President Castillo faces impeachment; fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war
Congress on March 8th rejected the no-confidence vote in the cabinet of Prime Minister Aníbal Torres. Although President Pedro Castillo has been in office for less than eight months, this is already his fourth cabinet, and the third to undergo such a vote. The previous cabinet, led by Héctor Valer, resigned seven days after it had been appointed, following accusations that Valer had beaten his wife and daughter. Torres, a well-known lawyer and loyal supporter of Castillo, joined the president’s first cabinet on July 28th as justice minister, and was appointed to the office of prime minister on February 8th.
That the latest no-confidence vote was rejected by a narrow margin, with 64 votes against, 58 in favor and 2 abstentions—a much smaller margin of escape than those enjoyed by the previous two cabinets—indicates the degree to which the president’s popularity has eroded. Votes in favor of the no-confidence motion have been progressively increasing, reaching 58 out of 130 for the Torres cabinet, following 56 for the cabinet of Mirtha Vasquez, and 50 for that of Guido Bellido. Another indicator of this erosion is the composition of the vote: while previous cabinets were supported by the centrist political parties—Acción Popular (AP), Alianza para el Progreso (APP), Podemos Perú (PP) and Somos Perú (SP)—this time, these parties split their vote, a further indication of waning congressional support for Castillo.
It is indeed striking how rapidly Castillo has lost popular support, a rate of decline experienced by no other Peruvian president, as we have pointed out in previous reports. It is nevertheless also surprising that Castillo has made only limited attempts to regain support by reaching out to the opposition in Congress. In appointing the Torres cabinet, Castillo tightened his alliance with the radical left-wing Perú Libre, the party that took him to power, and its leader Vladimir Cerrón, who has defended the president staunchly via social media. However, Castillo’s most recent appointments indicate that he has become more isolated.
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