Pedro Castillo assumes the presidency of Peru with the presence of the King of Spain and six Latin American leaders

With bleak prospects, due to the health crisis generated by the pandemic and the control of the opposition in Congress, Pedro Castillo assumes the presidency of Peru on Wednesday.

After a long wait of a month and a half for his proclamation, due to the challenges of his opponent Keiko Fujimori, Castillo will assume the reins of the government of Peru for the next five years.

At least 10,000 police officers, ten drones and five helicopters will be deployed to Lima to ensure security this Wednesday during events that will feature the presence of King Felipe VI of Spain, half a dozen Latin American presidents, three former presidents, former foreign ministers and various personalities.

Before you take the oath, Castillo on Tuesday held bilateral meetings with Miguel Cardona, US President Joe Biden’s special envoy, with the Spanish monarch and the President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso., who are in Lima to attend his inauguration.

Among the leaders who will accompany Castillo during the ceremony, there are also the Argentinian Alberto Fernández, the Bolivian Luis Arce and the Chilean Sebastián Piñera. United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and former Bolivian President Evo Morales will attend the event.

BLINKEN’S CALL

As part of your schedule before the investiture ceremony, Castillo received Monday the phone call from the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, who congratulated him on the triumph. The official too He told him that Washington expects from him “a constructive role” vis-à-vis Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

Although Peruvian political and business sectors fear a shift towards a socialism similar to that of the Caracas regime, Castillo’s main economic adviser, Pedro Francke, told the AFP that the program has “nothing to do with the Venezuelan proposal”.

THE PANDEMIC EFFECT

The change of command in the Pizarro house comes amid the severe blow the pandemic has dealt the country. Peru has accumulated more than two million infections and nearly 200,000 deaths from COVID-19, being the country with the highest death rate in the world from the coronavirus, with 603 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

In addition, a long lockdown in 2020 caused the loss of two million jobs and plunged the country into recession. GDP fell by 11.12%.

CONGRESS AGAINST

Governance will be another challenge for the new president. A polarized electoral campaign and the political upheavals of the past five years, which have led Peru to have three presidents in five days of November 2020, they are the context of the government that is beginning.

Without taking the oath as president, Castillo has already suffered his first setback to the opposition, which won the presidency of Congress on Monday with center-right Maria del carmen alva.

Ten parties are present in the new fragmented Congress of 130 members. The largest benches are Free Peru, Castillo’s party, with 37 seats, and Fujimorian Popular Force, with 24. Popular Action, Alva’s party, has 16.

A LEFT MASTER

Pedro Castillo, is a leftist rural teacher who he won the presidency with only half of the votes in the election against Keiko Fujimori. He is considered the first Peruvian president without kinship or connection with the political, economic and cultural elites of the country.

The 51-year-old new president still wears a white top hat typical of the peasants of his hometown of Cajamarca in the north of the country. He is Catholic, against abortion and homosexual unions.

His fiery speech against the Peruvian right during the electoral campaign and his promise to rebuild the country through a new constitution, triggered Castillo’s association with other leftist regimes in the region.

However, last week Castillo distanced himself from Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by ruling out that he would copy foreign “role models” and insisting that he is neither “Chavist” nor “Communist”.

Interim President Francisco Sagasti, who received Castillo at the Government Palace last Friday, recommended to assess whether it is justified to insist on your proposal to amend the Constitution, rejected by the right.

Sagasti emphasized the “sense of humor” and “simplicity” of the new president, who gave him “He asked where he would put the animals he has in his rural house in Cajamarca.”

Castillo will travel to the Andean town of Ayacucho on Thursday for a symbolic swearing-in in the Pampa de la Quinua, scene of the battle of Ayacucho on December 9, 1824, led by the Venezuelan general Simón Bolívar, who sealed the independence of Peru and the rest of Spanish America. To close its inaugural acts, Friday he will lead a military parade in Lima.

(With information from AP, AFP and Europa Press)

KEEP READING: