2021 Andean constitutional crisis
![]() | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The last updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
2021 Andean constitutional crisis | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | |||||||||||||
Clockwise, from top left: National Guard clashes with protesters in Caracas, People's Militias patrolling streets in Arauca District, student protests in Bogotá | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Parties to the civil conflict | |||||||||||||
Anti-revisionists |
Interim government | ||||||||||||
Lead figures | |||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||
Number | |||||||||||||
15 Mio.+ protesters, ~9.000 armed People's Militias, ~3,000 members of the State Guard of Venezuela | ~2000 officers of the Bolivarian People's Liberation Army, ca 20,000 local Party officials | ||||||||||||
Casualties | |||||||||||||
601 | 216 |
The 2021 Andean constitutional crisis took place from December 7, 2021 to January 16, 2022 as the aftermath of the death of former Chairman Rafael Guzmán. The begin of the crisis itself is disputed, however it is mostly agreed upon that it began with the seizing of power by interim Chairwoman Emilia Ortega without the consent of the Andean parliament and the ruling Communist Party. Ortega was declared interim party leader in September of 2021 with elections planned for December, though these were postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic and the Amazonas incident which lead to a diplomatic crisis between the United People's Committees and Brazil. This lead to mass protests and criticism from internal party opponents, most prominently the Charimen of the Venezuelan State Committee Carlos Ocasio and the leader of the Peruvian State Committee Andres Moreno who called for the boycott of the Ortega government. The crisis deepened when the Armed Forces got involved on demand of Ortega and her administration under the leadership of General Tupac Domingues and subsequently occupied the headquarters of the largest news agency in the country and later the parliament building.