The former Minister of the Interior analyzes the new Council of Ministers of the President Boluarteand asks that they rebuild the institutions destroyed by Pedro Castillo.
What is your qualification to the first cabinet of Dina Boluarte?
It is a call without the high political profile that was expected. However, it has a rather interesting technical profile. That will help rebuild everything that has been destroyed in the government of Pedro Castillo. It is important that they now focus on public management and forget to follow that recipe for the president’s squires. It is necessary to recompose, immediately, with the best professionals and begin to get closer to the population through management and sincere dialogue.
Could not having political faces take its toll on Boluarte?
LOOK: Meet the eight new ministers of Pedro Angulo’s Cabinet
It would have been advisable for the president to have a more solid team in political terms because there is a crisis that needs to be addressed. But the profile of this cabinet is important because it can allow it to give it that channel of public management. What we Peruvians need now is for the State to begin to function, begin to provide services and give results. I would take a leap of faith with this cabinet so that we can get out of this serious crisis that comes from the previous management.
The cabinet may have the confidence of Congress, but will it have the confidence of the citizenry?
It is important that the president clearly define the nature of her government. The correct and most convenient thing in political terms is to think that we are in a transition government with the need to call new elections based on the necessary and urgent political reforms so as not to be in permanent crisis. The government must propose a political reform agenda to Congress, and what has already been advanced is discussed so that in 2023 or the first months of 2024 we can participate in an electoral process with the new rules. That Boluarte thinks that he can complete the government until 2026 contains the risk that violent sectors legitimize themselves with a banner of closing Congress and grow from a wrong reading of the president.
What do you think of the new Minister of the Interior, César Cervantes?
He is a Police general with a very good academic background, professional experience and an outstanding career. In addition, he is a general without trial or act of investigation for corruption crimes. That is quite an important merit in these times. He knows the Police and the Interior sector well. He has experience fighting organized crime. The actors questioned for corruption will not like his appointment. He is not going to like sectors that would have preferred to continue instrumentalizing the PNP. Cervantes ensures the recovery of the institutionality.
Has Dina done well in not putting congressmen as ministers?
Definitely. It is important that congressmen focus on what they were elected for. Supervise, make political control and of course to represent their jurisdictions. It is important that legislators understand that they must fight politically and leave no room for this radical and anti-system discourse. That they make politics so that the radicalized sectors do not continue to grow.
Who is operating behind the protests in Ica and Andahuaylas?
We are facing operators from radicalized sectors linked to illegal economies. They want to burn down the prairie. We are facing political actors who use democratic forms, but who, deep down, have the intention of backfiring them. It is important that the government and political parties assume the responsibility of having a speech that is up to the task. We must not give the protest flags to these radical sectors.
The police chief, Raúl Alfaro, has confirmed that Castillo asked him to seize Congress and arrest the National Prosecutor.
The statement by the PNP Commander General, Raúl Alfaro, is very important. This confirms that Pedro Castillo and former Interior Minister Willy Huerta had full knowledge of what they were doing and what ultimately ended in a coup. That clearly proves that Pedro Castillo had this planned. It also demonstrates that Castillo was not induced against his will to read a document without knowing its content, as some of his supporters point out.
Is Pedro Castillo well detained?
Pedro Castillo has to answer to justice for a coup and his membership in a criminal organization. Pedro Castillo has violated the Constitution and offended democracy. He has betrayed the popular will and tried to destroy our democratic system. Of course, his arrest corresponds to the law and must serve as a lesson for all politicians.
KEEP IN MIND
- “The new Minister of the Interior must resolutely support the PNP Special Team and Colonel Colchado in the investigations they are carrying out against the criminal structure headed by Pedro Castillo,” says Vargas.
- “Cervantes has to review the composition of the Police retirement passes because it is made up of a lieutenant general investigated for fuel theft and the Death Squad. An officer with these characteristics (Vicente Álvarez) cannot be part of that commission ”, he maintains.
