Political Autopoiesis and Protest Processing in Peru (2022–2023):

Institutional Trajectories, Relative Political Closure, and Media Frames

Abstract

This article examines the institutional processing of the main demands raised during the cycle of protests that took place in Peru between December 2022 and July 2023. The objective of the study is to compare the trajectories of five demands—early elections, presidential resignation, dissolution of Congress, the convening of a constituent assembly, and the release of Pedro Castillo—and to analyze the political, legislative, and judicial operations activated in response to them. The research design is qualitative, combining a case-study approach with document analysis and triangulating records from Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Constitutional Court; reports from the Ombudsman’s Office, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch; as well as academic research and studies of media coverage. The unit of analysis is the processing trajectory of each demand. The findings reveal differentiated institutional permeability: the demand for early elections entered the legislative process and obtained an initial constitutional approval but was not completed; the proposal linking 2023 elections to a consultation on a constituent assembly was rejected; Castillo’s situation followed a judicial pathway; and the demands for presidential resignation and dissolution of Congress did not find an equivalent binding channel. Coercive responses coexisted with these institutional trajectories. The article concludes that relative political closure is expressed through a combination of fragmented competences, weak binding negotiation, and securitized treatment, without excluding alternative explanations such as party weakness, actor heterogeneity, or the differing legal complexity of the demands.