Phillip Butters is already past in Avanza País. The turning of the page on his resignation came quickly with the decision of that party, last Sunday, to elect retired Army General José Williams Zapata as the presidential candidate for the general elections next April.
With no time to lose, the political group is already planning what the congressman’s campaign will be like and this Friday the schedule of his first trips to the interior of the country must be defined.
What is decided is that General Williams will begin promoting his candidacy in the south and that Tacna, where he studied part of his primary education, will be the first region he will visit, as Armando Barrantes, national secretary of that political organization, told Peru21.
Then the general will arrive in Puno, the region where not only his mother was born, but where Butters was stoned by a group of people as he left a local radio station last October. At that time, the journalist was presenting himself as a pre-candidate for Avanza País.
In this Friday’s meeting, the campaign manager and the team of professionals who will disseminate the party’s government plan will also be defined.
Barrantes pointed out that within Avanza País there is confidence that Williams “is going to have a good campaign.” “He knows the country deeply, we are very optimistic,” said the leader, who has assured that Fernán Altuve and Karol Paredes will remain in the vice presidencies.
José Williams led the rescue operation known as Chavín de Huántar, which in April 1997 freed 72 hostages kidnapped by the terrorist group MRTA at the residence of the Japanese ambassador. He was also head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, and elected president of Congress in 2022. Under his command, Parliament vacated Pedro Castillo, minutes after the coup d’état he carried out in December of that year.
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