Law & Justice, Politics

Humala completes cabinet appointments

President-elect Ollanta Humala has completed the appointments to his 16-member cabinet, with well-regarded constitutionalist Francisco Eguiguren as Justice Minister.

Other appointments include Rudecindo Vega, a member of former President Alejandro Toledo’s Peru Posible party, as the new Labor Minister; the former mayor of San Borja and a former football referee, physician Alberto Tejada, as Health Minister; and Oscar Valdes as Interior Minister. Valdes is a former army colonel, retired since 1991, who has since been in private business in the southern Tacna region, active in chambers of commerce and on the board of the industrial training institution, Senati, in Tacna.

There has been criticism of Humala’s choice of former military officers to head the Ministries of the Interior and Defense –contrary to both President Toledo and President Garcia’s decisions of naming civilians to those posts. Humala, however, has said that both appointees are retired and therefore are considered civilians. 

As Housing Minister, Humala has appointed Rene Cornejo, a former director of the private investment promotion agency, ProInversion; businessman and member of Humala’s Gana Peru party, Carlos Paredes, as Transport and Communications  minister; the former president of the Exporters’ Association (Adex), Jose Luis Silva, as Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister; and Miguel Caillaux, until recently president of the National Dairy Farmers Association, as Agriculture minister.

Finally, sociologist Patricia Salas is to be Humala’s first Education Minister. A member of the National Education Council, and researcher at the Education Policies Institute of the Jesuit university Antonio Ruiz Montoya, Salas is known as a non-polarizing bridge builder, essential in the always difficult relations between the national teachers’ union, Sutep, and any education improvement plans proposed in previous governments so far.

Last week, Humala announced the appointments to key cabinet posts, including the Central Bank (Julio Velarde), Ministry of Economy and Finance (Luis Miguel Castilla) and the Mines and Energy Ministry (Carlos Herrera). The cabinet chief will be Humala’s political and campaign advisor, Salomon Lerner Ghitis.

Humala will swear in his Cabinet on July 28 at the Government Palace, following his own inauguration at Congress earlier in the day.

One Comment

  1. Any chance NOW of a Govt Organisation dedicated to the protection
    of animals?
    I live in San Isidro & there are animals locked up in flats in
    this neighbourhood – day & night – howling / crying / in despair
    and when I asked the sindico of my own building to complain to the
    owners of the crying dog on the 1st floor…
    THEY DENY IT EXISTS.

    HELP !!!!!!!!!!!! its a horrible situation for a person who works at home
    and FOR THE ANIMALS:

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