Pedro Castillo, a rural union activist from a Marxist party, was finally declared Peru’s next president after weeks of vote recounts and lawsuits prompted by allegations of fraud.
The results, proclaimed Monday night by Peruvian electoral authorities, are expected to dispel the political uncertainty that has clouded the Andean nation since the June 6 election runoff.
Castillo, who was virtually unknown six months ago, defeated by a narrow margin right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, a leader of the country’s most powerful political clan. After alleging fraud and demanding several vote recounts, she said earlier on Monday she would accept authorities’ decision even as she called the proclamation “illegitimate.”
A teacher from the highlands with no previous experience of national politics, Castillo, 51, ran on the slogan “No more poor people in a rich country,” meaning that the nation’s vast mineral wealth must benefit ordinary people.
He says his focus will be on education and health, making him the face of Latin America’s resurgent left and a symbol of growing disenchantment with elites following the ravages of the pandemic. He’ll take office on July 28.
Castillo’s election initially spooked investors, but the nation’s bonds and currency rallied after he appointed mainstream economists as advisers, and pledged to respect the central bank’s autonomy.
Castillo’s chief economic adviser, Pedro Francke, has called for fiscal prudence and inflation-targeting, and is opposed to nationalization of companies. But Marxists from Castillo’s Peru Libre party will try to get him to pursue a more radical course.
Castillo won by a narrow margin of 50.1% to 49.9%, and Fujimori’s party alleged irregularities and tried to cancel votes deemed as fraudulent. The U.S. and the EU said the election was clean.
Castillo’s ability to govern is likely to be hampered by his limited support within congress, which is dominated by the center-right. He will face not only opposition but the very real threat of impeachment, which was used to oust former President Martin Vizcarra.
The election result, nonetheless, represents one of the most meteoric political journeys in recent history. Castillo rose from being a little-known union organizer just months ago to lead a country of 32 million struggling through one of the worst periods in its history.
Peru has suffered the world’s highest death rate from COVID-19 as well as a deeper economic slump than all the other major economies in the Americas. The nation has also seen exceptional political volatility, with three presidents in little more than a week last year.
His promises to raise corporate taxes, rein in big companies and pump 20% of economic output into social welfare struck a chord with the rural poor. But those same policies, and his membership of a Marxist political party, worried investors, who’d been used to Peru being one of the continent’s fastest growing and most reliable economies, even amid bouts of political turmoil.
During the campaign, Castillo criss-crossed the country wearing a broad straw-hat, riding a horse to the polls and dancing with supporters. On April 11, he beat out 17 other candidates to win the first-round election.
While his Free Peru party was founded by a Marxist neurosurgeon who praised autocrats such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Castillo has tried to distance himself from party radicals.
Castillo swept the rural and Andean regions of the country, while Fujimori won the capital Lima and coastal cities in the north.
