Legal measures enacted by Peruvian president Boluarte in the eve of APEC meeting in november 20241, are used to explain government decisions. These are taken under the assumption that it could affect future sovereignity up to the end of her term in 2026. These measures constrain individual rights such as citizen’s free of move or youngsters attending schools. These rights are actually provided under constitutional regime of 1993. Carl Schmitt quote “legal order rests on a decision not on a norm”2, are hypothesized to constitute the rationale behind the presidential provisions. In this regard, APEC meeting is implicitly considered a state of exception. Thus, Schmitt constitutional theory could be useful in deconstructing and reflecting the political decisions under these special circumstances during november 2024.

In his critic to liberal democracies, Schmitt saw a lack of decision this regime have during the exceptional circumstances that threat a state. The Peruvian government appears to have raised APEC event to a critical status that conditions its success or failure to the future operation and strength of the state. Therefore, the importance given to this meeting could be interpreted as a political opportunity to express sovereignity under the state of exception. This move taken conciously or not is a decision that if carefuly taken must have considered the weakeness of the enemies of the Boluarte regime. Anyhow, the move is presenting the elements to interpret under the “question of the decision under the exception” 2. If successful the presidential initiative could strength her political position among its alies and foes and also project her power paving the contested way to finish her actual term.

Reference

  1. ¿Qué es el Consejo de Estado y para qué sirve esta instancia? 7NOV2024 enlace ↩

  2. Carl Schmitt. 2005. Political theology: four chapters on the concept of sovereignty. Translated by George Schwab. University of Chicago Press. ↩ ↩2