Tucson, AZ – After a record six weeks of ballot counting and false claims of fraud by right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, Pedro Castillo was officially announced the newest president of Peru, on the evening of July 19. Castillo, from a poor peasant background and the candidate of the Peru Libre party, found support in the masses of poor and working Peruvians fed up with the lack of response to COVID-19 and the high rates of unemployment. Equally important is the defeat of “Fujimorismo” the far-right ideology of neoliberalism and chauvinism of former President Alberto Fujimori, Keiko’s criminal father.

Lima, Peru – After 15 years in prison in Peru, on Jan. 24 U.S. progressive activist Lori Berenson finally won her freedom. Berenson had been jailed in Peru since November 1995. She was initially released from prison last May, only to be rejailed three months later as Peruvian judges went back and forth about whether to continue to imprison her.