Political community disputes of indigenous women from Puno during the protests in opposition to the Boluarte Government in Peru

Flores Rojas D.C. · International Journal of Human Rights (2026) · DOI: 10.1080/13642987.2026.2642178

Resumen

Our research seeks to understand the forms of political participation of indigenous women from Puno (Peru), coming from an analysis that looks beyond public visibility and the occupation of liberal representative positions, but rather includes those forms that are reproduced in everyday communal spaces of socialization and care. This is within the context of the political conflict that intensified in Peru starting in December 2022, when Pedro Castillo, a rural teacher and then president of the Republic, was removed by Congress and succeeded by his vice president, Dina Boluarte. This study is qualitative, interpretive, and ethnographic, and takes as its case study the practices and perceptions of Quechua and Aymara women during the protests that occurred between December 2022 and December 2024 in Peru. For this purpose, interviews, documentary reviews, and participant observation were employed. We conclude that the indigenous women of Puno dispute margins of critical elaboration regarding the meaning and practice of politics, via strategies that resist, confront, but also negotiate with, the hegemonic patriarchal and colonial mandates structurally imposed upon them. Their position defies the colonial pattern of power embodied in individualising leadership that only accumulates politically for a few, and whose arenas of realisation are centered on electoral democracy. Two of these strategies are the political reappropriation of traditional care roles, and their vocation for building community leaderships.

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú