President Martin Vizcarra reshuffles his Cabinet

PERU - In Brief 15 Jul 2020 by Alfredo Thorne

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This morning President Martin Vizcarra swore in 10 new members of his new Cabinet and two reshuffles out of a total Cabinet of 19 ministers. This is the largest reshuffle President Vizcarra has made since taking office in March 2018. The new Prime Minister, Mr. Pedro Cateriano, is perhaps the most relevant change. He had this position in 2015-16 when Mr. Ollanta Humala was President.Apparently, President Vizcarra had invited Cateriano several times and this time he had accepted. He had been his long-term counselor and was a fierce defender of Mr. Vizcarra’s decision to shut down Congress in September 2019. Among those that kept their positions, was Finance Minister Ms. Antonieta Alva, and this should give continuity to her policies.Most new Ministers had served under former president Mr. Ollanta Humala and have a center-left bias, not very different from the position that previous Mr. Vizcarra’s Cabinets have had. Perhaps the most relevant change is that the new members are more senior politicians and signals that Mr. Vizcarra is providing himself with a stronger political team for his last year in government. He has faced strong opposition from Congress and the Media and with this new team he is ensuring a better defense.In his remarks to the press ahead of the new ministers’ swearing in ceremony he said that his new Cabinet priorities would be: improving the health system to defeat the Covid-19; the education system; economic recovery; and the political reform. These have been his on-going priorities, but he may be thinking that this new Cabinet is more prepared to take up these challenges.