The 30 hours in which the Government of Pedro Castillo staggered
El día anterior había sido su investidura oficial como presidente. La pompa del Congreso. La solemnidad militar. El mármol como testigo del momento. Ahora, sin embargo, Pedro Castillo observaba el horizonte infinito de Los Andes. Estaba en la región de Ayacucho rodeado de montañas y aves que sobrevolaban una planicie extensa. Llevaba colgada la banda presidencial y el sombrero de palma con el que nació puesto. Se acercó en ese momento a una mesa posada sobre una alfombra roja. Encima, un pequeño crucifijo y una Biblia. Entonces, Castillo engoló la voz.
"Mr. Guido Bellido Ugarte, do you swear for God and these holy gospels perform the position of President of the Council of Ministers that I trust?
"Yes, I swear!" Summarized a man sausable in a navy suit.
"If you did, that God and the country reward you.And if not, that the country demands it.
People applauded.Castillo had not chosen by chance that scenario to carry out his first major decision as president.In that plain, the local insurgents defeated the troops of the Spanish monarchy and sealed the independence of Peru two centuries ago.The school teacher watched his decision as an extension of the past.
However, in Lima, the capital, their eyes rubbed.Castillo had just chosen as a strong man from his government a semi -known politic.The moderation with which he had faced the second round of the elections, where he relied on more centered and mesurated politicians, had vanished.They then began 30 hours of uncertainty that staggered their cabinet even before it became.
The most surprised were the closest to Castillo.Among them two characters who were called to be key figures in their government.Pedro Francke, a renowned economist, and Aníbal Torres, a lawyer with prestige.One was going to be his Minister of Economy, the other of justice.The two felt the appointment of Bellido as a betrayal.It meant to give power to Vladimir Cerrón, the leader of Peru Libre.Bellido Funge with a decorative figure, is there to be Cerrón's eyes.This is a marxist-leninist stuck in Castroism, as if the world was anchored in the sixties of the last century.
Finished the ceremony in Ayacucho shortly after noon, Castillo flew back to Lima.Presidency issued a statement in which he reported that in a matter of hours the name of the ministers was going to be made public.What the new president did not expect was to find a rebellion.Francke and Torres renounced possession of their ministries.The moderates, who represent the most centered left, felt insulted to see a radical, people from Cerrón, in the most power position.The hole left by those who refused to integrate the government had to be covered in a matter of a few hours.According to the Peruvian press, Castillo's surroundings torted a dozen alternative candidates.They met a wall.Few wanted to enter into circumstances like this.
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Peru, meanwhile, entered a depressive state.Local media have never been benevolent with Castillo.Upside down.The Electoral Mission of the European Union supervised the elections and at the end he wrote a report that said the following: “It has been a clearly biased coverage of most private media that favored FP (Keiko Fujimori's party, the rivalfrom Castillo) and undermined the right of voters to receive balanced information ”.However, the sorrow at that time was general.The dialogue government, of majorities, that people expected after elections that had fractured the country no longer seemed possible.Only Cerrón celebrated on Twitter what was happening.
In those hours everyone wants to know who Bellido was really, the new prime minister.It is discovered that you have never had relevant positions of responsibility.Classic average picture of a match.His university file does not look, he was one of those eternal university students.In debates he has denied that Cuba is a dictatorship and that a shining path has to do with terrorism.The latter has earned him an investigation by enhancement.In social networks your profile is not pleasant.
In a Facebook post transcribes some words by Fidel Castro, from 1963, in which he says that the "new man" cannot be "a fag".One of his contacts warns him that this is a reactionary thought of 60 years ago.He responds in a confusing phrase, without points, commas or interrogations, but he comes to say this: what is the difference?The Maricón de los 60 ate their legs.The current equal ".On another occasion, it refers to a Peruvian businessman and former minister in these terms: "Gay pork".Later, he wonders in relation to news: "Why do you want to mariconize Peruvians at any price?".Cerrón like that publication.On the suicide of a man who said he could not see his children because of the mother's impediment, he wrote: “The woman is so destructive and ruthless when mixing her grudges and selfishness.I do not see any lesbian or gay that organizes a mobilization ".
The scenario for the swearing of the ministers was prepared.Television broadcast from the place.The problem is that there were no names for all portfolios.The ceremony was delayed two and a half hours.The country was in suspense.Francke left the place of the event, Cabizbajo.I wasn't going to integrate the cabinet, he refused.He, who had met with entrepreneurs and ambassadors to assure them that in this government there would be no expropriations or interventions of the currency, as castle had once suggested in their rallies.His single presence had calmed the markets.Francke has influence and recognition in Lima, where the country's great business decisions are made.Without him, confidence in the government was questioned.
But the composition of the castle team should continue.With two and a half hours of delay, the president appeared on stage and swore to more than a dozen ministers.Only two women.The key wallets, economy and justice, stayed vacant.Castillo, finally, went to rest to the apartment where he has lived for a few months.It had been a long day.He started with Euphoria in Ayacucho and ended up with disappointment in Lima.The clouds lurked to the president.
At dawn, however, Francke appeared in the apartment.When everything seemed to be over.The cameras register it by entering after midnight and leaving two hours later.He did not say a word.
The next morning pessimism was absolute.The covers of newspapers and publishers were devastating.Without nuances.Political analysts, of all colors, seemed bewildered.Criticism fell from Castillo everywhere, even from his allies.The improvisation and some bandages that the school professor had given in the campaign had generated doubts about their way of making decisions, but no one expected such a scenario 48 hours after taking possession.The market was resented.The bag fell 6%.The dollar reached its historical maximum in Peru.The exchange houses placed a price so far never seen: "four suns per dollar".
Cerrón celebrated "the brand new cabinet".But Castillo had to straighten the course.The opposition parties had already been warned that Bellido will not pass the vote in Congress, next Thursday.The camera has to approve the new team in a simple majority that right now does not have the president and his allies for themselves.Castillo, then, approached positions with Francke, who asked for conditions to return.First, that Cerrón does not attend any of the executive's meetings.Second, that Comments from the hate of Bellido cease.Aníbal Torres demanded similar conditions.They did not seem easy to grant, assumed that Cerrón and his people retract.They were hours of negotiation and uncertainty.The moderates asked for a public and forceful gesture of the radicals.And he arrived, by surprise.
Bellido wrote a tweet in clear support to the university professor: "Pedro Francke has all our support for the application of the economic policy of stability".Later he signed a statement in which he signed as president of the Council of Ministers.There he ratified his commitment to democracy, governance and human rights, all that had been in doubt by reviewing his history.He added: "Categorically rejected all forms of violence and terrorism at all its extremes".There it is understood that doubts about the Shining Path, the terrorist group of communist inspiration that caused panic in the nineties.Its single mention in Peru generates discomfort.The word path has been banished from common language even to name a path.
But let's go back to Bellido's statement, because there are more.There he said that he is the son of Quechua peasants who has lived in his own flesh discrimination, and surely he does not lack reason.In the rejection of Castillo and his government there are also enough doses of racism.Often the population of the Andes has been seen and treated as second.A radicalized sector at the other extreme believes that the command corresponds by natural mandate to the wealthy classes of Lima.That was the background tide that polarized the choice between Castillo and Fujimori.Bellido, as Francke demanded, also rectified his comments from social networks: "Together we will overcome racism, classism, machismo and homophobia that are deeply rooted in society".
The first step was given.The moderates were satisfied.The radicals had signed up for the first goal by placing a prime minister of his rope, but they had to rectify in public.Friday night, Francke and Torres swore as ministers.It was a way to close the crisis.It has been a day and a half of tension, of a schism that even questioned the government of Pedro Castillo.The professor experienced the turbulence of power in his early days.