From Lima
In the midst of permanent instability, another crisis complicates President Pedro Castillo. A few days ago, statements were leaked to the press before the prosecutor’s office of the lobbyist Karelim López, investigated for corruption in public works tenders, in which, in exchange for legal benefits, she denounced acts of corruption in the government and implicated Castillo. However, the lobbyist’s lawyer has stated that she has not witnessed the president’s corrupt actions. Castillo has rejected the accusation and has denounced a plot to overthrow him. Based on what López said and without her testimony having been corroborated, the parliamentary right promotes the removal of Castillo.
On this convulsive political scene, the difficult situation of a besieged government, the precarious progressive coalition that supports Castillo, the accusations against the Executive of a neoliberal turn, the right-wing coup and a possible fall of the president, PageI12 He spoke with the former Minister of Women, Anahí Durand, a 43-year-old sociologist who held that position between July, at the beginning of the Castillo government, and last February. She was recently elected president of the left-wing New Peru party, replacing former presidential candidate Verónika Mendoza.
-What do you think of the statements made by the lobbyist Karelim López before the prosecutor’s office that would implicate the government, including President Castillo, in acts of corruption?
-It seems to me a serious complaint that should be thoroughly investigated. She has been a lobbyist in several governments, if her statements are proven, she would be showing that the necessary measures have not been taken to eradicate these forms of management of the State and public resources that favor corruption. There is no need to be complacent because this country has been greatly affected by corruption. I believe that the president is an honest person, but there are situations around him that may give rise to suspicion of corruption, which must be investigated rigorously and objectively.
-How do you see the offensive of the right to dismiss Castillo for López’s accusations without a previous investigation?
-That coup offensive has always been there. This accusation has to be investigated whoever falls, but what cannot happen, and it is precisely what has happened, is that this be used to once again generate a scenario of vacancy (removal of the president by Congress) and encourage the coup that It is doing a lot of damage to the country. A vacancy of Castillo would consolidate a possible authoritarian exit. That’s what the right is playing at.
-Do you agree with President Castillo’s complaint that there is a plot to overthrow him, in which he has included the prosecution?
-I don’t think that plot is the precise term, but there is a clear intention of the coup actors to instrumentalize these denunciations.
–The arrival to the presidency of Castillo raised a hope of change. Is that hope being lost?
– It has faded, there is some disappointment. This also has to do with all the constant attack and siege on the government, which has impeded progress and has blocked a precarious government.
–There is a right that permanently attacks the government and seeks its downfall, but don’t you think that the president’s mistakes play in favor of that right?
-The main mistake has been not having a connection strategy with social organizations, not relying on the people who took him to the government. That would have widened the government’s very close correlation of forces. A major problem has been the difficulty in consolidating a strategic project and a line of action of where to go, what reforms to advance. The president has had great difficulties in consolidating a circle of strategic political trust, and this has ended up working against him.
–Is a weakness of the government not having been able to consolidate a leftist coalition?
-It has not been able to consolidate a bloc, but I would not say only from the left, but national popular, to put it in Peronist terms, which includes leftist parties, unions, social organizations, national sectors of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. That was what had to be done in the face of the siege and the brutality of the right and the extreme right.
-Has the government put aside the change agenda?
-There is a claudication in the agenda of changes that was proposed, which has been postponed in order to survive an adverse situation with a weak coalition and with a constantly besieging Congress. Let’s see if they let him survive.
-With the recent ministerial changes, is there a shift of the government to the right?
-In part yes, but I think this is not such an ideological issue. What there is is a dispute in the midst of great precariousness and improvisation, which ends up having effects in maintaining the neoliberal status quo. The current ministerial cabinet is for short-term survival, which is more aware of how it gets votes in Congress than how to carry out a reform program. In this survival strategy you end up trading to the right. This cabinet is not up to the proposed changes. Where the government will go is in dispute.
–What is now the relationship of New Peru with the Castillo government? The general secretary of the ruling party Peru Libre (PL), Vladimir Cerrón, has said that his main enemy is the left outside the PL that has backed Castillo, like you.
-The coalition was always precarious and once in government, instead of being strengthened, it has weakened. And there PL has a share of responsibility, which has to do with sectarianism, hegemonism. Now we have a distance with the government, but that does not mean that we have gone over to the opposition, but there is criticism of the government. We are with the popular sector that voted for changes and wants changes, and that sees that those changes are being postponed.
What way out could there be for the crisis of political instability?
-There are two levels of the crisis. There is an underlying crisis, which we drag from the 93 regime (year of the Fujimorist Constitution), which has to have a constituent solution. Now Congress is taking powers away from the president and closing democratic mechanisms such as the referendum. This crisis has to be resolved and the right wants to resolve it behind the backs of the population, benefiting their interests, ensuring constitutional mechanisms to keep them in power and remove Castillo. To face this fundamental crisis, we ask for a referendum for a Constituent Assembly. Another level has to do with the short term. The solution to the immediate crisis would happen because the right wing puts down its coup-mongering attitude and lets the government work, and from the Executive branch government must face the people, the president has to vigorously resume the proposals for change that he has postponed, build that popular national bloc that I was referring to and be much more determined in the fight against corruption.
– Do you think Castillo will finish his mandate?
-The prognosis is reserved.
-If Congress dismisses Castillo, would the popular sectors take to the streets to defend the government?
I don’t know, this country is unpredictable. We have a high degree of political disaffection, but the response capacity should not be underestimated.
-How has it been for someone identified with the defense of women’s rights to be Minister of Women in a government considered sexist by the conservatism on gender issues of President Castillo and other members of the ruling party?
-It was satisfactory to find a good dialogue, an opening of the president to see the subjects of the ministry. We made progress on the issue of women’s economic autonomy as something fundamental to eradicate poverty, the women entrepreneurs program was very interesting to the president and we left it advanced, we took out the pension for orphans due to the pandemic, we left an advanced bill for a course for ministers on women’s rights inspired by the Micaela Law of Argentina. Issues such as sexual and reproductive rights are pending progress. What we are missing and we wanted to work on is a more popular, more rooted feminism.