As the dust begins to settle this week following the closing of Congress, President Martin Vizcarra swore in his new cabinet on Thursday, with 10 new ministers and eight remaining from the previous cabinet. The previous cabinet, headed by premier Salvador del Solar, was forced to resign when Del Solar’s request for a vote of confidence from the Congress was denied.
The first positive response came from the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who praised the appointment of career diplomat Gustavo Meza-Cuadra to Foreign Relations. Meza-Cuadra was ambassador to the United Nations until this week and was on the diplomatic team that led the successful border litigation against Chile at The Hague.
Vizcarra’s choices include several from his home region of Moquegua, a clear sign he wants people he knows well and can trust — the new premier Vicente Zeballos, minister of Justice until early this week, is a school friend, while Edmer Trujillo, who returns to Transport & Communications, was formerly general manager of the Moquegua regional government and Housing minister in the earlier part of the administration under President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. The new minister of Energy and Mines, Juan Carlos Liu, developed a strong friendship with Vizcarra while he worked in Moquegua on the feasibility study and development of the Pasto Grande irrigation project.
The new Finance minister is Maria Antonieta Alva, the daughter of one of Vizcarra’s closest friends, Jorge Alva, rector of the National Engineering University. A Harvard postgraduate in public administration, Alva has worked in the Finance Ministry for seven yearsand has been director general of the public budget for the past two years. Earlier she served as head of the strategic planning and budget office for the Ministry of Education. Critics say she is much too young, at 34, to hold a cabinet position but when Fernando Zavala (Kuczynski’s premier in 2016) was sworn in as Finance minister to the Toledo administration at the age of 34, he was acclaimed as the great young promise for the nation.
Among the ministers who have remained in their portfolios are Carlos Morán, minister of the Interior, and Flor Pablo in the Education ministry. The choice to maintain Pablo is a clear signal that Vizcarra has no intention of yielding to the pressure from conservatives, mostly in the Fujimorista party Fuerza Popular, to delete gender equality themes from the school syllabus.
At the opening of the Amazon Business Congress at the end of the week, President Vizcarra emphasized that the decision to close Congress was made with “scrupulous regard for our democracy and the Constitution.”
“In this past week we have made considerably important decisions,” Vizcarra said, “…difficult decisions, keeping in mind what is best for the country and all Peruvians.”
Between now and parliamentary elections, to be held Jan. 26 next year, the Cabinet is expected to draw up legislation and constitutional reforms, and these bills are to be reviewed and vetted by the current Permanent Commission in the Congress, the only lawmakers who remain, and then put to the vote when the newly elected Congress is installed in February 2010.
