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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities in the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.
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1. The issue to highlight: Fears of a prolonged conflict in Peru
Anti-government protests in Peru are entering their second month, with growing concern among human rights groups and political observers that the deadly police response to the demonstrations is paving the way for a democratic rollback in that country.
Current situation
: Some 60 people have been killed and more than 1,100 injured in the past month as protests have spread from the largely rural southeast.
The situation led the authorities on Saturday to temporarily close Machu Picchu, stranding dozens of tourists in one of the most visited places in the world and thus cutting off an important source of income for the country.
This weekend, officers entered the largest public university with tanks to disperse protesters who authorities say had entered the building illegally.
Several students were also detained.
The National University of San Marcos denounced it as an abuse of authority.
Protesters outside a Peruvian National Police headquarters on January 21. Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images
Recount
: The protests began in early December after former President Pedro Castillo — the first in recent history of rural origins — was ousted from office and arrested for trying to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.
[There is] a pattern of behavior that places us in a dangerous transition to authoritarianism."
Peruvian academics
Dina Boluarte, who was the vice president, took her place, but protests soon began demanding that they resign and call immediate elections to renew the Government and Congress.
Boluarte refuses to resign in the face of what he considers pressure from a "tiny group that is making the country bleed."
Regarding the deaths in the protests, he said "If we have made a mistake in finding peace and calm, I apologize to the Peruvian people."
Boluarte also said, without providing evidence, that the ammunition linked to the deaths did not come from the police or the military.
In their own words
: The refusal to rethink police deployment is indicative of "a pattern of conduct that places us in a dangerous transition toward authoritarianism," dozens of political scientists and academics said in a letter published Monday.
This context makes any possibility of dialogue to unblock the situation improbable, political scientist Paula Távara Pineda, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, told Axios Latino.
"If the representatives of the powers of the State do not try to move things to have a more positive result, such as speeding up the call for elections, we will continue as we are and we will not be able to find a way out of the conflict," added Pineda.
He also stressed that the protests have grown precisely because of the immobility of the authorities, alleging that many people previously unrelated to the initial demonstration of Castillo supporters have joined in rejection of what he considers police repression and indications of human rights violations.
More than 400 visitors are trapped in Machu Picchu before the wave of protests in Peru
Jan 23, 202300:25
Many of the people who have died
in the protests, who were both demonstrators and nearby civilians, were between the ages of 15 and 30, according to the country's Ombudsman's Office.
Many died from projectile wounds to the head and chest, according to a review of autopsies by the Salud con Lupa platform.
Edgar Stuardo RalĂłn, rapporteur for Peru at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said last week that there should be prompt investigations into possible excessive use of force by the government.
The Peruvian National Police has not ruled on the accusations of excessive use of force.
He has publicly mourned only the death of a security officer.
Big Picture
: What is happening in Peru is indicative of the growing disenchantment with institutions in Latin America.
Only 1 in 5 Latin Americans say that democracy is working and trust in the bodies of Congress and the judiciaries has plummeted, according to the main regional survey carried out by LatinobarĂłmetro in 2020 and 2021.
Overall, the disenchantment could be "paving the way for authoritarian populists who talk of a failed
establishment
or consolidated power" to rise to power in the region, warns a recent article in the
Johns Hopkins University
Journal of Democracy .
2. Analysis: Gallego's race for the Senate
Arizona Democratic Rep. Rubén Gallego announced this week his intention to run for the Senate to replace Kyrsten Sinema, now an independent, in the 2024 elections.
That candidacy could embarrass the Bold PAC political action committee, the fundraising arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which was instrumental in getting a record number of Latino Democrats elected to Congress last year.
Rubén Gallego is not afraid of dividing the Democratic vote.
He believes that if he does not run "the Republicans are going to win"
Jan 24, 202302:21
Big Picture
: Bold PAC established the Our Lucha initiative, which helped nine new Latino Democratic congressmen in last November's House elections, including Andrea Salinas (Oregon) and Yadira Caraveo (Colorado).
In the next electoral cycle, in 2024, this Democratic group will be key to defending and maintaining those seats.
Gallego led Bold PAC in the 2022 campaign and in January he was re-elected to the front.
But it is not clear if he will remain in that position while he campaigns;
neither Bold PAC nor Gallego responded to Axios Latino.
Beyond
: Sinema, who Gallego will face off against, has angered Democrats by stalling some measures in the Senate and refusing to hold public meetings in his home state of Arizona.
Sinema left the Democratic Party in December and registered as an independent, a blow to Democrats who fear a three-way race between Gallego, Sinema and a Republican could hand the seat over to the GOP.
3. Tenoch Huerta denounces Hollywood stereotypes
Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta, who gained many new fans in the fall with his role as Namor in
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
,
denounced this weekend what he sees as gross colorism (discrimination based on skin tone) in the film and television industry.
Tenoch Huerta and Yalitza Aparicio dance during an event at Sundance.Danny Moloshok/Invision for The Latinx House via AP
Details
: Huerta said at a Latinx House event at the Sundance Festival that Latino actors with lighter complexions are cast in roles more often than darker ones like him.
He also regretted that when he counts on Latinos, many times it is for stereotyped characters of criminals or household helpers.
In his own words
: "Those characters don't have any power. They don't have any influence on the story. They're just in the background. That's the problem," he said in English.
He added that to avoid displaying somewhat distorted views on poverty and social inequality in countries like his, Mexico, Latinos who work in Hollywood who have a lighter skin tone should recognize their privilege and "help the rest people, because we are a community".
In Numbers
: Latinos make up nearly 19% of the population but only about 7% of movie stars in 2021, according to UCLA's annual Diversity in Hollywood report.
It is a subject that goes beyond Hollywood, also affecting Latin American productions;
In Mexico, for example, many television programs only have white-skinned protagonists.
In fact, Huerta has also denounced it on other occasions and in his best-selling book
Orgullo prieto
.
Recent studies in Mexico have shown that several disparities in access to jobs and education can be attributed to skin tone, although many in Mexico maintain that there is no racism because it is a mestizo society and that the differences are only socioeconomic.
4. Defendant in El Paso Walmart shooting to plead guilty
Patrick Crusius, accused of killing 23 people
at an El Paso Walmart in 2019, he will change the not guilty plea he entered early in the federal proceeding against him.
According to his lawyers, he will now plead guilty to federal charges, which accuse him of committing hate crimes.
Big picture
: Federal prosecutors in the case announced last week that they will not seek the death penalty for Crusius in his federal trial, which is set to begin in 2024.
After that, a judge set a new hearing to read Crusius his charges, scheduled for February 8.
Crusius also faces a state murder trial in Texas, which will begin after the federal process is complete.
The El Paso district attorney has said that they will seek the death penalty there.
Recount
: Crusius has initially pleaded not guilty to all 90 federal charges of hate crimes and illegal weapons possession.
On Saturday, his lawyers filed a motion asking for a new hearing, which will be in February, to change his guilty plea.
The lawyers did not immediately respond to Axios Latino's requests for comment.
According to the investigation, Crusius confessed to authorities that he wanted to shoot Hispanic people when he drove 10 hours from Allen, Texas, to El Paso, where the attack took place on August 3, 2019.
He is also credited with publishing a racist manifesto.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1. Brazil has declared a health emergency
for the Yanomami
, an indigenous group that lives in the Amazon and has been especially affected by malnutrition and disease.
Illegal mining near Yanomami settlements is a major culprit because it creates large puddles that attract malaria-carrying mosquitoes, researchers say.
Activists also denounce that during the previous government, of Jair Bolsonaro, medical services in the areas, which already have few health workers, were greatly reduced.
They perceived him as a super policeman and he recognized the setup of a plagiarism: who is Genaro GarcĂa Luna
Jan 24, 202301:37
2. The trial against former Mexican security secretary Genaro GarcĂa Luna
, accused of collaborating with organized crime groups, began Monday in New York.
Sergio
El Grande
Villarreal Barragán was the first witness.
El Grande
, who served a sentence for drug trafficking and is now a protected witness in the US for this type of case, said he witnessed how GarcĂa Luna was paid bribes on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Garcia Luna has pleaded not guilty.
6. 🏺 The senses of art
Mexican artisan JosĂ© GarcĂa Antonio lost his sight to glaucoma two decades ago, but says it sharpened his other senses to benefit his clay work.
This Mexican artisan who lost his sight creates impressive sculptures of mermaids
Dec 29, 202201:46
Details
: GarcĂa Antonio is known for creating figures of Zapotec men and women, in honor of his native Oaxacan town.
He has gained particular renown for his interpretation of mermaids with indigenous features inspired by Reyna Teresita Mendoza, his wife and key to the art pieces by helping to detail them.
GarcĂa Antonio has been nicknamed
Lord of the Mermaids
.
He has been invited to exhibit in various parts of the world, including New Mexico, and some of his work is in a Philadelphia sculpture garden.
Thanks for reading us!
We return on Thursday.
Do you want to read any of the previous editions?
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