It has been a month since Pedro Castillo, a Socialist and a member of the Free Peru ( Peru Libre) Party, has emerged as the president of Peru. In the electoral battle Castillo defeated Keiko Fujimori, a member of the Peru Popular Force Party and the daughter of Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori. It was an intense electoral battle between a school teacher and the daughter of Peru's most powerful political family. Also it was a battle between the Left- Wing one time trade union activist vs an ultra Right-Wing privileged person. At the end of an extremely nail biting and controversial electoral fight, Castillo emerged victorious. However, controversies did not end. Fujimori challenged the result in court. After a certain delay, the court termed the election results as fair and Castillo took the presidential baton.
It was never an easy battle for Castillo. There were two sides of problems and Castillo faced both of them. The first one was quite obvious. Due to his Marxist-Leninist inclination and ideology, the ultra right-wing termed him as Communist. The rest of the part you can imagine easily. The right-wingers have this clear tendency of coining marxists as the internal threats for the state, hence Pedro was no exception. Pedro received death threats at the time of the election campaign. In many states and provinces, he received multiple attacks on him. Multiple times he was subjected to physical attacks and threats. However, with his immense popularity in the country, he survived. Not only he emerged as the champion, but also he showed the world how a common man can destroy the ego of the biggest political family in the country.
But the second type of problem was a bit unexpected. It came from his own camp. Many Communist leaders outside Peru were not ready to accept him as a Marxist president. A lot of them criticised Pedro by calling him a 'Socialism inclined Democrat' candidate. However, Pedro never bat an eye on them. He concentrated on the campaigns. Developed a mutual correlation of help and understanding with the Peruvian Communist Party. He ended his campaign in the CGTP Building. The headquarters of the largest communist trade union in the country. The members of the Peruvian Communist Party worked for him at the ground levels. The cadres supported him, provided strength to his battle. Each and every cadre gave their 100 percent to secure the win for Pedro. Instead, Castillo thanked them.
But the real affair came after the election. Pedro Castillo has proved why he can be called one of the true socialist leaders in South America. Last week, he disclosed his ministerial cabinet. He appointed Guido Belleido, a marxist ideologue and activist as the prime minister. His foreign minister is Hector Bejar Rivera. A marxist academician and a staunch supporter of Cuban and Venezuelan socialism. Anahi Durand is his women development minister. Again a prominent marxist and LGBT community activist.
As a country, Peru had suffered from many crises. The country saw massive tortures from the military dictatorship. The right-wing governance had its own scratches on the soil of Peru. Now we have to see, whether Peru can fight back under this leadership.
