While the Vice President and Minister of Social Inclusion, Dina Boluarte, granted this interview, the Congress gave the green light to the promulgation by insistence of the law against the referendum. Boluarte says that they will go to the TC and gives his opinion on other issues that compromise the Government.
You said a few days ago that Congress wants to make a parliamentary government. Why do you consider that?
Since we started the management with the President Pedro Castillo in this popular government we have felt that Parliament wants to guide the course of the cabinet because it does not stop questioning and censuring various ministers (…) Then they have raised the issue that the Executive cannot raise the issue of trust and a project so that Congress can determine who can be ministers and advisers to the ministries. The Congress wants to become the Executive, he wants to make a parliamentary government out of a democratic government or a totalitarian government from Parliament.
But don’t you think the government was permissive with Congress? What have they done to respond from the powers that the Executive Power has?
We have proposed legal regulations so that Congress performs one of its functions: legislate. But there they are stored. Not more than a week and a half ago they took out the law of orphanhood of children as a result of the pandemic. They only got that. And so there are several bills that are sleeping while congressmen are in an effort to censor.
Has the Government had political gestures to respond? An example: the Minister of Education was censored and the Government did not say anything. It was the same with Béjar.
There were no firm responses to those actions. But why? No matter how many actions the cabinet may present, I believe that for this Congress, with some exceptions, the only thing that counts are numbers, reasons do not count, ideas do not count, governability does not count (…) So, in the face of that closed majority, which wants to turn this government into a parliamentary government, the numbers are what count. On the issue of the right to a referendum. This 1993 Constitution indicates that the people have the right to a referendum. The Constitution Commission is taking that right away from the people. We have not given pass to that norm and they have approved it.
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Are they only going to appeal to the Constitutional Court (TC)?
Let’s go to CT so as not to think about raising an issue of trust.
Can you still raise issue of trust?
I believe that time has been gaining on us for the same reason that we have been working to resolve these immediate issues that the country calls us to.
Can they legally?
It’s in the constitutional Court (the interpretive law of the question of confidence) and, As long as the Court does not say so, we can raise a question of trust.
Because of the referendum law?
Clear.
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Is it a personal opinion or also the president’s?
It is a personal position.
Do you trust the TC?
In a democratic society and where the authorities have been elected to respond to what the people need and are waiting for, I think that the TC tribunes have to side with the people. The interest is there when it is necessary to resolve what the people need, not what a parliamentary group, by insistence, takes out, as a norm against the Constitution and citizen rights.
But if the TC does not declare this rule unconstitutional, what will the Executive do?
The town that defines. We have to wait, because the right that is being taken away is not from the president, the cabinet, but from the people. The people will assert their rights.
Some jurists speak that in order to change the Constitution, “the constituent moment” is needed. Peru is?
We have been saying that this Constitution, not everything, but the economic chapter is detrimental to the interests of the nation.
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Minister, I listen to you and I feel you are more enthusiastic about a new Constitution than President Castillo himself. Does he share that enthusiasm?
You’d have to ask the president. I can answer for myself. It is not a matter of enthusiasm, but of rights (…). That’s why I said a few days ago that I call the president of the Commission of Constitution of the Congress for her to propose from her commission the reform of the economic chapter.
But that is inalienable for Fujimori.
Because. So what is behind? What interests are there?
And why haven’t you presented a bill?
Yes, we are working on it. We are going to present it. And then Congress will have to face the people. Why don’t you want to modify this economic chapter?
Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez presented a bill to reform the vacancy and the trust issue, but that project is shelved.
I understand that the premier has sent documents requesting that they put it up for debate. But not only that. There are also other projects from the Peru Libre caucus that do not put it on the agenda. They prefer to put censorship on the agenda.
YOU CAN SEE: Boluarte: right-wing congressmen have their own agenda of being obstructionists to the Government
Or do they not press because they are afraid of vacancy?
There is no fear. We are respectful of the institutions and the agenda of each congressman, but we must speed up issues of national interest.
Alert. Boluarte says that a parliamentary regime appears. Photo: diffusion
In the campaign, you promised the new Constitution, did you always opt for the collection of signatures for it?
That’s right, that the people decide, through a constituent assembly, like what is happening in Chile. That’s the way and Congress wants to take away that right from the population.
In Chile there was a social upheaval, but that outrage was channeled by political leaders. The question I ask you here is: what political leaders can channel that indignation here? Vladimir Cerron?
Eh no.
Veronika Mendoza?
No. I believe that there are no political leaders here who necessarily have to address the issue of the constituent assembly. When we walk at the national level, what the people say is a new Constitution. It is the people themselves who are going to propose and ask. We don’t need leaders and none of the others that you have mentioned.
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Isn’t there a mea culpa for the appointments of the ministers?
Look, the appointments of the ministers and of the people who assume positions of trust, like the case of Mr. Salaverry, obviously the president has the decision (…). Mr. Salaverry has been very critical in the campaign, we know where he comes from.
He has been a Fujimorista and from Somos Perú.
We know where it comes from, but by opening the foundations of a popular government, let’s give the opposition a chance.
Do you trust Salaverry?
I don’t know, your work will tell.
Politically?
The president will have appointed him to that position for a reason. Let’s wait for Mr. Salaverry’s results. Let’s not put the cross before time. For example, in the BCR, when PPK was president, who was put on the board? Didn’t you go to Chlimper and Rafael Rey?
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Have you already distanced yourself from the ideology of Peru Libre?
Look, I have never embraced the ideology of Peru Libre. What we have said in the campaign is that we want a universal health system, we want to make education closer to the Peruvian reality.
Several prosecutors have filed the alleged electoral fraud, but in Congress they continue to investigate “the truth.”
They are wanting to seek the truth about their own lies. The only thing I can say to Renovación Popular, Avanza País and Fuerza Popular, which I think is Fujimorism with three heads, is that recognize that they have lost the elections.
Minister, but Mr. Waldemar Cerrón is also on that commission, who is the spokesman for the government caucus. Doesn’t that concern you?
Well, we will have to ask him what his leading role will be. But my opinion is to call on the right to recognize that they have lost the elections, instead of obstructing President Castillo’s administration.
“Where is the contingency of the companies? Does Repsol fall and nothing happens?
The Yanapay bonus is at 70%.
Yes, we are at 70%.
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How long will it take them to finish the other 30%?
The Yanapay bonus is scheduled until the end of April. We are starting January, February and March. We will easily get there. However, the 600 bond, when I arrived here, had a margin that it had not been collected and they had even issued a supreme decree that the bond was no longer valid. What we did is issue a supreme decree to extend the 600 bonus until the end of December. I have the expectation that by the end of April the bonus may have reached 13,500,000 people.
Would it be correct to use the word “assistance” with these programs?
I think what the government is looking at is how we reach our vulnerable brothers and sisters. I don’t know if it can be called assistance to be on the side of the need of our most needy brothers.
In the Qali Warma social program, food has been given to students, but face-to-face classes have not yet resumed…
Let’s see, Qali Warma is a program to be applauded. In what sense? In the middle of the pandemic we have not stopped feeding our schoolchildren, we have looked for a way.
What else could the State do on the Repsol issue?
The companies that are operating in the country, in the face of a contingency like this, have to respond. We all know that Peru is in the ring of fire. doWhere is the contingency of companies? Does Repsol fall and nothing happens? Do some miners fall and nothing happens? That’s okay, nothing should change.
What do you think about Repsol offering fishermen jobs to clean up this mess? Does it seem appropriate?
What matters here is cleaning as soon as possible. That is why I said that we ask for international aid. As a State we are going to put our efforts. But the disaster is tremendous. The UN has responded, it will give all the support. There are 20 affected beaches and thousands of homes that are going to be left without work.
