After a year of government, the president peter castle he ran out of options. the premier Hannibal Torres, who on August 3 announced his resignation, never left. Along with the president, he made last-minute changes to the cabinet, recycling three ministers, including Betssy Chávez, who was censured by Congress when she was in the Labor and Employment Promotion (MTPE) portfolio.
Last night, while all of Peru awaited the swearing-in of Castillo’s fifth cabinet, he reported that he had not accepted the resignation of his prime minister. “I have not accepted the resignation of Aníbal Torres, who is committed to continuing to work for our country,” he wrote on Twitter.
Around 10:00 pm, without prior notice to the media, which had to stand guard at the Government Palace from 5:00 pm, the swearing-in of the new ministers began.
ministerial history
There were changes in six portfolios, three of these taken by recycled ministers. The first is Alejandro Salas, who left the Ministry of Culture (Mincul) to assume the MTPE.
Castillo’s main ayayero swore in Culture in February of this year without having experience in the sector, and now he is sent to a portfolio in which he does not register much knowledge according to his resume.
He is followed by Geiner Alvarado, who left Housing to enter the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC), one of the sectors hardest hit by corruption in Castillo’s administration.
Alvarado is involved in investigations by the Prosecutor’s Office for the case related to the president’s niece, Yenifer Paredes, and could be included in a new investigation together with the head of state.
Peru21 learned that the special team led by the superior prosecutor Marita Barreto submitted a report to the Nation’s prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, on the responsibility that the Ministry of Housing would have in approving million-dollar works in the province of Chota.
In third place appears Betssy Chávez, former Minister of Labor who takes the post at the Mincul.
After eight months in the MTPE, on May 26 she was censured by Congress – with 71 votes in favor – “due to her lack of capacity and gross negligence in her management” for approving the air traffic controllers’ strike that paralyzed the flow of flights during the first days of Easter this year.
His presence in the cabinet is not surprising, since, on Thursday, he arrived at the Prosecutor’s Office while Castillo testified about the irregular promotions in the Armed Forces. and the PNP. “We are supporting the president,” he said then he.
In addition, Torres took the opportunity to remove two ministers who were uncomfortable for him: César Landa (Foreign Ministry) and Óscar Graham (Ministry of Economy and Finance). The first was replaced by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, who in June served for a week as head of the advisory cabinet of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation, in the management of Javier Arce.
Graham, meanwhile, was exchanged for Ollanta Humala’s former Minister of Production, Kurt Burneo. In 2021, the economist rejected the invitation to join Castillo’s technical team in the second round of elections, since he did not agree with the presence of Vladimir Cerrón.
Finally, César Paniagua joined Housing. In 2020, the Comptroller’s Office found alleged civil liability against him when approving – as a board member of SedaCusco, a state sanitation company for the region – a new remuneration scale for executive and trusted personnel in 2012, which caused damage for more than S/140 thousand. The case came to court, but was filed, he said.
These changes generated reactions in Congress, but the most questioned was the permanence of Aníbal Torres.
In dialogue with this newspaper, Roberto Chiabra (APP) lamented the decision to maintain a confrontational cabinet. “The president needed a minister to help him govern while he sees his problems in the Prosecutor’s Office,” he said.
José Williams (Avanza País) described the president’s decision as “the worst”, while Carlos Anderson (not grouped) referred that “Aníbal Torres remained in office with full knowledge of the facts about who is the president.”
KEEP IN MIND:
- Foreign Ministry sources indicated that César Landa would be appointed Peru’s ambassador to Germany in the coming days.
- Pedro Castillo had to go to the Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday to testify. However, his defense announced that they would ask for the diligence to be rescheduled.
- “The president does not realize that he is at his worst moment and he does not gain anything by being confrontational,” said Roberto Chiabra.
