By Marcelo Rochabrun and Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) – Peruvian lawmakers on Friday confirmed a new leftist Cabinet nominated by President Pedro Castillo, giving the fledging administration some respite after a contentious first month in office.
“I thank (Congress) for granting us the vote of confidence,” Castillo tweeted immediately after the vote. “Consensus-building will allow us to govern together with the people for the development of public policies with a social face.”
Overall, 73 lawmakers voted in favor and 50 voted against confirming the Cabinet. Castillo’s party, the Marxist-Leninist Peru Libre, holds only a minority of congressional seats.
The vote will allow Castillo to implement a leftwing platform that includes higher social spending while seeking to extract higher taxes from the key mining industry.
Castillo took office a month ago after winning the election by a margin of just 0.25 percentage point. His far-left platform has spooked markets, sending Peru’s sol currency tumbling to historic lows.
Public opposition to his Cabinet nominees was fierce and led Castillo to replace a far-left foreign minister with a more moderate pick before Friday’s vote. Sources told Reuters that Castillo had mulled a broader Cabinet reshuffle https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/perus-castillo-mulls-cabinet-reshuffle-under-pressure-opposition-2021-08-24 that ultimately did not materialize.
Castillo is the fifth Peruvian president in five years, a period marked by hostility between the executive and the legislature branches of government, including several impeachment attempts.
The current legislature is led by a center-right opposition coalition. Several of them raised concerns about the new Prime Minister Guido Bellido, who heads the Cabinet.
Bellido is facing an investigation into whether he has committed ‘apology for terrorism’ because of Facebook posts published years ago in which he appeared to support a former member of the Shining Path rebel group.
The Maoist Shining path killed tens of thousands of Peruvians in the 1980s and 1990s. Bellido denies the allegations and has not been charged with a crime.
(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun and Marco Aquino; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)
