Perú, By A Thread
Perspective is everything.
Peruvian press owned
by white elites who
dismiss the chola hordes,
the new president
accompanied by ministers
from Fujimori’s dictatorship,
daughter Keiko just released
from her chargesheet.
The cards are decked
in dear old Peru. So when
you see a peasant throwing
stones and hear the crack
of bullets fired by police
in return, when the stone-
thrower has no job
or money or prospects
while copper mining
conglomerates trade
on precious metals
markets, and artisanal
Amazon gold diggers
are hounded by Army
and police gangs
in the name of
biodiversity, when
nobody invests enough
to give farmers
in the VRAEM alternative
crops to the coca leaf,
when elites, defended
by misguided and
brainwashed police,
lament the shaking
down of their august
institutions, the stock
market, the courts,
Jockey Plaza and all
the plazas of the
commercial Peruvian
disney world, then
take a deep breath,
step back or step
forward but do not
allow the new
rulers to stamp
upon your inalienable
right to say no,
and to vote again,
not in two years
but as soon as
elections can be
arranged in the
one country still
called Perú.
Indran Amirthanayagam, c) January 21, 2023
