Peru’s new president to be sworn in on Wednesday: NPR

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In Peru, a former elementary school teacher named Pedro Castillo is sworn in as president today. Castillo is a socialist. His parents were farmers who never learned to read. And his rise to power surprised almost everyone. This is NPR’s Philip Reeves.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: Pedro Castillo hails from the mountains of northern Peru. He is from Chota, one of the poorest provinces. This morning, its residents celebrate as one of their own assumes the highest office in the country. The festivities will start early, says Exequiel Blanco, a teacher who lives there.

EXEQUIEL BLANCO: (Speaking Spanish).

REEVES: “Everyone is hopeful,” he says. “Soon they will also be full of food.”

BLANCO: (Speaking Spanish).

REEVES: “Special celebrations like this usually require feasts involving fried guinea pig and mountain river pork and trout,” says Blanco. Pedro Castillo is 51 years old. He is a teacher who lives in a house he built with his family, who gets up at dawn to milk the cows. In 2017, Castillo made headlines by leading a teachers’ pay strike. Yet a few months ago most Peruvians had not heard of him. Few imagined that he would soon be in the capital, Lima, in the Presidential Palace with his iconic wide-brimmed white hat. No one saw it coming, says Andres Calderon, professor of law at the Universidad del Pacifico in Peru.

ANDRES CALDERON: I would say he was a very strange figure to the general population. Even two months before the first round of legislative elections, he obtained less than 1% of the vote.

REEVES: Peru’s electoral authorities took more than a month to confirm Castillo’s victory. The numbers for the final round were very close. His right-wing opponent, Keiko Fujimori, alleged fraud.

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PRESIDENT PEDRO CASTILLO: (Speaking Spanish).

REEVES: As he finally celebrated victory last week, Castillo called for national unity.

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CASTILLO: (Speaking Spanish).

REEVES: It’s easier said than done. Castillo is from the Free Peru Marxist Party. Some of his right-wing enemies describe him as a dangerous radical on the left and compare him to the former leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Others say he won because he is an underdog. And that’s another sign that South Americans are fed up with corrupt political elites, left or right. Jose Carlos Requena is a political analyst who writes for El Comercio. He says Castillo is socially conservative and believes he will become a pragmatic president

JOSE CARLOS REQUENA: If he thinks it is more convenient for him to be moderate because most Peruvians prefer moderate politicians, he will be moderate.

REEVES: Solving Peru’s problems is not going to be easy. It has the highest COVID per capita death rate in the world. Poverty has increased sharply since the start of the pandemic. The once booming Peruvian economy shrank 11% last year. Even though Castillo seeks to make sweeping changes, he controls less than a third of the Peruvian parliament. This means he is vulnerable to impeachment, says Andres Calderon.

CALDERON: The biggest threat Peru faces right now isn’t communism, it’s not terrorism, it’s instability – political instability with a very weak president, with a very improvised and uncertain presidency.

REEVES: Peruvians are used to ditching presidents. Last year they pulled off three in just one week. As Castillo’s friends in the mountains celebrate his inauguration today with their guinea pig platters, they hope for better than that.

Philip Reeves, NPR News.

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