translated from Spanish: Pedro Castillo assumes the presidency of Peru

Pedro Castillo assumed on Wednesday the presidency of Peru for the period 2021-2026 after being sworn in before the Congress of the Republic and receiving the symbolic presidential band. Castillo, dressed in his traditional straw chotano envelope and wide wing and a terno with indigenous motifs, received the symbols of state power from the hands of the president of parliament, María del Carmen Alva.” I swear by God, by my family, by my Peruvian sisters and brothers, peasants, native peoples, ronderos, fishermen, teachers, professionals, children, youth and women, that I will serve as president of the Republic for the period 2021-2016. I swear for the people of Peru, for a country without corruption and for a new Constitution,” said the rural teacher. In the sober ceremony were present all the representatives of the branches of government and the full Congress, as well as close relatives of the president. Also in attendance were guests such as the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the Presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández; Bolivia, Luis Arce; Chile, Sebastián Piñera; Colombia, Iván Duque, and Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso.Critical momentCastillo assumes the presidency at a critical time for Peru, ravaged by the health and economic crisis unleashed by the covid-19 pandemic and in the midst of enormous polarization and political instability. The professor receives the country with the highest mortality from coronavirus per capita, with nearly 200,000 deaths, and an economy struggling to recover after contracting by 11.8% in 2020.The triumph of this rural teacher of 51 years in the presidential elections, which were held in two rounds on April 11 and June 6 , came as a surprise for many Peruvians and above all has been a setback for the established powers and the traditional politics of the Andean country. Peru, which this day also commemorates the 200th anniversary of its independence, has in Castillo for the first time a head of state from the Andean countryside, oblivious to its political elites and centers of power, very worried about its irruption. It is expected that in the coming hours the new president, whose secrecy in recent weeks has been absolute, will announce his cabinet and confirm what the first lines of action of his mandate will be. During the campaign, Castillo was emphatic in pointing out the need for the Peruvian state to have a greater intervention in the economy and insisted on promoting the creation of a Constituent Assembly to create a new Constitution, proposals that generate a wide controversy in the country. The latest polls indicate that Castillo is viewed by Peruvians with a mixture of hope (34%), uncertainty (29%), confidence (16%) and fear (15%). Opposition hostilityCastillo also assumes the command with the certainty that he will not have a “honeymoon” among his opponents, who already since the night of 6 June, when his victory over the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori began to be glimpsed, began to sow doubts about his legitimacy and his victory. Fujimori denounced for weeks, without reliable evidence, the existence of a “fraud” committed at the hands of Castillo and his party, Free Peru.This “fraud” is non-existent for the Peruvian justice system and for the international community, but he delayed Castillo’s proclamation for a month and a half with more than a thousand lawsuits and unsubstantiated legal resources. Sectors of the political and media right even urged the Armed Forces to reject the president and leave the presidency of Peru in the hands of the president of Congress, which in practice would have been a coup d’etat.

Original source in Spanish