Peruvian Catholic Cardinal Carlos Castillo today expressed his solidarity with the Generation Z youth protest movement and rejected the labeling of the group, which took to the streets again today, as terrorists.

“There are no terrorists here. Here there are people with rights, with dignity,” he said on the fifth day of protests organized by the group, which mobilizes its demonstrations via social media.

He added that Generation Z youth “have a lot to say to humanity; they are the last word that needs to be said, the last letter of the alphabet. Hope. Let's say hope with a Z.”

“That is what we need today, brothers and sisters: to be hope for others. And that hope obliges us all to assume our responsibility, our place, and do something that Pope Francis loved: to generate popular movements,” Castillo asserted.

From the pulpit of Lima Cathedral, the archbishop of the capital stated that “the young people who have taken to the streets and filled the center of Lima to demand order in the country, mercy, and justice.”

He added that they are also protesting “against so many injustices and unfair laws that have been passed, such as the one requiring people to contribute to insurance from the age of 18 and thus pay the Pension Fund Administrators,” one of the reasons for Generation Z's anti-government protests.

The church dignitary also expressed solidarity with the protests by urban transport workers who are demanding that the government provide effective protection against extortionists who murder drivers on an almost daily basis.

He added that the transport workers' demand is: “Those responsible for order, bring order to the city so that we can return alive to our homes to see our families.”

Among other national and international reflections and in a speech full of religious references, he pointed out that "Jesus Christ chose to always be with the poor and encourage them. He is the strength of his people, their great liberator," and he spoke out against social inequalities.

“Today, humanity cries out for true liberation, where love is at the center and solidarity radiates among all, so that we may stop wars,” he said.

The survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) indicates that the far-right Rafael Lopez-Aliaga remains in first place with 8.5 percent, mostly confined to Lima, followed by the neoliberal Keiko Fujimori with 5.9 percent.

In third place, with 3.3 percent, is former president Pedro Castillo, who has been in prison for nearly three years and whom the conservative Parliament is preparing to disqualify to prevent him from running.

Behind them are television comedian and far-right candidate Carlos Álvarez (2.4 percent) and center-left candidate Alfonso López Chau (0.9 percent). The others are below them and together account for 5.5 percent.

In both polls, more than 60 percent have not chosen any candidate, plan to spoil their ballot or vote blank, and only approximately 25 percent support any of the nearly 40 pre-candidates.

According to the IEP poll, 62.7 percent of the population does not have a candidate, and the Ipsos survey notes that 62 percent of those surveyed are in a similar situation.

Ipsos places López-Aliaga in first place with 10 percent, followed by neoliberal Keiko Fujimori and Mario Vizcarra (brother of disqualified center-right former president Martín Vizcarra), with 7 percent each.

Further down the list are the far-right Carlos Álvarez, with 4 percent, and the television commentator of similar political leanings, Phillip Butters (3).

Four potential candidates are tied at 2 percent: the leftist Guillermo Bermejo; the provincial conservative politician and businessman César Acuña; and the center-right Yonhy Lescano and Rafael Belaúnde.

In this context, analyst Juan Carlos Tafur, who claims to be a liberal right-winger, insisted on predicting an “anti-establishment electoral tsunami” in the April 2026 elections, due to widespread social discontent, for which he blames the government.

He considers it highly likely that the second round of the presidential election will feature two left-wing candidates, a message that explicitly aims to get the right-wing and far-right parties, divided into some twenty parties, to put aside their differences and unite in a single bloc to win the government.

According to Tafur, the fragmentation of the right is such that very few of its parties will even win seats in Parliament, due to changes in legislation that, had they been in force in the 2021 election, would have given Pedro Castillo an absolute majority in Congress.

Protests in Peru leave 19 people injured as outrage spreads over corruption, pensions, and rising organised crime.

At least 19 people, including a police officer, have been injured during protests against the government of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte and Congress, according to authorities and human rights advocates.

Hundreds of people marched over the weekend towards the seats of government in central Lima, under a heavy police presence. Groups of young people threw stones, petrol bombs and fireworks at law enforcement, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The National Human Rights Coordinator (CNDDHH), a human rights coalition, reported on Sunday that 18 people were injured in the clashes, including a journalist.

“A police officer suffered first-degree burns from a Molotov cocktail during the march organised by various groups,” the National Police reported on Saturday, sharing images of the clashes on social media.

The CNDDHH blamed the police for the violence.

“We call on the police to respect the right to protest. There was no justification for firing large amounts of tear gas, let alone for attacking people,” said Mar Perez, a lawyer for the CNDDHH.

A new march by hundreds of transport workers and the Generation Z youth collective, protesting against alleged corruption and extortion, was dispersed by dozens of police officers using tear gas on Sunday night.

“We are marching against corruption, for life, and against the crime that is killing us every day,” Adriana Flores, a 28-year-old engineer, told the AFP news agency on Sunday.

Social unrest has increased since the Boluarte government passed a law on September 5 requiring young people to contribute to private pension funds, despite job insecurity and an unofficial employment rate of over 70 percent.

Boluarte’s approval ratings have plunged in the final stretch of her term, which is set to end on July 28, 2026.

The conservative-majority Congress faces a similar situation due to perceptions of corruption, according to several opinion polls. Protests have also escalated in Peru over the past six months, following a wave of extortion and murders by organised crime groups.

Some folks have gotten a bit carried away with the revisions that put the second quarter growth rate at 3.8 percent. That does look impressive in isolation, but it is important to remember the economy shrank at a 0.6 percent rate in the first quarter.

That puts the average at 1.6 percent for the first half of the year. That’s not terrible but it is hardly cause for celebration. Remember, the economy grew 2.4 percent last year and the vast majority of forecasters expected growth at this rate to continue.

And we really do need to look at the two quarters together. Just as unusual factors were responsible for the fall in GDP we saw in the first quarter, they are also responsible for the strong growth reported for the second quarter.

To take the most notable example, the lower trade deficit added 4.83 percentage points (PP) to growth in the second quarter. A pre-tariff surge in the trade deficit subtracted 4.63 PP from growth in the first quarter. Only a devoted Trumper would focus on the second quarter number without mentioning the first quarter jump in the trade deficit.

Moving beyond the irregular numbers, we get that non-residential fixed investment added 0.98 PP to growth in the second quarter after adding 1.24 PP in the first quarter. The first quarter growth was partly due to pre-tariff stockpiling but the second quarter growth on top of this indicates we are looking at something sort of real. This is the AI boom. If that turns into a bust, we will see this growth quickly reversed.

Consumption accounts for the bulk of GDP and here the story is pretty blah. The second quarter’s growth rate was a healthy 2.5 percent, accounting for 1.68 PP of the quarter’s growth. But this followed a growth rate of just 0.6 percent in the first quarter, leaving an average of rate of 1.6 percent for the first half. That’s not horrible, but certainly not great.

We also have seen evidence that the growth in consumption has been concentrated among higher income people who are spending their stock gains. That is consistent with my simple measure of looking at real spending at fast food restaurants. I consider this useful since it’s unlikely that rich people increase their consumption of fast food because their stock portfolio is worth more.

And spending on fast food has to rank as largely a discretionary purchase. It is one thing that is relatively easy to cut back on if a family has to tighten its belts. Real spending at fast food restaurants was just 0.3 percent higher in the second quarter than the average for 2024. That doesn’t look like most people are feeling good about the economy.

Tomorrow, we will get new data on consumption for August, along with revisions for prior months’ data. Maybe that will show a different story, but for now, it looks like we have a weak economy that is being sustained by the AI boom. That boom could go on for a while and keep the economy moving forward, but it may not.

The social crisis in Ecuador escalated dramatically this Sunday with the confirmation of the death of an Indigenous protester from a gunshot wound in the province of Imbabura, amid week-long anti-government protests.

The Regional Foundation for Human Rights Advice (Inredh) denounced the death of Efraín Fueres, an Indigenous community member who died in a hospital after being injured in Cotacachi. The organization categorically rejected the lethal and unlawful use of force and demanded an immediate investigation to determine responsibility for the crime.

The Foundation’s complaint comes amid reports of intense military and police repression in rural areas. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), which is maintaining the call for a national strike, reported that during the night and early morning, a security convoy entered communities such as Ilumán and Cotacachi, using tear gas and live ammunition. Additionally, one more person remains in serious condition due to the violence, according to INREDH.

The serious violence generated a wave of international warnings against the government of Daniel Noboa. Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, expressed her deep concern. She denounced that the Ecuadorian government “seems to have launched a persecution against civil society,” warning of the excessive use of force and arbitrary arrests of protesters.

The UN’s condemnation extended to the demobilization tactics employed by the government. Romero described the freezing of bank accounts of Indigenous leaders as “harassment not aligned with international standards.” Joining the condemnation, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues also urged Noboa to guarantee freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and due process for the 100 detainees who, according to official figures, remain in custody.

For his part, President Noboa maintains an unwavering stance, reiterating in an interview with Ecuavisa that “the police and the army will be responsible for restoring order.” The president justified the repression by asserting that the protest had ceased to be a social protest, arguing that intelligence reports link the demonstrators to illegal mining, organized crime, and even the presence of members of the transnational criminal group “Tren de Aragua.”

As the humanitarian crisis deepens with the first death of the conflict, the National Association of Flower Producers and Exporters (Expoflores) reported economic losses amounting to nearly $1 million a day due to roadblocks and attacks on farms in Imbabura. The death of Indigenous community member Efraín Fueres intensifies the need for a transparent investigation and puts more international pressure on the Noboa government, whose refusal to repeal the diesel subsidy remains the central driver of the mobilization.

This Sunday, the National Labor Organization (CONAIE) reaffirmed the continuation of the national strike, which has now lasted seven days, firmly demanding that President Daniel Noboa repeal Decree 126, which eliminated the diesel subsidy.