by Sara Madueño
London and Washington’s worst nightmare is about to happen in Lima, Peru. Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit that country Nov. 14-16, where he will join President Dina Boluarte Nov. 14 to inaugurate the Chancay mega-port project, a China-Peru joint venture which will be the largest and most modern port in the Americas’ South Pacific. Xi Jinping will then participate in the Nov. 14-16 summit of APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation). After that, he will travel to Brazil for the G-20 summit (chaired by Brazil this year) and for a state visit with President Lula da Silva.
Wall Street and the City of London are committed to make sure that none of that happens, including by concocting a national general strike to topple the Boluarte government before then, forcing the cancellation of the APEC summit altogether. Should that not succeed, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to participate in the APEC summit, accompanied by a contingent of 600 heavily armed and equipped U.S. soldiers, in a blatant effort to use muscle-flexing to shape policy.
The Port of Chancay is the real strategic prize. Chancay is nearing completion as a mega port and industrial hub, which the United States and NATO consider a strategic threat to their security, because it supposedly “could” become a Chinese beachhead, both for a large economic presence throughout the continent and for the possible landing of Chinese troops in South America. This is from the standpoint of NATO’s already scheduled military confrontation with China—over the issue of Taiwan—announced for 2027. The Chancay project is a joint venture with 60% Chinese investment through Cosco Shipping Ports, and 40% Peruvian investment.
The scenario of violence being prepared to sabotage the APEC 2024 summit not only has that purpose, but is also intended to achieve the overthrow of the Peruvian president, Dina Boluarte, in order to declare Peru a “failed state.” This is the goal of the repeated destabilizations carried out in Peru—successive “orange revolutions”—with which they have succeeded in bringing five presidents to power in five years. For this occasion, the planned destabilization scenario is an escalation of national violence that would begin with an indefinite general strike which has been called by different national transportation unions, who are demanding greater internal security from the government, while also calling for the resignation or dismissal of President Boluarte.
The vice-president of the National Association of Transport Workers (Asotrani), Walter Carrera, told national television channel N that they have called for an indefinite national strike, timed to coincide with the opening of the APEC 2024 summit, and that they are demanding immediate measures from the Government to stop crime and extortion, and bolster public security in general. But above all they are calling for the resignation or dismissal, by the Congress, of President Boluarte. Carrera warned that “if they do not succeed in calling new elections, an indefinite strike will begin next Monday, November 11.” There are several unions that plan to paralyze their operations, Carrera pointed out, and the objective is “to demonstrate and prevent the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) Peru 2024, which will prevent the visit of dignitaries of different nationalities” from taking place. If their demands are not met, they will paralyze their operations and take to the streets, he warned. He said that they are submitting to Congress “a document to adhere to the request to remove President Boluarte from office and call for general elections; otherwise, APEC will not take place. The population wants to march and we will be calling for a new strike for November 11.”
The announced provocation has antecedents. Chile, which hosted APEC in 2019, had scheduled its summit between November 11 and 17, 2019. But the meeting was cancelled on October 30 after violent protests began that ultimately resulted in riots—labeled as one of the largest social uprisings in that country’s recent history. This forced Chilean President Sebastián Piñera to suspend the APEC 2019 summit.
Biden Threatens to Come to APEC 2024
In a clear attempt to overshadow the prominence that the Chinese President will have, President Biden is packing his bags to come to Peru. The Chairman of the APEC Senior Officials Meetings, Carlos Vásquez Corrales, announced that there is a “95% chance that President Biden will participate in the APEC Summit.” It is evident that the purpose of such a visit is not Biden’s active participation in the deliberations, as it is well-known that his cognitive impairment puts him in no condition for such a high-level summit, without a teleprompter at his side.
