The president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, celebrates this Thursday, July 28, one year in power. A date to which he arrives with enormous disapproval and immersed in multiple legal investigations against him. The instability in his cabinet and the inability to fulfill his campaign promises have hurt his image as a leader. Many say that his days are numbered.
A beginning of a mandate full of crisis, disapproval and political instability. Peruvian President Pedro Castillo celebrates a year in power this Thursday, July 28, and many consider that his continuity in office could be in limbo.
As a rural teacher, trade unionist and with a speech that sought to break with the way of doing politics in Peru, Castillo became president on July 28, 2021, the date on which the Andean country celebrated its Bicentennial as a republic.
He promised improvements in the educational system, work for rural development and assured that he would fight for the unity of a fragmented country. Twelve months later, many of his campaign projects are still in the pipeline, delayed by multiple political crises and investigations against him.
A year that has also been full of controversies. According to the newspaper ‘El Comercio’, “during his administration, he and his entourage have been the protagonists of 237 controversial situations. That is to say, every 36 hours, on average, the Executive was the center of a new questioning”.
This Thursday, Castillo will give a balance of what has been his first year in office before a Congress that is determinedly seeking to remove him and before a citizenry that increasingly doubts his capacity as a leader.
Castle against the ropes: the five investigations against the president
Just sworn in, Castillo was facing the first accusations against him. He was held responsible for the irregularities in the award of the Tarata bridge contract. Likewise, the president was investigated for the case of the state-owned company Petroperú.
A scandal that splashed the former Minister of Transport, Juan Silva; the former secretary of Palacio Bruno Pacheco; and to his nephew Fray Vásquez. All three were fugitives from justice; Pacheco until this Tuesday.
After these first complaints, the Nation’s prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, added a new case against him: the alleged plagiarism of his master’s thesis. She also accused him of obstructing the search for her former collaborators.
Thus, the president faces five investigations that accuse him of obstructing Justice and alleged influence peddling.
Recurring vacancy requests
A third vacancy attempt marks the date that Castillo completes one year in power. This was derived, precisely, from the determination of the Nation’s prosecutor to investigate him for obstructing Justice.
A complex scenario to which another important factor is added: the voluntary surrender of Castillo’s former secretary, Bruno Pacheco, accused of corruption. Pacheco appeared in court with a list presumably drawn up by the president for promotions in the Armed Forces and the Police.
This would be one more incentive for Congress to try to remove him from office. Already in March the opposition sought to remove him for “moral incapacity”, but he did not obtain the 87 votes necessary for it in Congress.
This time it could be different. Castillo has lost many of the main supporters that brought him to power, and if he was previously criticized by the right-wing and extreme-right forces, now various sectors that are closest to him are also threatening to destroy him to “preserve” the country’s democracy.
According to the political analyst Gelin Espinoza, consulted by the EFE Agency, “he himself has generated the input and is generating doubts in the population because he is not transparent, that hiding one generates suspicions.”
Already in the most recent past, in November 2020, a motion like this prevented former President Martín Vizcarra from finishing his presidential term. That of permanent moral incapacity, however, is a recurrent formula in the Peruvian Legislature to vacate the leaders of the Executive.
Ministerial changes, the constant of the Castillo Government
19 are the ministers of the Peruvian cabinet. In the year of Castillo’s mandate there have been more than 50 different faces in these positions. An inconstancy that has earned him part of his credibility.
In addition to these multiple changes, the president has been criticized for appointing people unprepared to perform these functions.
His most recent appointment betrays the volatility of his cabinet. The president appointed Willy Huerta as interior minister after removing Mariano González, who had been in the post for only 15 days. Thus, Peru met its seventh minister of said portfolio in just 12 months.
In addition, it was González himself who accused Castillo of having removed him from office for having created a special Police team to support the Prosecutor’s Office in open cases against the president and other high-ranking officials.
His most forceful proposals, in limbo
The teacher and trade unionist was a standard-bearer for the Latin American country to have a new Constitution. Castillo advocated the formation of a Constituent Assembly. However, this reform to the Magna Carta was rejected in Congress.
Inflation also worries Peru. In June this reached 8.81%, the maximum since 1997, as exposed by ‘Bloomberg Line’.
And Castillo has largely lost business support. According to said portal, “from May 2021 to June 2022, business expectations for three and 12 months collected by the Central Reserve Bank remained mostly below 50 points, that is, in the pessimistic range”.
When the president addresses the nation this Thursday, he will have to face a disapproval that according to the most recent Ipsos polls reached 74%, four points more than last month.
With EFE and local media
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