On July 28 this year, Pedro Castillo was inaugurated as President of Peru for one year. A week later, his fourth prime minister presented him with his resignation, leaving him with an increasingly turbulent political mess.
According to CCTV News, on August 3, local time, the chairman of the Peruvian Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) Anívar Torres announced his resignation. He said the decision was made for "personal reasons" and hoped that his "friend" Castillo would succeed.
Since his successful election as president, castillo has been in crisis. He has undergone several cabinet reshuffles, and according to statistics, more than 50 ministers have resigned or been dismissed. He himself has undergone two impeachments and is still under five judicial investigations. In addition, the Peruvian opposition has been calling for Castillo's resignation.
Now, with Torres' resignation, Castillo has to appoint his fifth prime minister and usher in a new storm of cabinet restructuring that could result.
The fourth prime minister to leave office
Torres, 79, took over as prime minister in February and has been in office for less than half a year now.
On August 3, local time, Torres published his resignation letter to President Castillo on social media. In the letter, he said he decided to resign for "personal reasons" and would return to teaching at the university in the future, while continuing his "most nostalgic legal research."
Torres shared his resignation on social media. /Torres Twitter screenshot
Torres holds a Ph.D. in Law and Political Science from the National University of St. Marquez in Lima, where he previously taught for a long time. In 2011, Torres entered the Peruvian Congress as a member of parliament. In 2021, Torres became the principal legal counsel for Castillo's presidential campaign.
According to Al Jazeera, Torres is one of Castillo's most loyal allies. After Castillo was elected president, Torres became attorney general in July 2021. In February 2022, after the resignation of former Prime Minister Equetor Baler Pinto, Torres became the new Prime Minister.
Compared to previous prime ministers, Torres has been in office for the longest time. His predecessor, Baler, was one of Peru's shortest-serving prime ministers. Just 4 days after coming to power, Baler announced his resignation because of allegations of domestic violence. He himself denied this allegation.
With the exception of Baler and Torres, The first prime minister, Geido Bailido, appointed by Castillo after coming to power, took office on 29 July 2021 and was forced to resign in early October because of his conflict with the opposition-controlled parliament, a term he held for less than three months.
Mirta Vazquez then took over as Prime Minister, but due to cabinet disputes, Vázquez announced his resignation on January 31 this year after the resignation of the then Minister of the Interior, Avellino Guilian, because of a feud with Castillo.
The official title of Prime Minister of Peru is President of the Council of Ministers, which is the highest office of the Council of Ministers of Peru. But the Prime Minister of Peru is not the head of government, but serves as the President's chief adviser, presiding over the Cabinet and helping the President appoint other members of the Cabinet.
According to Xinhua News Agency, according to the Peruvian Constitution, after the resignation of the prime minister and the chairman of the Council of Ministers, the cabinet must resign in its entirety. As a result, Castillo faced the challenge of forming a cabinet again.
Agence France-Presse pointed out that political turmoil is not uncommon for Peru, but the replacement of four prime ministers in one year still highlights the turmoil in Peru's political situation. Statistics show that in the past year, more than 50 ministers have resigned or been dismissed.
On March 28, 2022, local time, in Lima, Peru, local people demonstrated outside the National Assembly. Figure/IC photo
A president in crisis
For Castillo, 52, the past year's presidency has been too tortuous.
Castillo was born into a poor rural family in northern Peru and has more than 20 years of experience teaching in the countryside. He led a national teachers' strike, which won him great popularity, and then began to enter politics. In June 2021, Castillo won the presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing Party of the Liberal Peru Party, defeating the right-wing candidate Yoshiko Fujimori, becoming the first peasant-turned president in Peruvian history.
According to Al Jazeera, Castillo campaigned under slogans such as eradicating poverty and fighting corruption, promising a new constitution, raising taxes on mining profits, and ending monopolies that affect the price of natural gas and drugs.
Since coming to power, however, Castillo has faced many political crises. The government and the National Assembly have been in constant conflict, the cabinet has been reshuffled several times, the divisions within the party have become prominent, and the political turmoil in Peru has continued for a long time. As a result, the Castillo government also failed to advance its campaign promises, and popular discontent with him gradually intensified.
A July survey by ipsos, a pollster, showed that the peruvian people's dissatisfaction with Castillo had reached 74 percent.
For castillo himself, he has twice faced impeachment. In November, opposition members of Peru's congress proposed impeachment against Castillo as "morally incompetent," but failed to initiate impeachment debates and voting procedures because they did not gain enough support. In March, opposition lawmakers filed an impeachment case against Castillo for the second time as "morally incompetent," but the impeachment was ultimately rejected by Congress.
On March 28, 2022, local time, In Lima, Peru, Peruvian President Castillo left the National Assembly. Figure/IC photo
Castillo's impeachment is not unrelated to the multiple charges he faces. According to CNN, Castillo is currently facing five judicial investigations, including allegations of corruption, involvement in irregular promotions in the military and police systems, and the appointment of questionable officials as cabinet ministers.
According to Turkey's Anadolu news agency, the Peruvian Congress rejected Castillo's application to travel to Colombia to attend the inauguration of the country's new president Petro on August 4, citing five investigations. The Peruvian Congress has the power to review the president's itinerary, but this is the first time in decades that congress has rejected an application for an official visit.
Peru has been very politically turbulent in recent years. Since 2016, the country has had 5 presidents come to power. In March 2018, former Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski voluntarily announced his resignation in the face of impeachment charges. Later, the then First Vice-President, Martin Alberto Viscara Cornejo, took over as President. But by November 2020, the Peruvian Congress had passed an impeachment bill against Biscara, and Biscará was removed from the presidency.
Biscara's dismissal led to chaos for Three Presidents in Peru a week. Biscala was dismissed on November 9, 2020, and then Congress President Merino took over on the 10th, but announced his resignation on the 15th. On 17 November, Sagasti took over as Merino and continued to serve until Castillo was sworn in.
Beijing News reporter Xie Lian
Edited by Zhang Shujing Proofreader Zhao Lin