Yesterday, we woke up to the painful images of the police massacre in Colombia with a knot in our throats. We felt the videos and photographs were terribly familiar, so similar to those from November 14, 2020, a day we hope we never forget as Peruvians.
The terrible reality is that history keeps repeating itself in Latin America. We see it happen again in Colombia, Chile, and in our own Peru: we take to the streets to demand fairer countries, with more and better opportunities for development, and we are met with bullets intended to silence us.
Those who struggle to put food on the table and those of us who refuse to let our privileges blind us to that reality come together in protest. Perhaps, with some luck, tears, and blood, we may manage to reverse coups, change constitutions, or stop reforms. But the outcome is always the same: deaths, disappearances, and thousands of people injured. And above all, psychosocial wounds that are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.
We live in a country and a region that are deeply divided, profoundly unequal, classist, racist, and affected by many other forms of injustice. The electoral context we are experiencing today in Peru makes this even more evident. Social media platforms are flooded with discourses based on arguments as simplistic as “poor people are poor because they want to be.” The polarization we see today online will, tomorrow, regardless of who wins, become visible in our streets.
Personally, it is deeply painful for us to see the images of what is happening in Colombia and reflect on what awaits our country. What happened to Inti? What happened to Bryan? What will happen to the more than 20 Colombians who have died this past week while fighting for a fairer country? What will happen to the next Peruvians who take to the streets to fight against the challenges and hardships that will inevitably arise during the next five years of government, regardless of who wins?
We feel uncertainty and profound sadness, among many other emotions, because today it is very difficult for many Peruvians to envision the right path toward solving the structural problems that affect our nation. Because it is difficult to believe that leaders will come who prioritize the interests of the people over their own personal interests. Because we understand the frustration of those who have voted with the hope of achieving real changes that allow them to break the endless cycles of poverty they have experienced for generations. Because it deeply hurts us to see how many privileged and educated people unfortunately ignore the reality of the country they live in.
We would like to close this space for reflection by inviting everyone to deconstruct ourselves and reflect on how we can take a more active role in reducing inequalities in our country..
There are many ways to create change, and each person will find the best way to contribute, whether through volunteering, organizing collectively with others, working in organizations where proposals for change can be developed, or fighting from their own spaces. Let us become involved from our own spaces and become agents of change in our reality.
Let us build from empathy, not indifference.
#EveryoneForMentalHealth
