After pointing out that he will reduce the number of ministries if he becomes president, the former mayor of Lima, Rafael Lopez Aliagaquestioned the return to a bicameral Congress because that will imply greater expenses in bureaucracy and privileges for legislators. “It’s a joke,” he said indignantly; however, The Republic He confirmed that the bench of his Popular Renewal party voted in favor of the bill that imposed bicameralism.
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This contradiction happened last Monday during an interview given by the possible presidential candidate to a program on the religious channel Bethel Television. There he was against the fact that the number of congressmen had been raised to 190, taking into account that, from July 2026, there will be 130 deputies and 60 senators.
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“Another tide is corruption, which -unfortunately- in a devious way is realized by making a budget without any type of control, such as the Congress of the Republic. Making two cameras again is a joke, then. (It is necessary) to reduce the State starting with Congress to once again have a single chamber,” he responded.
López Aliaga criticized that parliamentarians have prioritized their interests and privileges. “Instead of shrinking (the State), here they continue to expand it. And each congressman has a car, gasoline, travel expenses, advisors, it’s outrageous. More people no, less people yes. And you should have only one camera, what they have done seems crazy to me,” he said.
Well, a detail that López Aliaga does not mention is that among the legislators, who supported the bicameral system that he criticizes so much, are seven members of his Popular Renewal party. They are Miguel Ciccia, Jessica Córdova, Noelia Herrera, María Jáuregui, Alejandro Muñante, Norma Yarrow and Jorge Zeballos, who voted in favor of the respective bill during the session of December 4, 2024.
More contradictions
At another time, true to his style, the leader of Renovación Popular made various promises to become president, such as promoting the construction of 14 international airports.
“Spain has almost ninety million tourists. Peru has four. Peru is more than Spain. In tourism we are much more (…) Every day that a high-end tourist stays in the country he leaves a thousand dollars (…) but you have to take that same tourist to Iquitos, to Tarapoto, to Chachapoyas, tourist to Arequipa, Chiclayo, La Libertad. My calculation is that there are 14 international airports missing,” said the former mayor.
López Aliaga added that these projects could be executed in five years of management because “They are very easy to do” because it has a view “from the private sector where things are faster.”
However, he left the Municipality of Lima with various half-finished projects because they are still under construction, such as the Vía Expresa Sur, the Vía Expresa Grau, the Vía Expresa Norte; in addition to the Lima-Chosica Train, whose wagons and locomotives are stored due to the improvisation and poor planning of his former mayoral administration.
Broken promises
But that’s not all. The Republic revealed that López Aliaga left the mayor’s office of Lima without fulfilling 25 promises of his municipal government plan.
The former mayor promised a tram along Universitaria Avenue to link San Martín Porres (SMP) with Carabayllo. On that same avenue he later offered a Metropolitano, but the Urban Transportation Authority (ATU) gave him the thumbs down. Now, he will lay the foundation stone for a Northern Expressway for public transportation.
López Aliaga also proposed the Independencia-San Juan de Lurigancho (SJL) cable car, which, in a second stage, was going to extend to Carabayllo. However, none of that exists today in his third year of management. The studies, carried out by the ATU, are still stuck.
In security, López Aliaga offered – in his municipal government plan – to create the Armed Forces Reservist System for high crime areas. Today that remains on paper. He also promised mandatory identification of motorcycles, which consisted of drivers wearing a vest and a helmet with either the license plate number or the number of their DNI engraved on them. Since he did not execute it, in the end, the Government applied it, but without any success.
Added to this is his proposal to force authorized taxi drivers and motorcycle taxi drivers to communicate and report to the Lima Municipal Security Center about possible criminal acts. There is no progress on that.
The mayor’s workhorse was the promise to buy 10,000 motorcycles that were going to be used for the Police and municipal security services. Well then, this was half accomplished because López Aliaga himself had to clarify that he only delivered 4,000 motorcycles (less than 50% of what was promised) because there are no agents to handle them. Of that figure, 2,700 went to the PNP and 1,300 to the communes.
