an artist, public speaker and journalist. The event was organized by both the QRC and PAC.

“PAC and QRC staff convened after Tony McDade, a Black transgender male, was fatally shot by police in May of 2020, along with the murders of Black transgender women such as Titi Gulley in 2019 and Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears in 2020, here in Portland,” PAC Coordinator Courtney Taylor said. “This event was created to stand in solidarity and support the Black transgender community, who faces scrutiny by the Black community and society due to their intersectional identites and counter-existence to heteronormative ideals. We are hosting this event during the week of TDOR to pay homage to all of the Black trans lives that were lost this year.”

Scott, a Black transgender woman, is the executive director of Lavender Rights Project, a Tacoma based nonprofit which provides lowcost legal services and community engagement centered around low income LGBTQ+ people and others within marginalized groups.

Marchandt, a Black transgender man, works in various roles as a director, journalist, producer and artist.

The event explored topics such as solidarity, coalition building, allyship, activism, justice and self-care.

The moderator, Aneesah Rasheed, asked what solidarity and coalition building were.

“For me, solidarity means, really for everybody at this point, center Black trans people, just do it,” Scott said. “That’s solidarity for me. If you’re not centering Black trans people, then you’re not doing the work that needs to happen at this moment.”

“Why is there a need for solidarity?” Rasheed asked.

“We need solidarity because we’re not protected,” Marchandt said.

“There has been very little progress, and there has been very little that has translated into our own protection, and we’re being murdered—it’s a genocide,” Scott said. “Solidarity is needed. Some shift in theoretical thinking, some shift in the way that we’ve been approaching the problem and fighting for queer rights, period. It needs to shift. It has to shift, because I need to be able to walk out of my door after 9 p.m. and feel safe.”

From there, the conversation touched on topics like allyship and activism before landing on liberation and justice— the theme of this year’s TEMPRR and TACC.

“Right now, [transgender people] are barely even case numbers, is how I feel,” Marchandt said. “There’s so much explanation, and not enough people who see a trans person for being human—human first, a human who just happens to be trans. That’s justice to me, and I don’t feel like we’ve really got it yet, but I’m hopeful that we will soon.”

“I don’t think we have a good picture of what justice is or what it will be, and I think we’re looking with the wrong eyes,” Scott said. “We can’t get there from here. It is something that we have yet to figure out how to approach.”

Speaking about liberation, Scott said: “We are so stuck in survival that we can’t even hear the word liberation. And for thousands of years, people have been able to imagine the end times, and imagine the afterlife, and imagine their futures, and imagine the futures of their children, but that has been robbed from us.”

“We’re in survival, and we’re not able to have that imagining,” she continued.” I can’t even approach the liberation question. I can approach the survival question, and I can say that I don’t know what justice is yet. It’s not what we’re doing yet. It’s somewhere out there, and we might be on the right track of discovering it, but it is a discovery that is yet to happen.”

The speakers then discussed ways to build coalitions and solidarity across the Pacific Northwest, as well as self-care.

“Being with community and talking about these things that we’re passionate about, I mean, maybe this is the only self care I can do at the moment,” Scott said. “It’s work, but it’s still invigorating.”

Before closing out the event, Kinner explained the importance of providing solidarity for the Black trans community. “It’s important to note that anti-trans violence disproportionately affects trans women of color, specifically Black trans women,” he said. “We can’t be leaving people behind.”

“We are so stuck in survival that we can’t even hear the word liberation.”

DOMINIQUE MORGAN Dominique Morgan, a Black transgender woman, award winning artist, activist and TedX speaker, was the keynote speaker for TACC on Nov. 20.

Morgan is the executive director of the largest prison abolitionist organization in the United States, Black and Pink. As a formerly incarcerated person—she once spent 18 months in solitary confinement—Morgan advocates from personal experience. She also works in various roles as an educator and activist.

“Dominique Morgan is a Black, formerly incarcerated trans woman, community organizer, educator, advocate, visionary, musician, author and multifaceted leader local to Omaha, Nebraska,” said Angeline Booth, a TACC organizer, in her introduction. “She consistently challenges oppressive systems and works towards, in her own words, ‘community solutions for change and engaging in the empowerment of system impacted individuals.’”

“Since 2018, Dominique has served as the executive director for Black and Pink,” Booth said. “Black and Pink is a national, abolitionist organization that aims to support and advocate for LGBTQ+ and HIV+ people through organizing, education and providing direct services.”

Morgan began her talk by discussing transgender narratives and identity.

“I’m really thankful to be here today, not only because of holding space with you all, but for a day like today, TDOR, and this desire that we have, as trans and gender non-conforming people, to be seen as more then a hashtag,” Morgan said. “To be seen as more than the oppression that we have to navigate, to be seen as more than the stories that are told about us when we’re unable to tell our own stories. Opportunities like this also allow us to say that we were here, and allows us to tell our own stories, and to leave a mark on how the world sees us.”

From there, Morgan began discussing her own life experiences.

“I’m a person who lives with HIV. I’m a person who lives with the experience of having PTSD. I navigate the world with ADHD and oppression. These are my truths. I’m a Black trans woman. Of course every day isn’t perfect. Of course every minute isn’t sunshine and rainbows. But what I mean when I say that is, no matter what type of day I have, I recognize and I hold that this isn’t the end of the story, and I have to stay present in the story because there’s something greater coming.”

During the Q+A portion of the event, the moderator asked, “How do we destigmatize things like being formerly incarcerated?”

“I don’t think anyone has not been connected to someone who has been impacted by incarceration, and that’s one of the important reasons that we talk about people being system impacted, because it positions me to be able to talk about not only the person who was in the prison, but also their children, their partner, their neices, their nephews, their church,” Morgan said. “To say that when we make decisions around incarceration and we think we’re kind of making these singular decisions, that is not true.”

Morgan also discussed finding access to joy and liberation, as well as food, music and comic books.

“I have decided that being simply resilient is not going to be my whole story,” Morgan said. “I know so many folks who, you know, you find that new restaurant, or you’ve made this great recipe, and you cannot wait to tell everybody about it. You can’t wait, right? Why, when we are talking about access to joy, access to liberation, aren’t we talking to people in the same way, like it’s an amazing recipe?”

Morgan concluded by discussing the importance of centering Black trans people.

“If I’m centering the most oppressed in how I’m creating solutions, everyone else is inherently going to benefit,” Morgan said. “For our white trans and gender non-conforming siblings: your identity is so valid, and so important, and absolutely that pressure that you’re navigating is real. But the shield of whiteness is real as well.”

“Understand that you not being centered does not mean that you’re being erased,” she said.

Over the weekend, additional events were held by the QRC for TACC, including workshops and panels, and on Nov. 23, TEMPRR concluded with two events: one panel discussion about trans inclusion, and another about cisgender allyship.

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THIS WEEK around the WORLD Nov. 16–21

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1 Nevember 16 MOLDOVA Pro-European Union candidate, Maia Sandu, won Moldova’s presidential election against incumbent Igor Dodon with 57.7% of the vote, according to The New York Times. The loss of Dodon, who was openly endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, represented a possible shift away from Russia for the former Soviet country. Sandu will be Moldova’s first female president in the country’s history. “We have a divided society,” Sandu said in an interview with BBC. “It’s been further divided during this campaign by my opponent, but the short-term challenges of course are to help people go through this pandemic crisis, the sanitary crisis and the economic crisis.”

2 November 18 FRANCE French President Emmanuel Macron gave the French Council of the Muslim Faith 15 days to work with the interior ministry and agree to a “charter of republican values” in an effort to crack down on “radical Islam.” As part of this process, the CFCM agreed to create a National Council of Imams, which would require imams to go through an official accreditation process, according to BBC. Macron also introduced a bill that sought to prevent “radicalization” with measures that would include providing children with identification numbers to ensure they attend school and harsher punishments on those who intimidate public officials on religious grounds. Following the announcement, Pakistan’s human rights minister released a tweet that compared Macron’s treatment of Muslims to Nazi treatment of Jews, which has since been deleted.

3 November 19 BANGKOK, THAILAND Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced the government would crack down harder on protesters as anti-government protests continue. “The situation is not improving,” Chan-ocha said in a statement, as reported by Al Jazeera. “There is a risk of escalation to more violence. If not addressed, it could damage the country and the beloved monarchy. The government will intensify its actions and use all laws, all articles, to take action against protesters who broke the law.” Following the announcement, thousands of protesters—mainly young students—took to the streets of Bangkok on Nov. 21. Many were dressed in dinosaur costumes. “We represent the meteorites crushing the dinosaurs to extinction,” said 15-year-old high school student leader Benjamaporn Nivas to Reuters.

4 November 20 NAGORNO-KARABAKH Following almost two months of violent clashes, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement. According to Al Jazeera, Armenia agreed to return 15–20% of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Azerbaijan’s army announced it entered the first of three districts to be returned on Friday. Armenian residents and soldiers were seen destroying buildings and burning down houses before the handoff began. The Guardian reported tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis are expected to return to the districts.

5 November 21 GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA A section of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala was set aflame by protesters after Congress passed a controversial budget bill. The budget bill increased the stipends of Guatemala’s lawmakers and cut funding for human rights programs, according to Al Jazeera. Protesters called for the resignation of President Alejandro Giammattei after he refused to veto the bill—one of the main demands by protesters. Approximately 10,000 people protested in front of the National Palace in Guatemala City. “I feel like the future is being stolen from us,” said Mauricio Ramírez, a 20-year-old university student, according to AP News. “We don’t see any changes, this cannot continue like this.”