The Peruvian president, Pedro Castillo, resigned this Thursday from his affiliation with the Marxist-Leninist party Peru Libre, a few hours after that force, which led him to the Presidency, announced that he was openly going over to the opposition, which could lead to in that a new initiative to dismiss the president if it now obtains the necessary votes in Congress.
“Today I have submitted to @JNE_Peru my irrevocable resignation from the Peru Libre political party. Such a decision is due to my responsibility as president of 33 million Peruvians. I am respectful of the party and its bases built in the campaign,” Castillo reported on his Twitter account.
The president attached in his tweet a copy of the text of resignation and disaffiliation that he presented to the National Directorate of the Registry of Political Organizations, National Electoral Jury, hours after Peru Libre announced that it was leaving the ruling party.
Today I have presented @JNE_Peru my irrevocable resignation from the Peru Libre political party. Such a decision is due to my responsibility as president of 33 million Peruvians. I am respectful of the party and its bases built in the campaign. pic.twitter.com/KsRGmujnoQ
– Pedro Castillo Terrones (@PedroCastilloTe) June 30, 2022
“We are definitely not an official party,” said the head of the bloc, Waldemar Cerrón, brother of the party’s head, Vladimir Cerrón, who two days ago asked Castillo to withdraw from the force.
As an expression of this new position, Waldemar Cerrón anticipated that the bench will vote in favor of censoring the Minister of the Interior, Dimitri Senmache.
held that Peru Libre will act as a “proactive opposition”, as opposed to the “obstructionist opposition” of the right-wing parties that dominate Congress, reported the AFP agency.
“The fact that we do not agree with some terms (of the government) means that we could be a proactive opposition and not an obstructionist opposition,” said Cerrón, who insisted that the bloc “is not going to be opposing for opposition’s sake.”
The announcement widens the distance that separates Peru Libre from Castillo, which worsened on Tuesday after the party asked him to “irrevocably renounce” his militancy under threat of expulsion.
PL complains that Castillo set aside the party’s program and his electoral promises and that instead he is “implementing the losing neoliberal program.”
Vladimir Cerrón, a doctor trained in Cuba, tweeted that the decision it was a “unanimous agreement of the Party, the Political Commission and the Bank.”
The rupture between Peru Libre and Castillo occurs just when a congressional commission is investigating the president for alleged corruption and plans to recommend an indictment against him, which could lead to another request for his removal from the position he reached 11 months ago.
By unanimous agreement of the Party, Political Commission and Bank. pic.twitter.com/0B8nxS9XjL
– Vladimir Cerrón (@VLADIMIR_CERRON) June 29, 2022
Peru Libre accuses Castillo of undermining “the unity and discipline” of the party after the division of the official caucus.
Doubts now focus on whether the 16 congressmen who remain in PL (from the original 37) will join the vacancy actions (removal)a decision that would leave the president absolutely helpless.
For the impeachment, the votes of 87 of the 130 congressmen are needed. Until now, with an official bloc of 37 members -regardless of the divisions- and five allies, the opposition, led by “hard” right-wing parties, had found it impossible to reach that figure.
Rural teacher, 52 years old, Castillo was a presidential candidate as a “guest” of PL in September 2020.
The website of the newspaper La República pointed out that the total rupture between PL and Castillo was due to the departure of Carlos Palacios from the Energy and Mines portfolio, and that Vladimir Cerrón then told the president that he was “breaking with the party.”
And the weekly “Hildebrandt en sus trece” revealed that on May 26, Cerrón openly informed the president that the alliance was ending.
Furthermore, according to the media, at the last meeting of the party’s Central Committee, Cerrón said that “Peru Libre will be the bench that defines whether Pedro Castillo is vacated or not.”
