July 28, 2021 was the day of the first times in Peru. The first time that Pedro Castillo set foot in the Peruvian Congress, the first time that a schoolteacher took office as president, and the first time that a politician from outside the elites achieved power through a speech antiestablishment of populist overtones. The former union leader promised then, wearing his palm hat and his hand on the Bible, to transform a fractured and deeply polarized country after elections that had pitted him against the right-wing Keiko Fujimori. Since that day, however, not only has the spiral of instability worsened, but Peru has entered an aimless political stage that ended this Wednesday in the removal and arrest of the ruler. A deja vu.
The fall, at first gradual, of Castillo began after a few weeks. In less than a year and a half, the president appointed five cabinets, with dozens of resignations and dismissals. And last summer, he also broke with the man who took him to the presidency, Vladimir Cerrón. The leader of the Perú Libre formation, a leader of the orthodox left, is disqualified from holding public office due to a corruption sentence and built the candidacy of the rural teacher to form a government with a total break with the country’s recent past. However, disagreements between the two soon began until the divorce was consummated, a fracture that went beyond the symbolic and cost Castillo the parliamentary support of his legislators. And this Wednesday that bench described without half measures as a “coup d’etat” the decision to dissolve Congress.
The loss of support even from related forces led the former president to forge agreements with the opposition and thus put aside the agenda of changes and campaign promises with which he won the elections. In short, he entrenched himself, and if in recent months he saved two vacancy motions, a figure similar to the ruler’s censure decided to decree an emergency government just hours before the debate on a third motion, which, in any case, finally was held and resulted in his dismissal and subsequent arrest.
Added to this is a complex plot of corruption that involves the politician and his entourage. All the living ex-presidents of the Andean country since 1990 have been investigated for corruption cases or are imprisoned, prosecuted, under house arrest or in the process of extradition. One of them, Alan García, committed suicide in 2019 when he was going to be arrested for a piece of the investigation into the bribery network of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. And Castillo, who is already linked to the investigation of six cases of alleged corruption, has entered the club of his predecessors.
The accusations took a turn two months ago, when the National Prosecutor’s Office pointed to the president for leading an alleged “criminal organization” with the aim of rigging contracts and thus making illegal profits. The type of complaint presented by the prosecutor Patricia Benavides had to go through the Congress of the Republic, as it was a procedure aimed at high-ranking officials accused of serious crimes committed in the exercise of their duties. It was a kind of political trial that started from some investigations that undermined the credibility of the president. The public ministry then spoke of a criminal plot “entrenched in the Government Palace” and of “obtaining economic benefits for appointments to key positions, in the collection of percentages of illegally obtained bids and the illegal use of presidential powers” . In addition, the prosecution denounced “intimidation against him and his family.”
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The path that Castillo has traveled since July 2021 represents another fall for a Peruvian president after months of instability and uncertainty with a government adrift. Despite the relative resistance of the country’s economic fabric in a context of international crisis, this mandate has not only failed to materialize the change promised to voters, but also, in practice, it has ceased to govern, both due to the weakness of the cabinet as for the scandals that corner the president.
At the time, the rural teacher appeared before Latin America and the world as a new representative of the axis of left-wing and progressive governments. The symbolism of his particular story helped him build a story. “It is the first time that the country will be governed by a peasant”, he emphasized the day he took power. However, Castillo’s management has not reflected his declaration of intent, much less can it be compared with that of the progressive leaders who govern in Latin America. The differences with the Colombian Gustavo Petro, the Chilean Gabriel Boric, the Argentine Alberto Fernández and also with the Bolivian Luis Arce are enormous.
Months ago, the former trade unionist received the explicit support of the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who turned to him to “prevent an overthrow.” He offered him political support, vaccines and fuel against him, he said, “conservative rage.” And more recently, the absence of Castillo, who cannot leave Peru by court order, at the Summit of the Pacific Alliance that was to be held in Oaxaca led to the suspension of the conclave. Last week he agreed with Boric to call the regional meeting in Lima. The drift of the president, who unilaterally decided to alter the constitutional order, and his arrest now close the door on the political future of the schoolteacher.
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