Catholic cardinal chides Congress as Peru protests persist

A Roman Catholic cardinal has voiced dismay that the nation's Congress again declined to advance elections to defuse Peru's political crisis.

"It hurts our souls that they have (not acted on) a proposal to move up elections," Cardinal Pedro Barreto said on Saturday, hours after the church's highest ecclesiastical body sent a letter to legislators warning them that it is "urgent" to move up elections to later this year.

Thousands of protesters, meanwhile, amassed at vehicular chokepoints around the capital Lima and in a downtown plaza in further demonstrations that have roiled the nation for nearly two months.

"We are not going to end this struggle. The person who must resign is the usurper woman," said Romina Cuno, a 37-year-old woman from Puno in the high Andes, referring to President Dina Boluarte.

Congress a day earlier slammed the door shut until August on any further debate to bring forward general elections currently slated for April 2024 into 2023 — a key demand of near-daily demonstrations that are crippling the country of 33 million people.

READ MORE: Congress shelves Boluarte's bill for snap elections in protest-hit Peru

Infighting in Congress

For the fourth time in a week, legislators rejected a bill on advancing elections, blocking further debate on procedural technicalities.

The move dimmed prospects for an avenue out of the crisis, which has claimed dozens of lives since December 7, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

In December, lawmakers moved elections, originally due in 2026, up to April 2024, but as protesters dug in their heels, Boluarte, Castillo's former vice president, called for holding the vote this year instead.

Boluarte's original intention was to fulfil Castillo's term into 2026, but amid the explosion of protests she exhorted Congress to move up the date.

READ MORE: Peru's fractured Congress votes down new bid to advance elections