Así es como las democracias colapsan. Veamos a América Latina
La justificada exasperación de la ciudadanía frente a la corrupción ha causado estragos en toda la región.
Perú
Los acontecimientos políticos en <anchor>Perú</anchor> y Brasil y las preocupantes tendencias en México y El Salvador son una advertencia de lo que ocurre cuando los sistemas de partidos colapsan y líderes contestatarios asumen el poder prometiendo acabar con la corrupción de la clase política.
With 50 Dead in Peru, a Referendum on Democracy - The New York Times
With 50 Dead in Peru, a Referendum on Democracy - The New York Times

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Protesters using stones to block the main road between Arequipa and Juliaca, Peru.

# With 50 Dead in Peru, a Referendum on Democracy

Weeks after the ouster of a leftist president, persistent protests and a mounting death toll have exacerbated widespread disillusionment with the country’s young democracy.

Protesters using stones to block the main road between Arequipa and Juliaca, Peru.Credit...

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By [Julie Turkewitz](https://www.nytimes.com/by/julie-turkewitz)

Photographs by [Federico Rios](https://www.nytimes.com/by/federico-rios)

Julie Turkewitz and Federico Rios traveled across rural Peru to report from Juliaca, a hub of protest.

- Published Jan. 17, 2023Updated Jan. 19, 2023

[Leer en español](https://www.nytimes.com/es/2023/01/17/espanol/protestas-peru-democracia.html "Read in Spanish")

Highways blocked with giant boulders and broken glass. Entire cities shuttered by mass protests. Fifty families mourning their dead. Calls for a new president, a new constitution, a new governing system altogether. Pledges to take the fight to Lima, the capital. Local officials warning that the country is headed toward anarchy.

A protest anthem shouted in the streets: “This democracy is no longer a democracy.”

Rather than fade, protests in rural Peru that began more than a month ago over the ouster of the former president have only grown in size and in the scope of demonstrators’ demands, paralyzing entire sections of the country and threatening efforts by the new president, [Dina Boluarte](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/world/americas/dina-boluarte-peru-president.html ""), to gain control.

The unrest is now far broader than anger over who is running the country. Instead, it represents a profound frustration with Peru’s young democracy, which protesters say has failed to address a yawning gap between the rich and the poor and between Lima and the country’s rural areas.

Democracy, they say, has largely helped a small elite — the political class, the rich and corporate executives — accumulate power and wealth, while providing few benefits to many other Peruvians.

More broadly, the crisis in Peru reflects an erosion of trust in democracies across Latin America, fueled by states that “violate citizens’ rights, fail to provide security and quality public services, and are captured by powerful interests,” according to a [new essay](https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/why-latin-americas-democracies-are-stuck/ "") in The Journal of Democracy.

Image![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/01/16/world/16peru-unrest-05/16peru-unrest-05-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)

One of the many road blocks in Peru set up as a protest against President Dina Boluarte.

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