President Castillo swears in four new ministers of Peru

MADRID, 23 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has sworn in four new ministers who will head the portfolios of the Interior, Energy and Mines, Agriculture and Transport and Communications.

Thus, Dimitri Nicolas Semache has sworn in as Minister of the Interior to replace Alfonso Chávarry; Javier Fernando Arce has done the same as head of Agriculture and replacing Óscar Zea, according to the Peruvian newspaper 'La República'.

Both outgoing ministers have been questioned by Parliament in recent weeks, and Zea was even presented with an interpellation motion alluding to his "inefficient management".

Together with Semache and Arce, President Castillo has sworn in Alessandra Gilda Herrera and Juan Maruo Barranzuela, who will from now on lead the Energy and Mines and Transport and Communications portfolios, respectively.

These changes in the cabinet of the Prime Minister, Aníbal Torres, had already been advanced previously by the Minister of Labor, Betsy Chávez, although it is true that at no time did she hint who the new ministers might be.

This new dance of ministers in the Government of Peru has already provoked the reaction of the secretary general of the ruling party Peru Libre, Vladimir Cerrón, who has made the Executive look ugly by the "right-winging of the mining sector", something that he fears will cause an increase in conflicts .

Cerrón has posted a message on his profile on the social network Twitter in which he regretted that the exchange of a minister "graduated in the Soviet Union", as was the case of Carlos Palacios, for a person who has been an "intern in events of the United States Department of State".

Criticism has not only come from Peru Libre, but a large part of Parliament's benches --such as Somos Perú, Avanza País or Renovación Popular-- have disfigured this new change in the ministerial cabinet, although it is true that the continuity of the Prime Minister Torres seems to be in no doubt.

In the event that a motion of censure against Torres is promoted, and it goes ahead, President Castillo would then be endorsed to dissolve Parliament, something that the opposition is trying to avoid.