How does the 2% take on electoral preferences according to the latest survey of Ipsos?
I take it quite optimistically. It’s still a long road until election day. We are going step by step. And we continue moving forward. We are always saying that, if we want to be an austere president, we have to be an austere candidate. If we want to be an all-terrain president, we have to be an all-terrain candidate. And if we want to be an honest president, we have to be an honest candidate. And on that basis we continue to advance on our journey through all the provinces of Peru.
To what do you attribute the growth? He has been touring Peru and some remember him from TV.
There is a large percentage of people who are still thinking. The majority of Peru is looking for real change. An alternative to change the way the State is structured. And a real change in the way of doing politics. To the extent that our proposals become more widely known, our candidacy will become stronger. Because our proposals are truly disruptive, they seek a change in the way the economy has been managed in the last 25 years.
What is the most disruptive thing about your government plan?
First of all, the issue of tax reform. We are going to reduce tax rates and we are going to eliminate 35 anti-technical taxes. Let’s dry up the well of corruption. We are going to put an end to the number of authorizations, licenses and permits that are really opportunities for corruption and bribery. And we’re also going to end this crazy fine system. Indecopi It has become a Gestapo. Indecopi was created to promote free competition, not to destroy the
companies and small businessmen through fines that are monstrous. Sunat goes to a winery, fines S/5,000 and the winery is closed. So, now the State not only does not generate value, but it destroys value. They impose million-dollar fines on transporters, bus drivers, and motorcycle taxi drivers. And they are constantly asked for circulation permits every three months in certain municipalities. People are very tired of it.
We don’t let them work and we don’t let them grow.
There has never been so much money as now in the history of Peru. In the era of guano, which was the so-called fallacious prosperity according to Basadre, there was not as much money as there is now. And the terms of trade have never been so favorable for Peru. Export products are at the highest prices. And what we import significantly, which is oil, is at historic lows. We should be growing 8% or 9%. But the only thing that grows is the bureaucracy, the privileges and the State that suffocates the merchant and the honest worker.
There was a time when we grew at 8%…
During the government of Alan Garcia in which growth rates of 8% were recorded, commodity prices were not as high as they are now. Now they are much higher. We are only growing at 3%. People say, “Well, we’re growing.” But we are growing despite everything the State does to stop us from growing. We grow despite all those irresponsible spending initiatives from Congress. And we grow despite the billions of soles that are lost each year due to corruption. Peru’s main problem is corruption. Behind all the problems we have, including citizen security,
there is corruption.
How to cut this link between corruption and citizen insecurity?
We are not going to improve to the extent that we do not really propose a policy to combat corruption that goes against the leaders of criminal organizations. Not against the little thief on the street: against the ringleaders. And put them in a maximum security prison, without visiting privileges, without prison benefits, and making them feel the full weight of the law. I always repeat this: in Peru the harsh hand is applied to the honest worker, the merchant, the taxi driver, the motorcycle taxi driver. And the soft hand is applied to the leader of the criminal organizations. It has to be the opposite. A soft hand must be applied to the honest worker to ensure that the State adapts and thus promote formalization. Peru is becoming increasingly informal. We are becoming more and more informal.
We must already be at 80%…
20 years ago informality covered 70% of working people. Now we are approaching 80%. And with the aggravating factor that crime is also penetrating informality. And all that is because the State is indolent. The State is tough with those it works with and is very soft and gentle with criminal organizations.
“THE YOUNG PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DECIDE THE ELECTIONS”
He wrote an essay about Haya. And he worked at TV Perú during Alan’s government. Was there affinity?
I was very opposed to Alan García in his first government since Oiga magazine. It was the medium that was most opposed to his government. But, when Alan’s second government came, I saw his eagerness to correct the mistakes he had made in the first. And I realized that, indeed, he had a vocation to be prudent in managing the economy, to keep inflation low, to be responsible, to not repeat those gross mistakes of his first government. So, I definitely had to recognize that effort.
The president has emerged auspicious from a first survey, but the underlying problems are still there.
He is a provisional president, he does not have a mandate. You have to know that your main responsibility is to conduct an electoral process in the most transparent and clean way possible. Delivering power in the best way is its main mission. But it definitely has to face a pressing problem that is insecurity, especially the issue of extortion and murders, mainly of transporters. To the extent that he can concentrate all his efforts and bring together the best people possible, people should recognize it.
What would you say to the generation that protests?
I have always defended the right to freedom of expression, but the marches have to be peaceful. The best measure of success for a march is when it is massive and peaceful. Democracy is conviction and persuasion, but it is also learning. The election of Pedro Castillo was a learning experience. People now understand that voting has consequences for the country, for your pocketbook and for your family. I talk a lot with young people from provincial universities and they are worried. Young people are becoming more informed, there is greater interest in the 2026 elections. I feel that young people are going to decide the elections.
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