The President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has sworn in Betssy Chávez as the country’s new Prime Minister on Friday, replacing Aníbal Torres, who resigned from the post after the failure of a question of confidence in the Andean Parliament.
Chávez, until now Minister of Culture, will thus serve as the fifth Peruvian head of government under Castillo, who took the reins of the presidency just over 16 months ago, in July 2021.
Castillo will have to appoint in the next hours the rest of the ministerial Cabinet in what is already a new change of course of a particularly convulsed national politics, marked in the last months by the incessant motions of censure and voluntary departures of ministers.
Even the president himself has the Peruvian Justice and Public Prosecutor’s Office behind him, the latter a body that accuses him of leading a criminal organization for alleged corruption.
The latest episode of Peruvian political instability occurred on Thursday night when Torres resigned after the Congress refused to modify the law limiting referendum calls in the country.
«After this express refusal of confidence, with the expression of ‘full rejection’, and having accepted the resignation of the ‘premier’, whom I thank for his concern and work for the country, I will renew the Cabinet,» Castillo reiterated in a televised speech.
With just over nine months in office, Aníbal Torres has been the longest-serving prime minister of the Peruvian Executive since Pedro Castillo was sworn in as president. He was preceded by Guido Bellido, with a little more than two months at the head of the government; Mirtha Vásquez, prime minister for almost three months; and Héctor Valer, who was in office for barely a week.
