The Controversial Cabinet of Pedro Castillo

Pedro Castillo has not had a single day in peace since he officially assumed the presidency of Peru. Since he became president of Peru, Castillo has already had to shut down and appease several fronts.

Economic reason

This same decision also served as a workhorse for the opposition, a great amalgam of political parties that run throughout the political spectrum from the center-right to the most conservative movements.

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Supporters of the parties of Keiko Fujimori (a former presidential candidate who lost against Castillo), the Aprista party of former president Alan García and the popular Christian Party gathered last Sunday to ask for the head of Guido Bellido. The politicians assured that from the legislature, they would be in charge of counterbalancing it and diminishing the political actions of the new Government.

Several forces in Congress have stated that they will prevent the Constituent Assembly that Castillo is seeking. With the legislature so fragmented, the Peruvian president will have to create a coalition with like-minded parties to be able to maneuver.

Who is the man in question

The controversy and the reason for the rejection of several actors to Bellido is his closeness to the Shining Path terrorist group. In the past, Guido Bellido has expressed his support for former members of the subversive group that, despite being reduced militarily since the Fujimori dictatorship, continues to have a presence in various departments, especially in the jungle region.

Bellido has also been controversial for his macho and homophobic comments, something not so distant from certain positions that the president himself, Pedro Castillo, has already shown. In addition to also being criticized for his little experience in the field of popularly elected positions and with a degree in electronic engineering and a master's degree in Public Management and Rural Development.

Juggling your cabinet

After an unprecedented electoral campaign with 18 candidates for the presidency in which each one of them had to assume a unique discourse that differentiates him from the rest, he left Castillo at the extreme left of the political spectrum and with serious doubts and fears in different places.

For example, as soon as the new administration takes office, the Lima Stock Exchange fell more than 6%, something similar to what happened when the results were known in the first and second rounds. International capitals fear Castillo and that is why the president chose the moderate Pedro Franke as Minister of Economy. Despite his socialist discourse and the support of various progressive left-wing parties, Castillo decides to appoint the rest of his cabinet with little representation of women. These are Dina Boularte, Vice President and Head of Development and Inclusion and Anahí Durand, Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations.

Additionally, the group of ministers is closed by the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Héctor Béjar, an 85-year-old lawyer and doctor in sociology who, in addition, was the founder of the National Liberation Army, a guerrilla group of Castro ideology.