Thousands of people protested in Lima this Thursday (6) to express their rejection of what they called the progressive agenda of the Organization of American States (OAS), which holds its 52th regular session of the its General Assembly in the Peruvian capital.
The march, organized by conservative social movements, began in the morning in the Lince district of Lima, and went through the city streets until it was concentrated outside the Centro de Lima Conventions, site of the event’s plenary sessions.
Inside the building, protesters could be heard shouting against gender ideology and the legalization of abortion.
“In this assembly, there is an agenda that aims to introduce in Peru an agenda, such as gender ideology, that goes against our legal framework and our constitutional framework,” said Juan Espejo, a member of the district’s so-called life and family bloc. of San Juan de Miraflores, in Lima.
The man, surrounded by posters of the group “Don’t mess with my children”, stated that the protest was intended to appeal to the OAS to “fulfill its role of defending the family and defending life”.
“Peru stands up to respectfully say to the Organization of American states that Peru has a formation, an education, a Constitution, and in it we place the family and life on high. We are against abortion,” he declared.
Protesters, dressed in red and white flags, carried signs with phrases such as “OAS, stop intervening”, “Peru resists gender ideology”, “Yes to life, no to abortion” and others that referred directly to the OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro, who said: “Almagro, listen, go to fight.”
The organization of the 52 The 1st OAS General Assembly generated controversy in Peru from the beginning: Congress rejected the country to host the summit due to a request to include a “neutral toilet”, which conservative parliamentarians considered an intrusion on the Peruvian domestic legislation and part of a gender ideology.
In the end, the Legislature reversed the decision, but on the eve of the start of the summit, a truck passed outside the headquarters with the message: “OAS , women are defined by biology, not ideology.”
