Peru’s President distanced himself from Peru Libre, promoting three new parties

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The electoral adventure of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo and his fleeting, convenient, and already ended link with Peru Libre has fueled the formation of other political parties led by people very close to him.

These are leftist political organizations headed by former members of the pencil bench and coincide in promoting a constituent assembly, leaving the door open for the president’s entry.

Even though Castillo currently has a very questioned leadership, criticisms of his government administration and even investigations by the Public Prosecutor’s Office that accuse him of heading a criminal organization.

BERMEJO ON THE SCENE

On June 6, a request to reserve the name of the Voces del Pueblo party was registered before the National Jury of Elections (JNE). This party will be officially presented at a press conference on Sunday, July 10.

Its founding leader is the congressman of Peru Democrático and former member of Peru Libre, Guillermo Bermejo. The president of the group is lawyer Ronald Atencio, a friend of the legislator for some 20 years, his main advisor in Parliament, and his legal defender in the process that followed him for affiliation to terrorism.

Bermejo told El Comercio that the initiative arose due to his departure from Peru Libre last December and that he began collecting signatures and inaugurating bases a few weeks ago. He denied having talked with Castillo about the party’s registration.

“I have been given that responsibility, the leadership of the party. But we have to bet on multiple leaderships; I do not believe in the figure of the Messiah. I believe in a leadership that helps other leaderships to grow,” Bermejo said.

The questioned former Interior Minister, Luis Barranzuela, and his lawyer, Raul Noblecilla, are other people announced for the presentation of Voices of the People.

PARTIDO VOCES DEL PUEBLO (VOICES OF THE PEOPLE PARTY)

Foundation: May 20, 2022

Leaders:

• Guillermo Bermejo
  Founding leader of the party.
  Congressman of Democratic Peru.
  He was acquitted after a trial for affiliation with terrorism, but the case was elevated to the Supreme Court.
  He has a record of 22 meetings with President Pedro Castillo in the Palace between August 2021 and March 2022.
• Ronald Atencio
  President of the party.
  Senior advisor in Congress and lawyer for Guillermo Bermejo.
  Lawyer for Luis Barranzuela, former Minister of the Interior, in an investigation for irregular charges in Tumán.
  He ran for Congress in 2020 with the Runa party.

Idea:

• Its objective is “to build the homeland José Carlos Mariátegui longed for.
• It seeks a plurinational state in harmony with the environment.
• It aims at building a “large homeland” and promoting regional integration.

Likewise, he considered “positive” that other political organizations have emerged around Castillo because “the worst thing that could happen is social disorganization”.

“It would be more important for a more solid bloc, with higher levels of representation. But until that scenario happens, it seems important to me that political spaces continue to be created where citizens can organize themselves in function, beyond people, of programs,” he added.

Atencio assured that there are already supporters in Cusco, Piura, Arequipa, Lambayeque, Amazonas, and Ancash and calculated that in six months, they could present the documentation to the JNE, even though they have until June 2023 to do so.

In addition, he said that the grouping already has its founding act, statute, and first directive positions.

“More than government support, we are a political party supporting governance. We cannot individualize in a figure that today is called Pedro Castillo […] We are in favor of the governability of the presidential legal institution, we are going to defend that legal institution that today is called President of the Republic,” he emphasized.

TEACHERS IN DOUBLE ACT

The other two political organizations are the Partido Magisterial y Popular (PMP) and Peruanos como tú (PCT), which bears the initials of Pedro Castillo Terrones, the president’s full name.

Both arise from the teachers’ union that supported the current head of state in the electoral campaign and are linked to Fenatep, a teachers’ union founded by the president and which obtained its registration before the Ministry of Labor in the first days of the current government.

Fenatep was formed in 2017 after the teachers’ strike led by Castillo that year. It derived from the National Committee for the Reorientation of Sutep (Conare-Sutep), the most radical faction of the teaching profession that was even linked to Movadef, the political arm of Sendero Luminoso.

Although Mery Coila, president of the PMP, applied for registration in November 2021, JNE sources told El Comercio that the application was declared last January as not submitted because several requirements were not fulfilled. Therefore, the documentation was returned, although the reservation of the name expires on August 9.

Coila explained that they are updating and completing the information to submit the registration request again on July 20, days before the party’s first anniversary. She added that they have about 30,000 affiliates and bases in almost all the regions.

PARTIDO MAGISTERIAL Y POPULAR (MAGISTERIAL AND POPULAR PARTY)

Foundation: July 30, 2021

Leaders:

• Mery Coila
  President of the party.
  Teacher and member of the board of the Sociedad de Beneficencia de Tacna in representation of MIMP.
  She appeared as an adherent in the Movadef lists when it tried to become a political party.
  She registers five meetings with Pedro Castillo in the Palace between December 2021 and May 2022. She was a member of the Frente Amplio.
• Miguel Miranda Purizaga
  General Secretary and legal representative.
  He is a teacher and union leader in Loreto.
  He registers six meetings with Pedro Castillo in Palacio between August 2021 and April 2022.

Idea:

• It is structured based on the thought of Peruvians such as José Carlos Mariátegui, José María Arguedas, César Vallejo and Jorge Basadre.
• It promotes awareness of the different cultures within the same country and strengthens national identity.
• It understands social justice from the full exercise of rights, such as work, health, and education, in a democracy.

Asked about the inclusion of Castillo, with whom she talked to create the grouping, she said that it is a “goal”. At the same time, she will wait to obtain the registration to dialogue with the congress members of the Magisterial Block so that they join the initiative.

“We are already their base, their support; we have been working in all regions to support the president. We are not waiting for him to decide between being part or not of our party; we have been working since the second round, the proclamation, and then for the governability,” she said and announced that her bases would meet in Lima in July for the first year of government.

Meanwhile, she denied links with Movadef: “I signed a spreadsheet from the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (National Jury of Elections). I would never have signed it if they had told me it was a terrorist spreadsheet. I am a teacher and have never been linked to a criminal or clandestine act.

“The fact that I fight for my rights, my demands as a teacher, cannot make me a criminal or a terrorist. More than 300,000 citizens signed the document,” she explained and added that in 2012 she took the necessary steps to withdraw her signature.

Another party promoter is the legislator of the Teachers’ Bloc, Edgar Tello, who said that he has not yet exercised any leadership due to his congressional function. “I am respectful of the decision of the bases, which at the national level decided to form the Magisterial and Popular Party. I come from those bases,” he affirmed.

Regarding the other party with teachers’ roots, the Peruanos como tú (PCT) party, Edgar Tello said that in the teachers’ bench in Congress, “there is respect for the democratic decisions of each one and each one sees the party they believe convenient”.

PCT is promoted by his colleague and fellow teacher Segundo Quiroz. This last legislator -a native of Chota (Cajamarca) like Pedro Castillo and, like Tello, very close to the president- has been trying since January 2020 to register the mentioned grouping, which has reserved its name in the JNE until August 16 to complete its registration.

Consulted by El Comercio, Quiroz and other PCT leaders did not specify the party’s foundation date and did not want to give details of the organization. However, in activities of the last months, the participation of Hilso Ramos (who was in charge of the statute and the ideology) and Grover Mamani, linked to Conare-Sutep and also close to president Castillo, has been seen.

Ramos has served as an advisor to Quiroz in Congress. Elmer Heredia Sanchez, a legal representative of PCT, was an assistant in the legislator’s office from Choto between August 2021 and March 2022.

Meanwhile, the much talked about appointment of Mamani Condori as General Director of Internal Government of the Ministry of the Interior in August last year caused the irrevocable resignation of the vice-ministers of the sector.

In an inter-regional PCT forum in November 2021, Quiroz asserted that the political project corresponds to a “dream that we started last year together with our older brother,” referring to Pedro Castillo.

Miguel Ramos, leader of PCT in Huancavelica, assured El Comercio that the organization has around 30,000 affiliates and is in the “final stages” of applying for its registration. Although Hilso Ramos and Grover Mamani have participated in party activities, he affirmed that they are no longer members.

“The party has been built at the request of the grassroots, the people who have supported the political participation of the president. The president, if he is fit, has open doors. If he wishes to be part of our party, he has the doors open to Peruanos como tú. We identify ourselves with the compañero,” sentenced Ramos Mayhua, who in the 2021 elections ran for Congress with Perú Libre.

PARTIDO PERUANOS COMO TÚ (PERUVIANS LIKE YOU PARTY)

Foundation: Not specified.

Leaders:

• Segundo Quiroz
  Founding President.
  Congressman of the Teachers’ Bloc.
  Managed the ‘Coordinadora Nacional Magisterial’ that elected teachers who ran for Congress with Perú Libre.
  He records 12 meetings with Pedro Castillo in the Palace between August 2021 and March 2022.
• Hilso Ramos
  General Undersecretary and founder.
  Former member of Perú Libre.
  He was the main advisor to Segundo Quiroz in Congress between September 2021 and January 2022.
  He appears as an adherent in the Movadef ballot papers. He has three meetings with Pedro Castillo in the Palace this year.

Idea:

• A plurinational party of all bloodlines that promotes human development, competitiveness, and entrepreneurship.
• It proposes reforms, such as in the economic model and the balance of powers.
• It promotes a more open or broad-based political participation, integrating not only teachers.

With information from El Comercio