Peru: Pedro Castillo, a novice and Métis president facing many challenges
The newly elected Peruvian president Pedro Castillo, proclaimed the winner of the presidential election on July 20, 2021. AFP - JOSE CARLOS ANGULO
Text by: RFI Follow
6 mins
Proclaimed the winner of the presidential election on Monday, July 19, the candidate of the radical left won over Keiko Fujimori, his rival from the populist right, at the end of a second round with long contested results.
This newcomer to politics also won thanks to his Métis identity.
Many projects await him, especially as his party is in the minority in Parliament.
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Pedro Castillo came out of anonymity in 2017 thanks to a strike movement by teachers of which he had taken the lead.
After 24 years of teaching in a rural school, this Tuesday, July 20, he became the first head of state unrelated to political, economic and cultural elites.
A
historic victory
for this 51-year-old trade unionist now at the head of this Andean country of 33 million inhabitants.
Born in a village in the Cajamarca region (north), he was raised in a hamlet near Puña, where he worked in the fields with his parents.
As a child, he had to walk several kilometers to get to school.
This father of three is Catholic and his wife is evangelical.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Pedro Castillo emphasized his provincial roots, wearing in all circumstances the traditional white hat of the north of the country or wearing a poncho.
Often arrived at his meetings on horseback, he announced that in case of victory, he would give up his presidential salary and continue to live on his salary from the National Education.
Man of the people
Perfect novice in politics, he was able to make this inexperience one of his major assets during the presidential election. "
He managed to move up the social ladder by becoming a teacher himself and he was very mobilized during the biggest strikes in Peru for thirty years, in 2017, for the improvement of the working conditions of teachers,"
recalls Lissell Quiroz, university professor at Paris Cergy University and expert in Peru, at the microphone of
Sophia Khatsenkova
, of the International service of RFI.
And that's where he made himself a little known, but it's true that he's someone from outside politics.
This is something that counted in his election, because Peru is today completely parasitized by a very important corruption of all the political personnel.
And him, therefore, he appears as someone who really comes from another geographical space, but also political.
Millions of Peruvians have felt represented by this character who is at odds with politicians who respond only to bribes, who enrich themselves illegally
”
continues the Peruvian specialist.
Identification with indigenous rural people
Another asset that Pedro Castillo was able to play to get elected: the teacher is a "
cholo
", or a mestizo in Peruvian.
“
A
cholo
is an indigenous person who has adopted features of the dominant Western civilization,”
explains Lissell Quiroz
.
He's not the first to be a cholo.
[Alejandro] Toledo, a president elected in 2000, was downright more indigenous in origin.
But of course, this still counts in a country very marked by institutional racism which means that in Lima, we find a white population which directs and concentrates all the economic, cultural, social and political power.
So, it is true that this makes an identification of the rural populations in particular and of course, that counted a lot.
"
In addition, the leader of the radical left “
recalled the names of the original peoples, the Quechuas, the Aymaras, the Awajún, so really including these peoples.
Until then, until the beginning of the 21st century, it is incredible, but these are peoples who are not yet recognized as full Peruvians.
"
Political alliances to be found
Many projects await Pedro Castillo.
However, he will not have quite a free hand to act.
The elected president is a member of the Peru Libre party, which won the legislative elections of April 11, but without obtaining a majority.
"
This party obtained only 37 seats in Congress out of 130,"
specifies
Lissell Quiroz
. However, in order to be able to put in place the measures and reforms that he wishes to put in place and simply govern, he will have to find fairly broad political alliances. So he has to summon beyond the left and go to the center. I think that is the main site. Then there is the question of the Covid: we have a health crisis of considerable magnitude. To this, we can also add its hobbyhorse, which is to defend education, both at the level of teachers and students.
"
During the campaign, Pedro Castillo proposed a series of nationalizations and the cessation of certain imports to strengthen the local industry.
He is in favor of a resumption of state control of the country's energy and mineral wealth, such as gas, lithium, copper and gold now under the control of multinationals.
Pedro Castillo pledged a million jobs in one year, public investments to revive the economy through infrastructure projects and public procurement with small businesses.
He intends to "
curb imports which affect national industry and the peasantry
".
"
We will respect private property,
" he insisted, however, in the face of critics who accused him of wanting to set up "
a Bolivarian socialism
" as in Venezuela.
Pedro Castillo will take office on July 28, the day the term of interim president Francisco Sagasti expires.
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