Pedro Castillo, the man from deep Peru who makes the establishment nervous

Executives, consultants, analysts, journalists, thousands of residents of Lima and other cities all missed the mark when it came to guessing who would lead the votes in Peru’s first presidential round. And that’s not it Pedro Castillo, the 51-year-old schoolteacher who took first place in last Sunday’s elections and will play the second round with Keiko Fujimori, is a man who goes unnoticed.

It is true that he registered as a candidate for the Peru Free party on the last authorized day. But it was September 30, 2020, more than six months before the date of the elections that saw him rise to the top.

The man of the moment was George Forsyth, a former goalkeeper at club Alianza Lima who had his first crumbs as a leader, and who was seeking the presidency with broad support in the polls. Then his candidacy started to falter and other leaders stood up, such as the former leftist congressman. Yonhy lescano.

In March, Castillo had just 3% of the vote, according to an Ipsos poll. A month later, on April 4, he doubled his support to 6%. And while that was double the number of votes, it wasn’t a big deal for a presidential candidate either.

Some were beginning to remember the trade unionist who led a massive teachers’ strike in 2017 across the country. His government proposals were also disseminated, a program that promised a more decisive role for the state in the management of the economy, as well as institutional reforms. The feedback was still missing, the final acceleration, the gear change that would move him forward.

His rivals, anyway, were also fasting, hungry for votes, numbers on the ground and wild eyes in the polls, to see if the charts changed, if the bars even went up a few tenths, to distance themselves from the compact batch of six. or seven opponents with identical winning options. The Peruvians finally gave him more than 19% of the vote. Again, nothing dazzling under normal circumstances, but more than enough to pass.

Castillo will play waivers with powerful Keiko Fujimori, who will be her rival in June and was already a two-time candidate. Keiko lost these two times for nothing, by a slim, laughable and infuriating margin, though his party has emerged as the dominant force in Congress.

“They won two candidates who, in the midst of political fragmentation, touched the fibers of the popular urban and rural world. It is democracy, the majority wins. And the majority are poor in our countries of inequality ”Political scientist Carlos Meléndez, researcher at Diego Portales University in Chile, told LA NACION.

Right and left, both share conservative social attitudes. Castillo opposes abortion, marriage equality and other gender demands that another leftist candidate has made, progressive Verónika Mendoza.

The question abroad, and among the astonished elites of Lima who did not see him coming, is who Pedro Castillo is, and what is he wearing under the brim of that straw hat he rides with? on horseback since his days as a country teacher. , in the modest northern region of Cajamarca.

His curriculum records a teacher training at the primary level, then a bachelor’s degree in education at the César Vallejo University. He also obtained a master’s degree in educational psychology from the same university.

Castillo was a foreigner in Lima, but not in deep Peru. Therefore, he won in the five poorest regions of the country. His notoriety came from a labor base as leader of the Magisterio Guild, the radicalized group of public school teachers.

“Pedro Castillo is a leader of teachers at the national level and that meant having a broad social base. Let us remember that in every corner of the country there is a teacher, and so it is Pedro’s voice that grew, ”Peru Libre spokesperson told CNN. “What surprised us is that pollsters have not previously obtained higher figures,” he added.

“Never again a poor man in a rich country” was one of Castillo’s campaign slogans, alluding to the success of the country’s mining economy, which, despite sustained growth for three consecutive decades, has maintained a rate of very high social inequality, especially in the Andean regions. . “When a person is born in the city, he or she has to take responsibility for what the city commands,” he said in another campaign statement.

His proposal is based on prioritizing the sectors of health, education and agriculture, where changes must be made to move the country from growth to development. The heart of his plan is the nationalization of gas and the renegotiation of contracts, and multinationals are investing part of their profits in the country.

Whatever the path to reducing inequalities and whatever strategies are needed to reverse the plight of millions of Peruvians, his institutional proposal has drawn attention. Like the call for a Constitutional Assembly to reform the Magna Carta of 1993, promulgated by the father of his rival, Alberto Fujimori. And this in an already unstable country which has seen four presidents in five years.

“The novelty does not lie in their economic proposals. Where the novelty is that in this first step, he said he was going to change the institutions for direct democracy, he is going to change the tutelary institutions, he is going to change the balance of powers, ”said Meléndez.

“He says that oversight bodies such as the Constitutional Court are going to be elected by the people. You start there and end up doing the Evo Morales thing, that judges are elected by popular election. It is the open door that I see towards authoritarianism, ”he added. It is also true that in the first round, everyone talked about their platform, their electoral base. Now you need to open the game to reach a wider electorate.

Conocé The Trust Project