Peru’s interim government was supposed to get a marquee prime minister. It got a technocrat instead — and the story of how one replaced the other says everything about the country’s perpetual political turbulence. President José María Balcázar swore in Denisse Miralles as head of his cabinet on Tuesday evening at the Government Palace, just days after publicly announcing that the post would go to Hernando de Soto, the internationally renowned economist and former presidential candidate.
What Happened to De Soto
No official explanation has been given. The presidency had confirmed on Sunday that De Soto, 84, would lead the cabinet through July. The neoliberal economist — best known internationally for his influential work on property rights and the informal economy — had publicly stated as late as Tuesday morning that he would take the job. But hours before the swearing-in ceremony — which was itself delayed from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. — reports of disagreements over the cabinet’s composition began circulating. De Soto told reporters he had proposed a plan to “renovate the government with people from diverse political backgrounds,” but that pressures to retain certain ministers made the arrangement unworkable. He said he decided to “go home and reflect.”
The presidency later issued a statement thanking De Soto and calling his proposal “valuable and ambitious,” while acknowledging that “the necessary consensus for its implementation” had not been reached. Perú Libre’s fugitive leader Vladimir Cerrón was less diplomatic, calling the episode a symptom of “improvisation.”
Who Is Miralles
Miralles is an economic engineer from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería with a master’s degree in public policy and taxation from Yokohama National University in Japan, and specialized training from Harvard’s Kennedy School. She served as finance minister under the recently ousted president José Jerí and before that held senior roles at ProInversión, the state agency that promotes public and private investment. Her profile is defined by fiscal policy, decentralized public investment and tax administration — a technocratic background that contrasts sharply with De Soto’s global celebrity status.
The New Cabinet
Balcázar kept six ministers from the Jerí government, including the foreign affairs, health, labor, production, transport and housing portfolios. The remaining twelve are new appointments. A new finance minister, Gerardo López — who served as Miralles’s deputy — takes over at the economy ministry. The presidency said the cabinet was assembled “under technical criteria, political responsibility and democratic commitment,” prioritizing economic stability, the fight against organized crime and the integrity of the electoral process.
A Short Clock
The Miralles cabinet has 30 days to present itself before Congress and secure a confidence vote. That deadline is the first of several looming tests. Balcázar, 83 and the oldest person ever sworn in as Peru’s president, took office on February 18 after Congress voted to remove Jerí on corruption charges just four months into his term. It was the third presidential impeachment by the same legislature since 2021, following Pedro Castillo and Dina Boluarte — a pace of political turnover that has left Peru with eight presidents in a decade. General elections are scheduled for April 12, with a potential runoff in June and a new president due to take office on July 28. Balcázar has pledged to guarantee “unquestionable” elections, maintain macroeconomic stability and refocus the fight against surging extortion and murder. For a country where the distance between a swearing-in and a removal can be measured in months, stability remains less a policy than a prayer.