Francisco Sagasti presented his inclusive cabinet at …

From Lima.A day after taking office, Peru’s third president in a week appointed his ministerial cabinet. The former president’s ultra-conservative government team has given way to one of the figures of academic prestige, linked to research work, unrelated to political parties and some with previous experience in the State. A profile similar to that of the centrist president Francisco Sagasti. There is a significant presence of women, including in the Chief of Staff and the Ministry of Defense, an unprecedented event in the country. Three government ministers return from Martin vizcarra, rejected a little over a week ago by Congress. The ministerial appointments have been well received and reinforce the sense of a return to a lost stability with the removal of Vizcarra by Parliament and his replacement by Manuel Merino, who before serving a week in the presidency had to resign due to massive protests against him and was replaced by Sagasti.

Of the nineteen ministries, eight will be headed by women. The Council of Ministers will be chaired by the lawyer, feminist and university professor Violeta Bermúdez, specializing in gender issues, vulnerable populations and public policies. The 59-year-old lawyer served as deputy minister for women and human development during the first stage of the government of Alejandro Toledo (2001 – 2006). Recognized professional, but without political experience, as head of the ministerial cabinet, she assumes the most important post of the executive after the president.

In her first remarks as Prime Minister, Ms Bermúdez noted that the government’s first objective is to “guarantee free and transparent elections” in April. He underlined President Sagasti’s desire to have a common cabinet.

For the first time in its history, the country will have a woman at the head of the armed forces, as Minister of Defense. This position is assumed by the lawyer Nuria Esparch, who was Deputy Minister of Administrative and Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Defense between 2006 and 2008. He also held positions in other ministries. Her appointment has raised expectations to be the first woman to lead the Defense Ministry.

After the brutal crackdown on citizen protests in recent days that left two dead and more than two hundred injured and toppled the ultra-conservative government of Merino, President Sagasti has recently broken away from the domination of police generals. at the head of the Ministry of the Interior and appointed a civilian official, Rubén Vargas. In this way, it withdraws from police control the direction of the investigations of this ministry on the action of the police in the demonstrations. A parallel investigation to the one that the prosecution has already opened and with a civilian inside must find greater cooperation from this office. It is an important gesture, which adds to the new president’s promise that there will be no impunity. The government must now move from action to concrete action.

The first measure expected of Minister Vargas is to change the direction of the police, engaged in a violent repression. Vargas headed the body in charge of anti-drug policy under Vizcarra’s government and was deputy interior minister in the early part of the Toledo regime, when a police reform was attempted which was truncated .

New cabinet ensures continuity of neoliberal economic policyl – in force in the country for thirty years -, with the appointment at the head of Economy and Finance of the economist and university professor Waldo mendoza, a defender of the neoliberal model. He was deputy finance minister in the government of Toledo and has a reputation for being a rigid keeper of budget coffers. The new minister will face a serious crisis due to the pandemic, with significant growth in unemployment and a drop of 12-14% of GDP for this year.

Among the three ministers of the Vizcarra government who return to the cabinet is the head of Health, Pilar Mazzetti, which ensures the continuation of the policy against the coronavirus pandemic, which to date has left more than 940 thousand people infected and more than 35 thousand dead. Coronavirus cases, which have saturated precarious public health services, are on the decline, but there are concerns about the arrival of a possible second wave. The other ministers of Vizcarra who return are those of Labor and Culture.

At this point, a key appointment was in the Department of Education. Among the parliamentary sectors that placed Merino as president, there was interest in ending an education reform that shut down shoddy universities that turned into millionaire private companies, money that went in in politics and gained significant influence. The Merino government was on this path to end education reform within days of being in power. Sagasti has been appointed Minister of Education to renowned educator and researcher Ricardo Cuenca, research director at the Institute of Peruvian Studies, defender of university reform, which guarantees its defense and sustainability, one of the main demands of the thousands of young people who come to demonstrate in the streets against the Merino government and the political class who put him in power.

In Foreign Relations a career diplomat with 45 years of business experience has been appointed, Elizabeth astete. the Other women in the cabinet occupy the ministries of foreign trade and tourism, women and vulnerable populations, development and social inclusion, and housing and construction..

“It is a technical office, like those of Vizcarra, but with a higher level, which responds to a series of concerns that exist. He has a centrist profile, where there are center-right ministers in productive areas, the Minister of the Economy being more on the right and center-left ministers in social areas. Its main deficit is that it has little political nature, which is not new in Peru, but at this point, with the waters moving as it is, there is a need to do a lot of politics and people with political experience is not seen in the cabinet. Congress is now very weakened, but in a few months problems could arise between Congress and the executive, and the relationship with the streets will not always be friendly, at that point the government could run out of a cabinet. with greater political management, ”he told Página / 12 Eduardo Dargent, political scientist at the Catholic University and columnist for the newspaper Trade.

The ministerial cabinet is to travel to Congress to ask for a vote of confidence. A Congress very weakened after the majority rejection – between 88 and 91%, according to two baskets, of Ipsos and the Institute of Peruvian Studies, respectively – which led to its decision to dismiss Vizcarra to replace him with Merino and his ultra-conservative government, no It seems to be able at the moment to cope with an executive well received by the population.

“It would be very costly for Congress to engage in a fight with a government that has been well received by the people at this time,” Dargent said.

As the new president settles down at the Government Palace, he gathers his ministerial team and gives his first measurements, Manuel Merino’s resignation was still missing. We have not heard from him since he spent a few minutes on television last Sunday to announce his resignation from the presidency, cornered by the massive protests against him.