Peru: first crisis in Pedro Castillo’s cabinet | Opposition accuses Minister of Labor of links with guerrillas

From Lima

Less than a week from the president’s first ministerial cabinet Pedro Castillo obtained the vote of confidence in Congress, controlled by the right-wing opposition, the government faces a ministerial crisis. The Chief of Staff, Guido Bellido, announced Monday the departure of the head of Labor, Iber Maravi, to whom he said he asked for the resignation, but the minister refused to resign and the change was frozen by President Castillo, who until the time of sending this note had not defined the situation of his Minister. This lack of definition exacerbates the uncertainty and the crisis. Maraví, a teacher and trade unionist like Castillo, is the target of a campaign of attacks that links him to the defeated Maoist armed group Sendero Luminoso, a relationship he denies.

Immediately after giving the vote of confidence to the cabinet last Friday, the far right, which had unsuccessfully promoted the collapse of the Council of Ministers, reacted by threatening to overthrow the ministers “one by one”, favoring their arrest and censorship , an attribution of Parliament. Maraví is at the top of this blacklist on the right. With this threat from the opposition on the table and a media campaign against Maraví accusing him of being a “terrorist”, the chief of staff asked him to resign. A few minutes later, he made it public and declared that the change of Minister of Labor was necessary for “the stability of the government” and “to maintain harmony with the various benches (of Congress)”. But the minister Maraví ignored the authority of the chief of staff, did not resign and went to find President Castillo to ask him to define his situation. He made his position available to the president in a letter in which he qualified the accusations against him as “false” and said the aim was to “destabilize the government”.

Delay

Castillo’s delay in defining the issue is fueling speculation the president would endorse the labor minister. A decision that would leave badly the chief of staff, who now, moved, affirms that his request for resignation of the minister had been “a suggestion”. Not to mention Maraví, Castillo stressed during a public event that the opposition intended to “depose ministers to place their allies”. Maraví is considered one of the ministers closest to the president, being part of the core of professors surrounding Castillo. His fall would be a blow to the president. While the Minister of Labor is still in office, the parliamentary opposition presented a request for questioning on Wednesday, with the aim of censoring him, a measure that would force him to resign.

Maraví, 60, is accused by the opposition of having participated in attacks committed by Luminous path in the 80s. The media have dusted off an old police report from 1981 in which he is accused of bombings against public places in the Andean town of Ayacucho, where Sendero emerged in 1980. Two inmates are said to unionize him. But Maraví has ​​never been prosecuted for these events, which the minister uses as an argument of defense and innocence.. “I reject any act of terrorism, no matter where it comes from. If they had found responsibility, they would have been condemned “Maraví defends himself. Although there has never been a judicial process, the opposition is broadcasting the contents of this old police report as if it were a conviction against the minister. During the years of internal warfare, thousands of innocent people have been accused of terrorism, many of them convicted, and thousands more have disappeared and been murdered.

Troubles

Maraví is also arrested for a four-year suspended prison sentence handed down in 2009 for “riots”, for his participation as a union leader during a teachers’ demonstration in Ayacucho in 2004. The minister assures us that this sentence was without effect. The accusation is linked to a policy of criminalizing social demonstrations. Maraví is the leader of the teachers’ union that President Castillo led until his election. Police reports accuse him of having ties to the Amnesty and Fundamental Rights Movement (Movadef), considered the political heir of Sendero who was defeated over two decades ago. Charges that were also brought against Castillo. The President and the Minister of Labor deny being close to Movadef.

To this crisis due to the uncertain situation of the Minister of Labor is added the accusation of an opposition MP against the ministerial chief of staff for having verbally assaulted her weeks ago – he allegedly told her “You just need to be raped”-, although he is only making it public now, a few days after the cabinet obtained the vote of confidence. Bellido denied the accusation and said it was part of a plot to destabilize the government. Various sectors, including government allies, call for an investigation into this serious complaint. But, without investigation, the opposition and the media accept the words of the deputy and ask for the resignation of the chief of staff.