May 31, 2016 – 11 days before the Peruvian Presidential Election.
Myself and tens of thousands of Peruvians marched the streets of Lima to protest against one of the candidates! We marched, chanted, raised our voices!!! Actually, I did none of that! But I was there and somehow ended up in the action. I honestly had no clue what was going on, or what the protests were about, I didn’t even know Peru was days away from an election!
The Lowdown
Nearing the final days of the election, the candidates were narrowed down to two individuals, Keiko Fujimori and Pablo Kuczynski. Apparently, the Peruvians were not to fond of Keiko Fujimori given her dark family past. Her dad was a former President of Peru for ten years from 1990 to 2000, he is currently serving time for corruption and murder, among other things. Most people in Peru feel that Keiko walks in the foot steps of her father and would have a negative impact on an already struggling country. With the final election days away, Keiko took a slight lead and it was becoming a reality that she might lead the country of Peru. This lead did not sit well with the majority of Peruvians, as they felt Pablo would be the rightful leader, and because of this, protests broke out all over Peru on May 31, 2016.
How did a Traveler from Kansas end up in the middle of this?
Jill and I spent a solid week in the Capital city of Lima, Peru. One afternoon, I decided to explore the city by myself for an hour just to go at my own pace and take pictures. I started at the Historic Center of Lima and walked to another square known as the Plaza San Martin. Lost in my own world, I stumbled behind a line of horses and saw a large police presence in the area. Typically, you would see small groups of police all over Lima. Serious police, with helmets, body armor, and shields. I really did not think anything of it, until I reached the front of the horses and saw thousands of people gathered here.
Right away, I put my camera down. I really wanted to take photos of the police and everything going on, but I did not want to offend anyone. Being the only white male with a large camera in a crowd of thousands, I must have been easy to spot. Within a minute, I heard a voice, “Pst! You speak English?” I turned, and said “Hello, yes I do, what is going on here!” He was a Peruvian photojournalist covering the event. We are still friends to this day. He gave me the lowdown on what the protest was all about, and why the Peruvians were so passionate about this election in particular. Because of this very moment, I followed him around for a solid hour taking photos of law enforcement, the military, politicians, etc.. I had no fear and felt completely safe. I was in the middle of the chaos, I had to watch out for tanks, stop to let lines of military personnel pass me, I even talked in Spanish/English to a few policeman that were standing on the sides. To this date, this event is one of my most memorable travel experiences.
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I wanted to stay longer, I really did! But, I told Jill I would meet her at 6:00 pm for dinner at La Tanta. If you ever go to Lima, La Tanta is at the Historic Center, and is a fabulous restaurant with some of the best Lomo Saltado around! I was still full of adrenaline, and told Jill what just happened and if we scarf down our wonderful meals, we can get back out there! She was more hesitant, but did follow me to Plaza San Martin after dinner. Excited to get back, we arrived to an empty plaza! “I swear, it was all right here!” She rolled her eyes at me not believing me that just an hour ago there were thousands of people standing right here! I kind of gave up and we just walked around, we did see a little protest going on near a roundabout, but nothing exciting.
We walked back toward Plaza San Martin, and saw a few policemen on horses, then we saw more police, those tanks were back, and we stood there wondering what was coming our way. All of a sudden, we saw a line of police with their shields, behind them was every person I saw at the plaza marching down the street. We saw tens of thousands of people walk by us chanting “Keiko No Va!” In amazement, having never seen anything like this, we stood there for a half hour as the crowds walked by us. As the crowd dwindled, we decided it was a good time to leave. I feel I was a part of history that day, it will remain in my memories!
The outcome
The protests were peaceful, there was no violence or anything, we felt safe the whole time. Keiko did not become the President of Peru as Pedro Pablo Kuczynski beat her by a slim percentage, like 51% to 49%. He was sworn into office on July 28 of 2016 and actually resigned two years later. His Vice President Martin Vizcarra is the current President of Peru!
