To this day, in Tacna, there is a fairly large colony of Italians, and it was there where Gianfranco Castagnola was born 65 years ago. His father, a young Genoese who emigrated to southern Peru at the age of 20 — “with a series of cultural aspects linked to the management of the economy and austerity” — met his mother, an Apurimeña teacher born in Andahuaylas, who traveled also to the ‘Heroica’ as director of the Great School Unit of Tacna. They fell in love and had two children. Castagnola describes a more than positive childhood, with continuous three-month summers on the southern beaches and the rest of the year studying and cycling through the Tacna countryside “in a very integrated city characterized by a large middle class where economic differences did not affect friendships because, above all, there was a strong sense of community.”
The mix, with a mother in the world of education and a father in the business world, plus the teachings of the Cristo Rey school “with the imprint that the Jesuits leave on their students, emphasizing responsibility and social sensitivity”, resulted in a Gianfranco Castagnola who, although he is very critical of the current situation in the country, maintains optimism for Peru, in the search to achieve an impact in the direction of public policies, from the business world to public institutions and multilateral organizations.
When he moved to Lima to study at the Universidad del Pacífico, he had teachers who inspired him, such as Julio Velarde or Carlos Amat y León, as well as great friends with whom he maintains an affinity to this day.
In some way, does your professional performance force you to be optimistic, despite the reality of the country we are experiencing?
Well, naturally you want your country to do well and you don’t want to scare away investors, and that’s where you can have a bias. But I also honestly believe that there are reasons why, within the immense political crisis we experienced about 7 years ago, we should be relatively optimistic. The resilience of the economy, the resilience of society, of families, of citizens…
Optimistic but realistic that things have spiraled downward?
Yes. Look, I would put it like this. For a country to function and move forward with a sense of the future, the economy has to function, it has to grow. The State also has to function, that is, in security, education, health, procedures, infrastructure. But also politics, which, if it does not work, contaminates the State and contaminates the economy.
What is the part that has failed the most in the State?
The part of the State that has worked the worst has a lot to do with the regionalization processes. Decentralization has not worked, but instead of discussing how we can improve this aspect and ensure that citizens throughout Peru receive better quality services, we have fallen into the discussion that the left has led us into about the economic model — that it was working—while no one wanted to talk about the poor functioning of the State.
And what has happened to the political class?
Politics, which maintained a certain mediocrity, although it was not a large political class, let’s say that we had “normal” governments, with Lava Jato, the populist reforms of Martín Vizcarra, the frivolous use of the vacancy and the closure of Congress plus the pandemic, disappeared. We erased it in one fell swoop, and it turned out that we had nothing underneath.
Has it been transformed?
Today we have a precarious political class, with very few redeemable figures. On the one hand, the stupidity of the non-reelection, which removed congressmen who had a job and could manage a Congress, and put in a series of amateur people with no management skills. But the worst thing is that we have allowed our political class to be increasingly penetrated by the powers of illegal and informal economies, which as they gain space in the State, then pushing them back is very difficult.
A chain. The weakening of the political class that weakens the State and impacts the economy.
And I’m not just talking about health and education, I’m talking about even the simplest procedures that worked well, like getting a passport. Now, if you don’t buy a space from the mafia, you don’t have a passport. That’s what I mean. Once the illegal economy penetrates, it already controls it, just like the Machu Picchu tickets or the illegal miners and informal bus drivers. And all this is achieved with the political class, which is not only precarious, but has become lumpenized, and we see it with the prostitution network in Parliament, which if it is confirmed, where are we?
Who should make a mea culpa for allowing this setback?
I believe that we have left many spaces of destruction of the institutions and of what worked due to lack of leadership, due to feelings of guilt after Lava Jato, due to past errors or a series of circumstances where we have not lived up to the task.
When you include yourself, do you do it as a businessman, as a Peruvian or as a leader in economic issues?
Suddenly there are battles that we should have fought more, or more frontally, from the field of ideas. We did not raise our voices at the time when things were happening; Maybe we were overwhelmed, but we see the consequences today.
And today can you raise your voice?
I do believe that voices are being raised now, but we are not being listened to because this Congress can’t get bullets, they have increased 30% of the budget. And the Government! Actually, you have to be very tough not to resign as minister after Qali Warma. I’m not saying that the minister is involved, but it is his portfolio, and yet they don’t care, they don’t get bullets.
And what about the leaders?
Today there are no leaders who can channel the discomfort with a sense of the future, because it is about channeling the discomfort to build, not to destroy, like Antauro. But there are no, there are no leaders who are followed by the people, like MVLL or, in another way, Alejandro Toledo in 2001.
CHARACTER DATA
-After doing the last interview in Jorge Basadre’s life, the historian and family friend recommended him to his nephew, Felipe Ortiz de Zevallos, to be an intern in the company he had founded: Apoyo Consultoría.
-With a master’s degree from Harvard University, he was director of the BCR, participates in the Board of Trustees of the Universidad del Pacífico and is a director of various private companies and institutions.
-After directing Apoyo for more than 30 years, Castagnola announced that Eduardo Campos will assume his position and he will be president of the board of directors.
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