Peru swears in new president with cabinet still a mystery

Bloomberg

Pedro Castillo, a former teacher from one of Peru’s most impoverished regions, takes office as the nation’s president with promises to redistribute wealth and rewrite the constitution that are likely to put him on a collision course with the political and business establishment.
Castillo’s inauguration takes place in Lima on Wednesday morning, and was to be followed by the announcement of his cabinet. As of 9 am local time, he still hadn’t named his ministers, suggesting that rival factions may still be jockeying for power behind the scenes.
His pledge to dramatically boost spending on health, education and welfare struck a chord with poor Peruvians who felt they never fully benefited from the country’s mineral riches. But his proposals to rein in foreign mining companies, raise corporate taxes, and the fact that he belongs to a Marxist political party, worry business leaders and investors alike.
Castillo, 51, who has no previous experience of national politics or high office, takes the helm of a nation in turmoil, which last year had three presidents in little more than a week. He successfully tapped voters’ anger after Peru suffered the world’s worst Covid-19 mortality rate and a deeper economic slump than all major economies in the Americas during the pandemic.
In recent days, Castillo was unable to form a ruling coalition in congress, which will make it hard for him to govern, and even puts him at risk of being impeached like former President Martin Vizcarra.
Another possible headache will be his relationship with his own Free Peru party, which has 37 of the 130 seats in congress. The party was founded by Marxist neurosurgeon Vladimir Cerron, who praised autocrats such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Castillo has tried to distance himself from party hardliners in recent weeks, who want him to pursue a radical course.
A key signal will be the composition of Castillo’s cabinet. That he still hadn’t announced them on the morning of his inauguration shows “a high level of improvisation but also it seems lots of wrangling between the different factions supporting Castillo for their quota of power,” said Jo-Marie Burt, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights and democracy.
“It was difficult for him to form a coalition, and he has a serious problem to resolve which is his relationship with Peru Libre and, above all, with Vladimir Cerron,” said Fernando Tuesta, a Lima-based political scientist.