The Congress of Peru gives the green light to the cabinet of lefts for Castle

LIMA, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Peru’s Congress on Friday confirmed a new left-wing cabinet appointed by President Pedro Castillo, allowing the emerging administration to continue an agenda focused on higher social spending, along with seniors taxes for the mining industry.

“I thank Congress for granting us the vote of confidence,” Castillo tweeted immediately after the vote. “Building consensus 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, occupies only a minority of seats in Congress.

The vote will give the Castillo administration some respite after a troubled first month, marred by allegations that some members of the Council of Ministers are aligned with a Maoist rebel group and a low approval rating of 38 %.

“This afternoon has been recognized as perhaps the most mediocre cabinet in Republican history,” said Hernando Guerra Garcia, an opposition lawmaker representing the People’s Force party.

Castillo supporters say the cabinet represents historically marginalized Peruvians who do not come from the capital Lima.

Castillo took office a month ago after winning the presidency by a margin of just 0.25 percentage points against Popular Force candidate Keiko Fujimori. Its far-left platform has scared markets and plunged Peru’s solitary currency to historic lows.

Peru’s stock index rose 3.09% on Friday, although it changed shortly after the Cabinet vote, suggesting investors had already set a price on a confirmation.

Although Castillo wants to extract higher taxes from miners (Peru is the world’s second largest producer of copper), it has not yet proposed a framework to achieve this. Any tax reform would require Congressional approval.

“We need to get more resources by taking advantage of the high prices in the mining sector, which are making surplus profits,” Finance Minister Pedro Francke told Congress on Friday to get a positive vote.

“We have to do this while protecting the competitiveness of the sector … by no means do we want to kill the golden goose.”

CONTROVERSIAL CABINET

Public opposition to the proposed cabinet was fierce in the days leading up to the vote and led Castillo to replace a far-left foreign minister with a more moderate selection before Friday.

Sources told Reuters that Castillo had reflected on a broader reshuffle of the Cabinet 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, including several attempts at removal.

The current legislature is led by a center-right opposition coalition. Several of them expressed concern 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 posted years ago in which he appeared to support a former member of the Via Luminosa rebel group.

The Maoist luminous path killed tens of thousands of Peruvians in the 1980s and 1990s. Bellido denies the allegations and has not been charged with a crime.

Report by Marcelo Rochabrun and Marco Aquino; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler

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