Aníbal Torres, an almost octogenarian lawyer with a good professional reputation and a direct clash style, became the bet of the president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, for the fourth phase of a government constantly besieged by the opposition.
Torres, until now Minister of Justice, will be at the head of the sworn Cabinet on Tuesday, in which the ruling party Peru Libre (PL) recovers quotas and in which the absence of the “star” of the Government, Hernando Cevallos, the head of Health whose services Castillo decided to do without.
Although the President had announced a “broad-based” team, with new forces to expand the defense and take the initiative, the trend, according to analysts, is to insist with the same sectors, including PLa Marxist-Leninist party with which the president has a bittersweet relationship.
“More continuity than change. Castillo is only buying time. The underlying problems have not been resolved,” said political scientist Martín Tanaka, for whom the first step of the Cabinet in the search for survival will be for Torres to “update” and become more talkative.
Dear compatriots: My commitment remains valid and stronger until July 28, 2026. With conviction, we reiterate our hard work to provide solutions to the problems of Peru, always thinking of ordinary citizens, through unity and governance.
?? pic.twitter.com/abIMnXmRKf– Pedro Castillo Terrones (@PedroCastilloTe) February 8, 2022
The opposition reactions to the new cabinet, the fourth in just over six months of government and the second in a week, varied between the caution of sectors that voted for the government in key situations, to those of the “hard” right, which insisted on Castillo’s departure, via resignation or dismissal, as the only acceptable solution.
“The President has just turned his back on governance and the country. Goodbye, Castillo”said congresswoman Norma Yarrow, of Avanza País, one of the three parties that want to end the mandate of the rural school teacher.
“We will do an evaluation. It is important to look at the whole, to see what the policies are,” said Congresswoman Ruth Luque, from Together for Peru, a leftist group that has accompanied the government but is becoming increasingly distant.
“More continuity than change. Castillo is only buying time. The underlying problems have not been resolved”Martin Tanaka, political scientist
For the swearing-in of the new team, Castillo appeared in public for the first time on Tuesday without the typical hat of his native Cajamarca department. However, the change remained in the anecdote, because the political action continued on the same path.
With a direct shock style, Torres became Castillo’s bet
Torres was born, like Castillo, in the Cajamarcan province of Chota, in the northern Andes. Doctor in Law and Political Science, he dedicated most of his 79 years to university teaching, work in which he achieved unanimous praise.
When the radical opposition wanted to go to court last year to challenge the electoral victory of the left, Torres, until then a low profile, took up the defense and solidly imposed his arguments, which made him a kind of “popular hero.” for your industry.
Already as Minister of Justice, he entered into verbal disputes with different actors, including the maximum leader of PL, Vladimir Cerrón, with whom he had open discrepancies and whom he openly sought to remove from the government environment.
At the time of his appointment as chief of staff, Torres was accused by his resigning Vice Minister of Justice, Gilmar Andía, of imposing “authoritarianism”and was pointed out by the opposition as the architect of the dismissal of Daniel Soriaprosecutor who wanted to investigate the president.
What’s more, various media accused him of preparing a pardon for the ultra-nationalist leader Antauro Humala -imprisoned since 2005 for the seizure of a police station in which four policemen died-, something that the then Minister of Justice denied with sarcastic words.
In this framework, parties that have had a position of dialogue with the government, such as the center-right Somos Perú or the centrist Partido Morado, they asked that Torres be removed from the ministrybut were instead met with his rise.
According to Palace sources who spoke anonymously, Castillo, urged to appoint a new cabinet in the face of the coup that meant the premature fall of the one headed by right-wing parliamentarian Héctor Valer, tried other possibilities before resorting to Torres, but without success.
One of those possibilities, according to the person involved, was the former Minister of Defense Jorge Nieto, a centrist with a good political reputation, who, however, made it a condition that it be a “Cabinet Government”, which reduced the president to almost a figurehead. .
the new cabinet
Six of the 19 ministers are new. Among them, that of the Woman, Diana Miloslavicha well-known feminist whose appointment was pleasing to progressive sectors, since she replaces Katy Ugarte, a PL congresswoman who is critical of the gender approach and the struggles of the LGTBIQ+ community.
Of the new ones, perhaps the most criticized is Health, Hernan Condori, a PL militant whose critics say that his only strength is his personal closeness to Cerrón, and against whom there are investigations for alleged corruption. In addition, he has the weight of replacing Cevallos, a leftist with a large consensus in favor of handling the pandemic.
Among those ratified, the most objected are the Interior, Alfonso Chavarrywith investigations against drug trafficking, and Culture, Alexander Salaswho previously used social networks to insult leftists, Chileans and “blacks.”
Also follows the Minister of Economy, Oscar Grahamwell seen by the opposition but criticized by the left, which calls him a “neoliberal technocrat.”
✅ The head of state, @PedroCastilloTeswore in the members of the new Ministerial Cabinet, led by @anibaltorresvduring a ceremony held tonight at the Government Palace.#CabinetTowers #AlwaysWithThePeople pic.twitter.com/O8zJG1Mpb9
– Presidency of Peru ?? (@presidenciaperu) February 9, 2022
Valer’s tumultuous past
The new Cabinet became necessary after the previous one exploded a few hours after being named, as a consequence of Valer’s tumultuous past, which includes practices of violence against his wife -now deceased- and a daughter.
Valer, a lawyer with a long career in right-wing parties, with investigations for alleged corruption and who before coming to the Government had been critical of the “communist” Castillo, resigned last week in the face of the tide of criticism and the beginning of multisectoral mobilizations against it.
The Torres Cabinet will have its first litmus test in less than a month, when, by law, it will have to seek a vote of confidence from Congress.
It is already expected that those close to the Government, who have about a third of the congressmen, will give it that support, and that the right, which has another third, will deny it, so the final word, once again, will be in the hands of center-right and center parties that hold the remaining third.
The head of state, @PedroCastilloTetogether with the owner of the @pcmperu, @anibaltorresv, chairs the first session of the Council of Ministers. The Executive authorities address the priorities of the sectors and define the management actions, for the benefit of the population. pic.twitter.com/8jw67m4CWv
– Presidency of Peru ?? (@presidenciaperu) February 9, 2022
