Peruvian President reshuffles cabinet while opposition proposes to remove him from office

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, tried to stop the crisis facing his government on Tuesday with the appointment of a new Council of Ministers after the resignation of Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez. At the same time, the political opposition proposed to submit him to an impeachment trial in an attempt to remove him from office.

Castillo appointed congressman Héctor Valer to replace Vásquez, who resigned “due to the impossibility of reaching consensus for the country’s benefit” after the President accepted the resignation of former prosecutor Avelino Guillén from the Ministry of the Interior.

Valer, a lawyer, specializing in criminal law, was sworn in at a ceremony held at the Government Palace in Lima. Castillo also swore in nine new ministers and ratified nine others.

The reshuffle of the Peruvian cabinet included the Ministry of Economy and Finance, where economist Oscar Graham was sworn in; Foreign Affairs, where constitutionalist César Landa was appointed; Defense, which Rear Admiral José Luis Gavidia took over; and Interior, where former police chief Alfonso Chávarry was sworn in.

Besides making changes in Agrarian Development and Irrigation, Energy and Mines, Women and Vulnerable Populations, Environment and Culture, the President ratified Aníbal Torres in Justice and Human Rights, Hernando Cevallos in Health, Betsy Chávez in Labor and Employment Promotion and Dina Boluarte in Development and Social Inclusion.

In this way, Castillo tried to face the crisis that began when Guillén resigned last Friday when he did not feel supported by the President in his recommendation to dismiss the then Chief of Police Javier Gallardo, with whom he had significant disagreements.

After Guillén’s departure, Vásquez affirmed that Castillo’s government had reached “a critical moment” with the crisis generated in the Interior, which he considered part of “a structural problem of corruption in several instances of the State”.

His resignation forced Castillo to form a third government team since he took office on July 28, 2021, a period in which he has accumulated several government crises and which has now led the political opposition to announce that it will file a constitutional accusation in an attempt to remove him from office.

The third vice-president of the Peruvian Congress, Patricia Chirinos, informed that she would present the constitutional accusation against Castillo “for his permanent constitutional violations, his flagrant incapacity and the evident corruption of his government”.

The legislator, from the right-wing opposition party Avanza País, was the author, last November, of a motion that already proposed to remove the President from office and which failed after falling six votes short of the 52 needed to be admitted to the plenary.

According to Article 117 of the Peruvian Constitution, the President can only be impeached during his term of office for specific causes such as treason, impeding presidential, parliamentary, regional, or municipal elections, illegally dissolving the Congress, or impeding its functioning.

In parallel to the announcement of this accusation, it was reported that the Constitutional Commission of the Congress will analyze a bill presented by the Morado Party, center-liberal and until recently close to the Castillo regime, which seeks to modify article 117 of the Magna Carta.

The bill intends to broaden the causes for which a ruler may be accused during his term of office and charged for the alleged commission of crimes of corruption and criminal organization.

While the Purple Party assured that if Castillo “does not solve the crisis in this third Cabinet, he will have to understand that the best thing for the country is to resign”, this Tuesday also resigned the Secretary of the Presidency of Peru, Carlos Jaico, after denouncing that there is a “shadow cabinet” in the Government of Castillo, an accusation to which the President has not yet responded.

With information from EFE