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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://kawsachunnews.com/castillo-struggles-to-implement-promised-change">kawsachunnews.com</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Castillo Struggles to Implement Promised Change <br></h1><h1 class="gmail-reader-title"><font size="1">October 10, 2021</font><br></h1></div>
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<p>A controversial cabinet reshuffle this week has served to show just
how difficult it can be to implement radical and redistributive change.
President Pedro Castillo won Peru’s June 6th elections in the second
round. His flagship policies were; a new constitution and the
nationalization of natural resources. The expulsion of US forces
(military bases, USAID, DEA) was also part of the winning manifesto.
However, all those promises have run up against corporate interests,
which appear to have forced the government into a corner following the
controversial cabinet reshuffle. </p>
<p>When President Castillo was officially sworn in, in July, he made
clear his intention to carry out the changes Peruvians voted for. He
appointed <a href="https://kawsachunnews.com/peru-prime-minister-vows-to-fight-sexism-homophobia">Guido Bellido</a>,
as Prime Minister; an indigenous Quechua and a senior leader of the
socialist Peru Libre party. Marxist professor Hector Bejar was appointed
Foreign Minister. His first act as Minister was to<a href="https://twitter.com/Mision_Verdad/status/1423690339861229570?t=b6IToTnYhP4QHDPAYvB0yA&s=19"> withdraw</a> from the anti-Venezuela ‘Lima Group’, leaving it without its headquarters. </p>
<p>However, the pressure began to be felt from day one. Every single
national media outlet aggressively attacked President Castillo for
choosing Bellido. Even the liberal <em>La Republica</em> newspaper
employed the same McCarthyite language to implore Castillo to
incorporate liberal establishment figures from the former
administrations. </p>
<div>
<blockquote><div dir="ltr" lang="en"><p>Peru's
Prime Minister addressed Congress today in Quechua, but the right-wing
representatives shouted him down because they don't understand it.</p><p>He reminds them that it's his constitutional right to speak his own language. <a href="https://t.co/axy2m0INes">pic.twitter.com/axy2m0INes</a></p></div>— Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1430966252235862018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2021</a></blockquote>
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<p>Bejar was the first to be removed. Old comments by Bejar were
unearthed in which he linked the CIA and Shining Path, and others where
he stated that the military had committed human rights abuses during the
civil war with the Shining Path, causing outrage within the Armed
Forces. Bejar revealed in an interview to<em> teleSUR</em> that it was the Navy which forced him out, also <a href="https://twitter.com/teleSURtv/status/1428164273180758016">pointing out that</a>; “The Armed Forces do have deliberative power, therefore, this action by the Navy is unconstitutional.”</p>
<p>The military replaced Bejar with an establishment insider, Óscar
Maúrtua, former Foreign Minister under the right-wing government of
Alejandro Toledo (who is currently in Miami after fleeing corruption
charges within Peru). Within days, Maúrtua had signed a cooperation
agreement with USAID. </p>
<p>Bellido’s dismissal followed much the same format. The previous week he had released a<a href="https://kawsachunnews.com/peru-opposition-enraged-by-gas-nationalization-promise"> statement</a>
that read, “We summon the Camisea gas operating and trading company to
renegotiate the distribution of profits in favor of the state, if that’s
not possible, we will opt for the recovery or nationalization of our
resources”. It simply reiterated Pedro Castillo’s second most important
campaign promise.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it sent Peruvian media, opposition, and corporate
interests, into a fit of rage. The opposition in congress released a <a href="https://kawsachunnews.com/peru-opposition-enraged-by-gas-nationalization-promise">joint statement</a>
the same day, saying that public control of natural resources is, “an
authoritarian attitude that puts at grave risk the legal security of
investments in the country”. The text goes on to say that the opposition
will use Congress to “stop and defeat every threat of
nationalization”. </p>
<p>A week later, Bellido was forced out of government. In a press conference announcing his departure, Bellido <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHi3fEZYLnY">explained that</a><span>;
“The people are a witness to the manner in which, above the state,
there are powerful forces that govern, pressure, coerce, denounce and
persecute. Even if the President changes, these forces appear to be
permanent and have captured the justice system, using it to criminalize
all their political opponents”. </span></p>
<p>As in the case of Bejar, Bellido was replaced by another
establishment figure, Mirth Vasquez, former President of Congress under
the neoliberal Sagasti government which preceded Castillo. </p>
<p>Vladimir Cerron, the leader of Peru Libre, on whose ticket Pedro
Castillo won the elections, has denounced this reshuffle saying, “We are
sure that with the current cabinet they will not even try to fulfill
the campaign promises, it will be a space to defend the status quo, the
privileges of always, the historic discrimination against the people
will be maintained.” </p>
<p>What’s clear is that the popular policies that Castillo won with, are
being neutralized by those who want to ensure the continuity of Peru’s
liberal technocratic style that governed before Castillo, and which was
overwhelmingly rejected at the polls precisely because of that
tendency’s inability to tackle poverty and inequality.</p>
<p>Hector Bejar was perhaps particularly prescient two months ago, when <a href="https://twitter.com/teleSURtv/status/1430709363153457156">he said</a>,
“At this rate, President Castillo will have to ask the Armed Forces for
permission before appointing each minister, if this continues then the
military will end up governing. I hope that doesn’t happen.”</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Interview</strong></p>
<p><em>To help decipher what’s going on, we spoke to Peruvian journalist
Martin Manco. Martin visited our offices in July, to meet with Evo
Morales, we contacted him this weekend to hear his insight.</em></p>
<p><strong>Governing in the interests of the poor, rather than elite
interests, has proven more difficult than first thought for Pedro
Castillo.</strong></p>
<p>It’s been extremely difficult for Pedro Castillo to implement the
transformations he envisaged, there’s a very strong resistance against
change from within the government and I’ve discussed this with our
brother Evo Morales. </p>
<p>It wasn’t just Bellido that is out now, but seven other Ministers
removed, in Education, Labor, Production, Mining, Interior, Culture, and
more. All these changes give an impression that Castillo has been
pushed to the center, in Peru we call it ‘Humalisacion’, which means
following the path of the ex-president Ollanta Humala who was elected as
a leftist candidate but then abandoned his promises and governed as a
neoliberal, building some social programs but maintaining the status quo
with regard to the economic model on behalf of powerful economic
interests. </p>
<p><strong>Who is the new Prime Minister, does her government have any
intention of implementing Castillo’s winning campaign promises such as a
new constitution and nationalization of gas? </strong></p>
<p>I think that the nationalization of gas is going to remain on the
agenda despite this setback. There is broad recognition of the need for
the state to have greater control of natural resources. We are very
aware of the Bolivian experience in doing this and the success that it
had under former President Evo Morales.</p>
<p>Mirtha Vazquez was President of Congress and her short period in that
role isn’t seen as particularly negative. She’s clearly a more centrist
figure and that’s how she governed, so we can see that Pedro Castillo
has been pushed to the center on this. She’ll push the left within
government, Peru Libre, to one side, and won’t respond to their
priorities. The pressure for this to happen, from the media, congress,
and from the population in Lima, has been overwhelming, they’re too
scared to change the structures of society that they’ve grown accustomed
to. Another factor has been capital flight, corporate interests have
threatened Castillo saying they’ll ditch the local currency and keep
their capital in dollars, which is something that the media uses to
scare the population, those interests forced the price of the local
currency to drop against the dollar to make clear the power they have.
At an international level, the US dollar is falling, but within Peru,
its value has shot up in comparison to our currency. That’s the power
these special interest groups have. All this has scared Pedro Castillo
into believing that they can destabilize the economy. </p>
<p><strong>How has the media responded to these changes? </strong></p>
<p>All media in Peru has had a very radical position against Pedro
Castillo. Many were calling his government to be overthrown, others were
declaring that Castillo won’t finish his term and was saying that as a
threat. This cabinet reshuffle was designed to calm those attacks,
hoping that they would take a less radical position against the
government. </p>
<p>I think Pedro Castillo did want to implement big transformations, but
has realized that the conditions were not necessarily there for a real
change to the structures of power that are still dominant in the
country. </p>
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