Peruvian Elections and Politics: Boluarte era, political crisis continues

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Susana Higuchi, ex-wife of Alberto Fujimori who divorced him during his presidency and later accused him of corruption, only to later become a victim of torture at the hands of his security forces, died two days ago of cancer.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Growing scandal around Maricarmen Alva’s visit to Spain, where she met with Vox and trashed Castillo as “illegitimate” and the government as “captured by communism”. But not enough for a censure vote to gain any traction: Guillermo Bermejo presented a censure motion but it failed by a wide margin, with half of the PL caucus (including leading cerronistas like Bellido and Waldemar Cerrón as well as leading magisterialistas like Edgar Tello and Alex Paredes). Bermejo has resigned from the party as a result.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Hamlet Echeverría and labor minister Betssy Chávez (both of the magisterialistas) have quit the PL along with Bermejo. Luis Kamiche (magisterialista) is openly considering it. The censure motion only received 15 votes from PL and five from JP (16 from PL abstained and the other six presumably didn’t vote).

[PSOL]

https://mobile.twitter.com/AmericaElige/status/1473080736618102787

Seems like the JPP continues to break apart, with 4/7 parties in the alliance exiting and either joining the purple party, joining PL, and whatever may this party do next.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

https://mobile.twitter.com/AmericaElige/status/1473080736618102787

Seems like the JPP continues to break apart, with 4/7 parties in the alliance exiting and either joining the purple party, joining PL, and whatever may this party do next.

JPP has always been essentially Nuevo Perú plus Yehude Simón’s party (former premier under Alan García, under whose watch the Baguazo occurred) with a few extras tacked on.

Also Castillo is being investigated due to his ties with corrupt businesswoman Karelim Lopez (one of the main people implicated in the apartment meetings) and advisor Bruno Pacheco. Meanwhile, education minister Gallardo has been formally censured due to the test results leak and his ties with Fenate (Castillo’s newer teachers union, rival to traditional union Sutep which Castillo led during the 2017 teachers’ strike that first brought him to prominence).

[Sir John Johns]

With just five months in office, Pedro Castillo is now investigated into two distinct corruption cases, hence on the verge of losing his main political asset: his supposed integrity and honesty.

The first one, already mentioned by Alfred, is about the awarding on last 19 October of a public works contract worth 255.9 million soles to a private consortium just few hours after two meetings were held in the presidential palace between on one hand Pedro Castillo and then-presidential secretary Bruno Pacheco and, on the other hand, Karelim López, a businesswoman and lobbyist enjoying close ties with the consortium. López met the following month Pacheco twice in the presidential palace and Castillo once in the Breña apartment the president irregularly used to meet businessmen. Suspicions about a rigged bid process arisen due to the fact the consortium linked to López won the tendering process for a price only 27 céntimos higher than its competitor.

The second one is concerning a possible intervention of the president to favor the awarding by Petroperú state oil company on 25 October of a contract worth $74 million to businessman Samir Abudayeh. The contract, which had been since nullified due to irregularities, was questionably green-lighted by the new head of Petroperú’s supply chain management who had been appointed just one day after the 18 October meeting between Castillo, Abudayeh and the manager general of the state oil company (named, funnily enough, Hugo Chávez). Castillo’s lawyer has requested before justice an habeas corpus preventing a raid on presidential palace and hampering investigation on the grounds that the prosecutor in charge of the case has posted on social networks comments supportive of Fujimori’s candidacy, presenting herself as ‘genetically anti-communist’ and calling Castillo and Perú Libre ‘communists, terrorists and corrupts’.


Castillo tried to regain some popularity by organizing few days before Christmas the deportation of 41 Venezuelan migrants (18 with a criminal record in Venezuela but not in Peru and 23 without any criminal record) towards Caracas. The president and his interior minister were intended to preside over a public ceremony in the airport just before the departure of the plane to celebrate the deportation of the Venezuelans but this has to be canceled at last minute as it turned out the aircraft hadn’t the legal authorization to enter Venezuela leading to the cancellation of the flight and the release of the 41 migrants.


Meanwhile the Twitter account of Perú Libre, between massive retweets of Vladimir Cerrón’s rants against ‘lawfare’ (latest iteration is about the accusation made against a Perú Libre congressman of having covered up the rape of a party member in the Perú Libre’s premises in Arequipa), NGOs and medias, is also posting photos of antisemitic placards accusing ‘terrorists from the US and Israel’ of organizing a COVID-19 third wave, claiming that ‘Jewish caviars’ (‘caviars’ seem to be the equivalent of the ‘champagne left’) are trying to oust Perú Libre from the government and denouncing the ‘pro-Jewish Perú 21’ newspaper as the mouthpiece of the ‘terrorist government of Israel’ in bed with ‘Zionist spies in Peru’ and as a ‘Zionist Masonic newspaper’. Note that they feel necessary to post that specific tweet twice on their account.

https://twitter.com/PERU_LIBRE1/status/1473539487988740097

Still, a Keiko Fujimori presidency would certainly have been even worse...

[PSOL]

Peru would be governed a lot better if Castillo wasn’t convinced that punching left was a good platform to go under.

A lot of the scandals of his administration are pretty much the norm since Peru’s founding, and especially bland given the massive corruption deals and overt racism against minorities of his predecessors; Humala, PPK, and the dwarfed comparisons to the Garcia and Fujimori days.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

"The US and Israel are ready to launch the Third Wave of Covid to the World", yeah, definitely this is what should be posted by a governing party's official social media account

[Boobs]

Ah, but they're just antizionist, you see.

[PSOL]

Ah, but they're just antizionist, you see.

No, this is serious and in no need of sarcasm. These are blatant statements of antisemitic content that should be held to scrutiny so as to improve Peru. Same goes for the LGBTQ issue, where different collectives and personalities more radical and outside PL critiqued their position and caused them to change their minds through grassroots osmosis.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Ah, but they're just antizionist, you see.

No, this is serious and in no need of sarcasm. These are blatant statements of antisemitic content that should be held to scrutiny so as to improve Peru. Same goes for the LGBTQ issue, where different collectives and personalities more radical and outside PL critiqued their position and caused them to change their minds through grassroots osmosis.

See also: the massive pressure from feminist organizations to not make Roger Najar PM, which seemed to work out at the last minute (although we’ll see how well that works re: the outcome of the Jaime Quito investigation).

[PSOL]

https://mobile.twitter.com/AmericaElige/status/1479660890194591748

[PSOL]

Veep expelled

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Veep expelled

Oh no! Anyway,

(There actually are a few anyways - Congress has proposed a law to ban referenda on constitutional reform issues without congressional approval, which Castillo has promised to bring to the TC; an apparently uncomfortable interview with Castillo by Fernando del Rincón to come out tonight; and of course the aftereffects of the Tonga volcano, which has seen the government accuse refinery company Repsol of not implementing proper safety procedures, leading to an oil spill in the Pacific as a result of the eruption and tsunami.)

[PSOL]

This is coping that is just out of this world. At some point you need to reassess the situation and bail when you still can. I’m going for Direct Democracy.

[PSOL]

🦀 🦀🦀 Vazquez is out 🦀🦀🦀

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

🦀 🦀🦀 Vazquez is out 🦀🦀🦀

Love to kick out Avelino Guillén to own the libs. I’m sure you’ll love her replacement, former APRA/Renovación Popular/Somos Perú member (in that order, somehow*) Héctor Valer.

*a word which here means “elected in RP, then quit during the second round and supported Castillo, then joined Somos Perú and left earlier this year to form his own minor party, which I just noticed is the one you posted about earlier.”

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Re: the rest of the cabinet, major/interesting names appear to be that Cevallos is staying, Francke is leagint (replaced by functionary Óscar Graham Yamahuchi, at least for now), Alfonso Chávarry in Interior (colonel and apparent Barranzuela ally who’d been favored by Castillo against Vásquez’s wishes to nominate a civilian), former constitutional court president Cesar Landa in foreign relations.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Oh and just for flavor, the new women’s minister (PL congresswoman Katy Ugarte) said that “we were born male and female, we don’t have to distort that” in an interview last year. But I guess that’s just the price you pay for not being a Fake Leftist.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Valer is already in trouble after a domestic violence complaint from his (now deceased) wife from 2016 resurfaced. Castillo is supposed to speak about the issue later today, and there are already marches planned. JP looks like they’ll oppose confidence in Valer.

[Sir John Johns]

This new government is truly turning into a complete farce:

https://twitter.com/RealYeyoZa/status/1489295622528192514

...

https://twitter.com/DiegoQuispeSanc/status/1489283689196376067

[Cortarán todas las flores, pero jamás detendrán la primavera]

Castillo sure is outdoing himself everyday. Sad, but also very entertaining.

[Red Velvet]

The Keiko voters promised me Peru would be taken over by radical communists though!  

Reality: Pedro Castillo being the only Latam leader I see being friendly and intimate with Bolsonaro

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Castillo gave a speech saying that he’ll be “restructuring the cabinet”. El País has reported that Valer is out but no one else is confirming it. Either way there have already been significant protests against Valer and any confidence vote looks essentially dead.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

🦀🦀🦀