Peru’s parliament granted a vote of confidence to leftist President Pedro Castillo’s fourth ministerial cabinet this Wednesday (9), the last day allowed for the matter to be decided. The request came with 64 votes in favor, 58 against and two abstentions.
The announcement of the new composition of the Council of Ministers was made exactly 30 days ago, with the appointment of AnÃbal Torres for the post of prime minister. In the other appointments made by Castillo, Torres occupied the portfolio of Justice.
That new cabinet was formed just a week after the third, headed by Héctor Valer, which became the target of criticism after the press revealed the politician’s assaults on his daughter and ex-wife in 2016 – accusations he denies.
Torres gave a nearly three-hour speech to Congress in defense of Castillo’s administration to ask for a vote of confidence in the new cabinet. He emphasized the progress of the vaccination campaign against Covid in the country (73% of the population has already completed the first vaccination cycle) and the salary increase given to teachers, but stressed that “there is still a lot to be done in terms of safety”.
Opposition congressmen attacked Torres for not mentioning corruption in his speech. The topic was once again central in the most recent episode of the political crisis in the federal administration, being one of the arguments to base a new vacancy motion – removal by Parliament, different from impeachment – that has just arrived in Congress, still without a date to be voted on. .
The request cites an accusation of money laundering and meetings outside the official agenda with businessmen interested in obtaining advantages in public works.
“It is not possible that you [Torres] come to propose conciliation between the parties in a scenario in which the president has shown himself to be more and more a corrupt man”, said Eduardo Salhuana, from the right-wing Alliance for Progress party, in the session that began this Tuesday (8).
Another opponent, Jorge Montoya, questioned the choice of ministers, saying that “Castillo appointed people unprepared for key posts such as agriculture and fisheries.” Silvana Robles, from the government’s Perú Libre, said that the “scenario is already quite uncertain” for “we again reject another cabinet”.
Opposition oppositionist Karol Paredes, from Ação Popular, criticized the prime minister for not talking about the need to have more women for the Council of Ministers — there are three nominees, against just 16 men. “We need to have at least 50% women in the cabinet.”
Outside Congress, protesters from Castillo’s party were asking for the team’s approval. There were reports of attacks on journalists covering the acts.
Peruvian law requires that the entire Council of Ministers be renamed when a new prime minister is appointed, although names can be ratified. In the fourth cabinet, of the 19 names that comprise it, 6 had been changed in relation to the third, in addition to the prime minister.
In elections held in the first half of last year, Castillo defeated Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, by a small margin, and since taking office he has been experiencing great political instability.
There were two requests to challenge the election, the resignation of the head of the Armed Forces shortly before taking office, in July, and a first vacancy request, rejected in December.
The president also suffers from friction within his own party. Perú Libre’s most left-wing factions criticize the president for indicating names considered moderate. The first prime minister appointed after the election, Guido Bellido, was responding to prosecutions for corruption and apology for terrorism, for having praised Sendero Luminoso, a guerrilla whose conflict with the Peruvian state left more than 70,000 dead.
