Two days after the resignation of Hannibal Torres to the position of Prime Minister, the President of the Republic, peter castle, will take the oath today of what will be his fifth Ministerial Cabinet, in just over a year of mandate. The lawyer decided to step aside “for personal reasons” and plans to return to university teaching.
Castillo, speaking to the press outside the Government Palace, yesterday called on the political parties “that believe in democracy” to form a “broad-based” ministerial team.
“Tomorrow [viernes] let’s swear to this [nuevo] Cabinet. And to the extent that the political actors who believe in the country, who believe in democracy, come closer, welcome, from here [la Casa de Gobierno] I open this space to the other political parties so that once and for all we can create a broad-based cabinet to work for Peru,” he said.
Through his Twitter account, the president also extended the call to civil society to be part of his administration.
The head of state, previously, appeared at the summons made by the Nation’s prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, in the framework of the preliminary investigation that he faces due to irregularities in the promotion process in the Armed Forces and National Police.
Castillo Terrones is charged with the alleged crimes of influence peddling, illegal sponsorship and criminal organization.
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According to sources from El Comercio, the president, at the close of this edition, was evaluating four names to succeed Torres. Of these, two were part of the Executive a few months ago, such as Dimitri Senmache, former head of the Interior; and Betssy Chávez, former Minister of Labor and Employment Promotion. Both were censured by Parliament.
The others are the current ministers Alejandro Salas (Culture) and Roberto Sánchez (Foreign Trade and Tourism). The also congressman from Cambio Democrático (formerly Together for Peru) has remained in office since the first day of the Castilista government.
Chávez – who, along with other pro-government parliamentarians, went to the office of the Public Ministry to offer his support to Castillo – said, when asked about the possibility of his returning to the Executive, said that “there is always a lot of speculation.”
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In dialogue with El Comercio, Salas said that Castillo has not made him a proposal to lead the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM), but he remarked that the professor “observes my work” and “calls me to dispatch not only cultural issues , but also about the political situation”.
The Minister of Culture defended the Head of State’s proposal to form a “broad-based” Cabinet. “In December of last year he summoned all the political forces to offer him cadres, proof of this is me, Somos Perú suggested my name, but many parties did not go, they refused, because their agenda is linked to the vacancy. The president seeks consensus,” he remarked.
This newspaper tried to communicate with Senmache and Sánchez, but they did not respond to our calls.
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The opposition marks distance
The president of Congress, Lady Camones (APP), warned that Castillo “always” resorts to the “broad-based” Cabinet discourse, but “unfortunately” forms teams “that have not lived up to the requirements” of the country. She added that the situation of the Executive “is very delicate”, for which she practically ruled out a participation of her party.
Position that was confirmed by the leader of APP, César Acuña, who remarked to Channel N that his group will not be part of the new Council of Ministers, because the government “has no credibility.”
The spokesman for the Popular Renovation bench, Jorge Montoya, said that it is necessary for the new ministers to be “independent.” But he expressed little expectation, because previously the president has continually made mistakes in the appointments of high authorities.
In this regard, Congressman Carlos Anderson (not grouped) said that no decent and professional person is going to be part of such a discredited government.
“What decent person is going to go to a Cabinet, to a government that is facing all these accusations? And these accusations are not invented, they are all from the president’s entourage, to whom now the lawyer [Benji] Espinoza says that they are pure criminals, because they are the criminals that the president had around him,” he said.
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For his part, the spokesman for the Free Peru caucus, Waldemar Cerrón, indicated that his party has not submitted proposals for the formation of the new Cabinet. He avoided commenting on the options of Salas and Chávez for the PCM.
“It would have to be [un equipo] broad-based, we should collaborate with democracy, we have to make every effort for our homeland and the country. Peru Libre has not proposed anyone at all,” he said.
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Torres’s successor would be the fifth prime minister of the Castillo administration in just over 12 months. Before there were Guido Bellido, Mirtha Vásquez, Héctor Valer and Torres. The latter was the one that lasted the longest: almost six months.
As reported by the Data Journalism Unit of El Comercio, in his first year in office, Castillo appointed 59 ministers, including the current fugitive former head of Transport and Communications Juan Silva.