LatAm in Focus: Pedro Castillo Gets the Keys to Peru's Castle
LatAm in Focus: Pedro Castillo Gets the Keys to Peru's Castle
Journalist Mitra Taj and legal expert Alonso Gurmendi discuss the bumpy road ahead for Peru’s new president.
Forty-three days after a vote, at 10:30 pm on July 19, Peru’s national electoral body officially declared Pedro Castillo the winner of the presidential runoff. His rival, Keiko Fujimori—whose allegations of fraud delayed the certification—finally conceded and begrudgingly recognized the results. The United States and the EU, along with over a dozen electoral missions have said the voting was fair, with the State Department calling the election a “model of democracy.”
While having the win certified resolves one uncertainty, it opens up a host of others—especially for investors. Markets see-sawed during much of the campaign as Castillo would mention nationalizing key Peruvian industries, only to backtrack. “He’s been ambiguous or inconsistent enough about it … that he’s not really going to be tied down to any particular promise and might have some leeway for doing something much more moderate, which appears to be maybe the direction he’s going in,” says Peru-based journalist Mitra Taj, on the prospect of nationalizations. With the inauguration on July 28, which will also be the day of Peru’s bicentennial celebration, the president-elect has a short window to name his cabinet and key posts.
“We don’t know what shade of left this government’s going to be.” —Mitra Taj
“Are we a country of Lima, or are we a country of the Andes?” —Alonso Gurmendi