the doctor Cyrus Red Castle, candidate for governor of Callao with the Más Callao movementensures represent the change and promises a neoplastic hospital and decongest the road that connects the north of the province. It proposes to combat insecurity with a program that combines technology, support for the Police, a school for security guards, and social programs. He says he will summon the other Chalaca authorities, despite the fact that they are from the group of his rival, and that he will not deny them financing. He denies having close relations with Chimpum and affirms that he denounced corruption when he was an official. He promises a chalaca free zonean investment shock, turn Callao into a tourist destination and promote education with better content, food and free internet.
“Why do you think the chalacos should vote for you?”
Why we we are the changean option with clean hands, we represent the most honest of the chalacos, we put our clean hands at the service of the chalaca community and because our proposals are viable, they are all viable.
—How will you face the problem of citizen insecurity in Callao?
It has many facets. Fundamentally we are going to attack insecurity in the streets, street crime. We will manage it with a strategy in which there will be a tsar against citizen insecurity that will articulate the region with the organizations of the populationbecause there we will develop social programs.
“A czar with a social focus?”
That’s how it is. Citizen security councils, states of emergency and the good will of some police chiefs have not solved the problem. We intend to nip this in the budnot only with technological implementation: drones, cameras, monitoring, etc., but with the policy of going, from the region, articulating with municipalities and neighborhood organizations.
—Every day in Callao there are killings, hitmen. There, how to enter? Can the region?
Has to Coordinate with the Ministry of the Interior and spin their projects around the Police. And there are preventive tasks that we are going to do cultivating sports, education.
Are you talking about financing the region for the Police?
Of course. We will finance with patrol cars, with whatever is necessary from the budget.
Ciro Castillo Rojo is the candidate for governor of Callao with the More Callao movement. Photo: Hugo Díaz/La República
—What would be your main ones, for which you think you would be remembered?
Break the traffic jam between Gambeta avenue and its entrance to Callao. There, infrastructure and a negotiation table with the truck owners are required. Timetables must be regulated and traffic redirected. We also need to see the vehicle fleet and our relationship with the ATU (Urban Transport Authority) and traffic agencies. A flagship proposal is the neoplastic hospital. In education, educational revolution with technology, better content, free breakfast, lunch and internet. In health, the regional pharmacies of essential drugs. In the economy, an investment shock to boost the economy and Callao Free Zone for import and export of machinery and other goods. In the first year, we calculate 30 thousand jobs.
—Corruption has also been a problem in Callao, especially after more than 20 years of Chimpum. What did that period mean to you?
The corruption of those 25 years of political kidnapping has meant blood in the streets of Callao, hit men, quota collection, drug micro-commercialization on the rise and murder everywhere. That has diminished, but it has to stop. The great drug trafficking is the responsibility of the central level, but we have to intervene demanding, managing, in addition to effective work against street crime. In the first 6 months we intend reduce street crime by up to 50%. We will improve the Police fleet, state-of-the-art technology and we will create the first new type school of night watchmen that will be called Guardia Chalaca. We think we can get up to three annual promotions.
—You had management and direction positions in efforts of Juan Sotomayor and Félix Moreno. What did that step mean to you?
First, I know public management inside out. In this case, I was disappointed by bureaucratism and corruption. I did what I could. In stages of epidemics such as dengue, I did not have a single death. We discovered a mafia and robberies, like a hack into computers. I presented evidence of that corruption, to the best of my ability.
—Many wonder about the participation of Omar Marcos. Which?
He commanded what was called Fuerza Chalaca. He looked for us, I told him “no” because I have fought against Chimpum. “I’m not with Chimpum”, he told me she. “I will create a new organization,” I told him. This is More Callao. From the trench he contributed what he could, has not won the elections for (the mayoralty of) Ventanilla, showed goodwill not to interfere with them anymore, broke sticks and had no consent sentence. We worked in good will, he did not win the elections… Now there are only two of us: me and the governor’s recommendation Dante Mandriotti, who was his manager, adviser and supplier to him. And there is the intention of a group to re-concentrate power and we already know the results: imprisoned governors, imprisoned ex-mayors, imprisoned ex-congressmen and the misfortunes that those more than 2 decades brought us.
—The movement of Miguel Cordano, his contender, has won the provincial mayoralty and almost all the districts. If you win, what will your relationship be with those authorities?
Cordano did not win but Pedro Spadaro. The economic deployment has been rude and he has his current candidate because he gave him the drag vote. In the second round, there are only two of us: Cordano and me. A simple reasoning suggests that they want to stay. I make a metaphor: the day after I win, he took the shirt of my political organization and I’ll take the Callao shirt. What does that mean? Summon all the mayors without distinction and popular organizations to present their projects and we can make the transfers because in the end the population benefits.
—Aren’t you going to deny economic transfers to municipalities from the other group?
Not at all, we are going to summon them. We have the terrible example of the Executive with the Legislative. It looks like a cachascan fight where instead of blood, they put tomato sauce. We don’t want to come to that. We want to transform Callao. Callao has 30% poverty and 4% extreme poverty. After the pandemic, pockets of tuberculosis, HIV, anemia, malnutrition have accumulated. Requires intensive care. I am a surgeon and the first thing to do here is to control the damage caused by 2 terrible diseases: the inability to manage and corruption. When these 2 things come together, misfortune comes for the population.
Cyrus Red Castle. Photo: Hugo Díaz/La República
—Is the Costa Verde del Callao good or should it change?
It must be finished. The blocked works must be unlocked for the benefit of the population. The day after we receive the region, we are going to see each of the aspects. The Costa Verde requires a program, which we already have, for urban regeneration. There is in Guayaquil, in Barcelona. Large businesses, recreation, modern constructions are generated around what they call the Barracks. That must change.
“In four years?”
We can lay the foundations of that vision, in addition to doing works.
—The Via de la Santa Rosa… What is your opinion?
We want Callao to be a tourist destination. We don’t want them to throw us into Callao like a pole. Via Santa Rosa would give the impression that they are trying to facilitate the exit of tourists directly to Lima or Miraflores without even going through Callao, and that is not in our favor. Callao should be a tourist destination. For that we have to make aquariums, we have projects. The Santa Rosa should allow you to know Callao. With the offer of Callao as a tourist destination, tourists will want to visit the aquarium, the historic center, where Garibaldi was, where writers were… Callao has been famous because on its beaches, its squares, there have been illustrious characters from literature, weapons, from the world.
—In Ventanilla, Pachacútec and Mi Perú, a main problem is that of property and water. What would I do there?
The first thing is facilitate that they take out their physical-legal sanitation and do not charge the amounts that they want to charge them now and prevent corruption. Regarding water, first solve the immediate problem, because they are taking trucks and it is dangerous: there are larvae and parasites. It is a necessity that should not delay. Must be start at a negotiation table the day after the start of the management, with the national government.
—In each election, you have gone with a different party, even with Peru Libre. What does it say?
We have fallen into a political reductionism: they believe that everything is black or white, right or left, when we are full of nuances. There is a party crisis, they have not been able to modernize and they lack leaders. I was invited to those organizationsI have never had party identification.
Is he a candidate for Peru Libre? Rafael López Aliaga alluded to him as a government candidate.
They can say what they want, but that is another absurdity. You’re wrong.
—What will your relationship with López Aliaga be?
I am going to visit him and congratulate him because he is the virtual mayor, and he also seems to me to be a person who He has been very humanized in the last part of his campaignmuch more than before.
—They question him saying that he is not a chalaco…
I’m a chalaco with all my heart. I have grown up here since I was a child. I have studied at the Leoncio Prado Military College, I am a surgeon from Callao. My family is from Arequipa and from Cusco and Puno. I made my life in Callao, my wife and my children are Chalacos. I owe everything to Callao, having cultivated values and observed the integrity of the chalacos and chalacas. Almost all the chalacos are the product of effort, not privilege. Our privilege is to be chalacos. Many come from the interior, ‘cholacos’ they call us. In Callao there was foreign immigration and Andean migration. That has given us ethnic-cultural mix. We are a melting pot and somewhat dynamic. 99% of the chalacos are hard-working and honest people. That fame that has been given by a group that has taken advantage of the good faith of the chalacos committing crimes, we have to reverse it.
They say he has a problem with alcohol…
I’m not even a heavy drinker. Some time ago, after a Father’s Day celebration, an ethyl dosage came out positive. there was no accident I apologized and paid my fault. My then contender Félix Moreno took advantage of that to attack me.. It is the dirty war in the absence of arguments. This happened almost 10 years ago and they are digging it up. The problem with alcohol is that I see a lot of alcoholism in young people and it is necessary to stop it, not by opinion but by cultivating sports, culture, quality and talent of the chalacos.
