Jose Pedro Castillo Terrones is a Peruvian politician, former elementary school teacher, and union leader who served as the President of Peru from 28 July 2021 to 7 December 2022.
82 Facts About Pedro Castillo
2.
Pedro Castillo attained political prominence as a leading figure in a school teachers' strike in 2017 and ran in the 2021 presidential election as the candidate of the Free Peru party.
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Pedro Castillo announced his presidential candidacy after seeing his students undergo hardships from the lack of resources in rural Peru, with the election occurring amidst the country's COVID-19 pandemic and a period of democratic deterioration in the nation.
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Pedro Castillo would leave the Free Peru party in June 2022 to govern as an independent.
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Pedro Castillo was noted for appointing four different governments in six months, a Peruvian record.
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Pedro Castillo was impeached by Congress within the day and was detained for sedition and high treason.
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Pedro Castillo was succeeded by First Vice President Dina Boluarte.
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Pedro Castillo was born to an impoverished and illiterate peasant family in Puna, Tacabamba, Chota Province, Department of Cajamarca.
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Pedro Castillo's father, Ireno Castillo, was born on the hacienda of a landowning family where he performed labor-intensive work.
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Pedro Castillo's family rented land from the landowners until General Juan Velasco Alvarado took power and redistributed property from landowners to peasants, with Ireno receiving a plot of land he had been working on.
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Pedro Castillo sold ice cream, newspapers, and cleaned hotels in Lima.
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Pedro Castillo studied Primary Education at the Octavio Carrera Education Institute of Superior Studies and gained a master's degree in Educational Psychology from the Cesar Vallejo University.
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From 1995, Pedro Castillo worked as a primary school teacher and principal at School 10465 in the town of Puna, Chota.
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Rural teaching in Peru is poorly paid but highly respected and influential within local communities, which led Pedro Castillo to become involved with teachers' unions.
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In 2002, Pedro Castillo unsuccessfully ran for the mayorship of Anguia as the representative of Alejandro Toledo's centre-left party Possible Peru.
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Pedro Castillo served as a leading member of the party in Cajamarca from 2005 until the party's dissolution in 2017 following its poor results in the 2016 Peruvian general election.
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Pedro Castillo became a teachers' union leader during the 2017 Peru teachers' strike, which sought to increase salaries, pay off local government debt, repeal the Law of the Public Teacher Career and increase the education budget.
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On 2 September 2017, Pedro Castillo announced a suspension of the strike; he said it was only a temporary suspension.
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In October 2020, Pedro Castillo announced his presidential bid, running as the candidate of Free Peru, and formally attained the nomination on 6 December 2020.
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Pedro Castillo's ticket included attorney Dina Boluarte and Vladimir Cerron; Cerron was later disqualified by the National Jury of Elections due to a corruption conviction.
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Pedro Castillo was chosen by a national assembly of teachers' representatives to be their candidate for the presidential election of 2021.
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Pedro Castillo cited the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his students as a motivation for his presidential run.
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Pedro Castillo told the Associated Press that he had attempted to continue teaching his students through the lockdowns, but the impoverished local community did not have the resources required for remote learning; almost none of his students had access to a cell phone, and educational tablets promised by the government never arrived.
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Pedro Castillo's program is based on three main themes: health, education and agriculture, which he intends to strengthen to stimulate the country's development.
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Pedro Castillo enjoys a certain image of probity, as he is one of eight candidates who have not been cited in any case in a country where political corruption is high.
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Pedro Castillo said he would pardon Antauro Humala, a member of the Ethnocacerist movement and brother of former President Ollanta Humala who was sentenced to nineteen years in prison after leading the capture of a police station in Andahuaylas that had resulted in the deaths of four policemen and one gunman.
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Pedro Castillo's success was attributed to his focus on the large difference of living standards between Lima and rural Peru, leading to strong support in countryside provinces.
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Pedro Castillo faced the second-placed candidate, Keiko Fujimori, who had finished second place in the 2011 and 2016 general elections, in the second round of voting.
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Pedro Castillo established a political alliance with the left-wing former presidential candidate Veronika Mendoza in May 2021, earning her support for his campaign.
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Pedro Castillo ultimately won the election, handing Fujimori her third consecutive defeat in a presidential election.
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The transfer of the presidency to Pedro Castillo was described by the Institute of Peruvian Studies as "strengthening the current Peruvian democratic regime", as the process was peaceful and contributed to a "more prolonged democratic stability" in Peru in the early 21st century.
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Daniel Rico of RBC Capital Markets credited Francke with calming markets fears of Pedro Castillo, who was characterized by opponents as a far-left politician.
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Lula da Silva, leftist former president of Brazil, congratulated him and said that Pedro Castillo had struck a blow to conservatism in the region, saying that "the result of the Peruvian polls is symbolic and represents another advance in the popular struggle in our dear Latin America".
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Pedro Castillo was officially designated as president-elect of Peru on 19 July 2021, only a week before he was to be inaugurated.
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Days before his designation, Castillo and his economic advisor Pedro Francke met with Ambassador Liang Yu at the Chinese embassy in Peru to discuss a more rapid introduction of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines in Peru.
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The majority of ministers chosen by Pedro Castillo were from interior regions in contrast to previous governments where most ministers originated from Lima.
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Pedro Castillo stated during the interview that Free Peru leader Vladimir Cerron had "no influence on cabinet appointments".
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Kahhat explained that Pedro Castillo proposed taxing windfall profits, describing these profits as "the product of good international prices and not the merit of the company itself".
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In November 2021, Pedro Castillo announced an increase in the minimum wage from 930 to 1,000 sols, the sale of the presidential jet acquired in 1995, and a ban on first-class travel for all civil servants.
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Inflation of basic goods, alongside increasing fertilizer and fuel prices as a result of the war, angered rural Peruvians, and shifted them from their position of supporting Pedro Castillo to protesting his government.
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Some of Peru's largest investors, such as Freeport-McMoRan and BHP, shared positive reactions of the Pedro Castillo government following their meetings.
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Pedro Castillo's remarks received both positive and negative reactions in Peru.
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In June 2022, Pedro Castillo convened the leaders of different South American nations to treat the Venezuelan migrant crisis, with Peru being home to 1.3 million Venezuelans that fled following the crisis in Venezuela.
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Congress banned Pedro Castillo from traveling to Colombia for the inauguration of the new president, Gustavo Petro, denied permission to travel to the Vatican to meet with the Pope, to Thailand for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and to Mexico for a meeting of the Pacific Alliance in November 2022; the latter was cancelled and rescheduled for 14 December 2022 in Lima, though never occurred.
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In November 2021, four months into his term, Keiko Fujimori announced that her party was pushing forward impeachment proceedings, arguing that Pedro Castillo was "morally unfit for office".
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Alva had already shared her readiness to assume the presidency of Peru if Pedro Castillo were to be vacated from the position and a leaked Telegram group chat of the Board of Directors of Congress that she heads revealed plans coordinated to oust Pedro Castillo.
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On 28 March 2022, Pedro Castillo appeared before Congress calling the allegations baseless and for legislators to "vote for democracy" and "against instability", with 55 voting for impeachment, 54 voting against, and 19 abstaining, not reaching the 87 votes necessary for impeaching Pedro Castillo.
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In July 2022, a fifth inquest was launched into Pedro Castillo's alleged involvement in corruption.
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Pedro Castillo reportedly attempted to flee the country but was detained by the National Police.
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Latin American governments, including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela have continued to recognize that Pedro Castillo is the democratically elected President of Peru following the events in December 2022 and refused to recognize Boluarte.
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Pedro Castillo has been described as having far-left, socialist, populist economic policies while being socially conservative.
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Pedro Castillo said that he is not a communist or a Chavista.
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The Economist wrote that Pedro Castillo "combines radical rhetoric with pragmatism", and cited his work with both left-wing and right-wing groups, including Keiko Fujimori's Popular Force, during the 2017 teachers' strike.
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Le Monde diplomatique wrote that Pedro Castillo maintained support prior to being elected because his positions were "rather vague".
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Pedro Castillo later distanced himself from the far-left of the Free Peru party, stating that "the one who is going to govern is me" and there will be "no communism" in Peru under his government.
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Pedro Castillo has never said he is a Marxist, socialist or communist.
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Pedro Castillo has expressed his interest in moving Peru more towards a mixed economy.
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Pedro Castillo promised foreign businesses that he would not nationalize companies in Peru, saying that those seeking the nationalization of industry within his party were part of the "leftist fringe".
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Pedro Castillo has made statements supporting increased regulation, directly criticizing Chilean companies Saga Falabella and LATAM Airlines Group.
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Pedro Castillo proposed increasing the education and health budgets to at least ten percent of Peru's GDP.
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Pedro Castillo received criticism from EFE for not clarifying how these policies would be funded, as Peru's existing government budget is already fourteen percent of the country's GDP.
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Pedro Castillo believes that internet access should be a right for all Peruvians.
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Pedro Castillo proposed a science and technology ministry that would immediately be tasked with combating the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru.
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Pedro Castillo has said that, in his efforts to rewrite the Peruvian constitution, he would respect the rule of law by utilizing existing constitutional processes and call for a constitutional referendum to determine whether a constituent assembly should be formed or not; to hold a referendum, Pedro Castillo would require a majority vote from congress, which is unlikely and limits his chances of changing the constitution.
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Pedro Castillo called for Peru to leave the American Convention on Human Rights and to reinstate the death penalty in the country.
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Pedro Castillo called for stricter regulations on the media in Peru.
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Pedro Castillo announced during his inauguration that youths who do not work or study would have to serve in the military; as there is no mandatory service in Peru, it was unclear whether Pedro Castillo would introduce conscription.
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Pedro Castillo defended the government of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, describing it as "a democratic government", while his Free Peru party shared praise for the policies of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.
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Pedro Castillo described the Venezuelan refugee crisis as an issue of "human trafficking", and said that he would give Venezuelans who commit crimes seventy-two hours to leave Peru.
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Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido, who was recognized as legitimate president of Venezuela by Peru in amidst the Venezuelan presidential crisis beginning in 2019, wished that Pedro Castillo would "decide for the good of freedom" after President Maduro's foreign minister Jorge Arreaza attended Pedro Castillo's inauguration.
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In November 2021, Pedro Castillo announced the rejection of the 2021 Nicaraguan general election results, saying they were not "free, fair and transparent elections".
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At a bilateral meeting with president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro on 3 February 2022, Pedro Castillo was seen embracing him.
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Bolsonaro, who wore Pedro Castillo's straw chotano hat, said Pedro Castillo was a defender of freedom and "conservative values".
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Bolsonaro and Pedro Castillo discussed a proposed highway through the Amazon rainforest, the removal of bureaucratic trade regulations, and increased drug trade monitoring.
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Such sentiments continued for decades into the 2021 election, with Peru's right-wing elite and media organizations collaborating with Fujimori's campaign by appealing to fear when discussing Pedro Castillo, linking him to armed communist groups through a fearmongering political attack known as a terruqueo.
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Pedro Castillo said he was not involved with MOVADEF or the militant teachers' union faction CONARE and that those factions should not be involved in teaching.
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In June 2018, Hamer Villena Zuniga, the leader of the United Union of Workers in Education of Peru, stated that Pedro Castillo's sister, Maria Doraliza Pedro Castillo Terrones, was a member of MOVADEF.
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The Economist wrote that at the same time Pedro Castillo allegedly worked with groups linked to Shining Path, he was partnering with right-wing legislators from Popular Force, Fujimori's party, in the same capacity.
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Pedro Castillo is married to Lilia Paredes, a teacher, and they have two children together.
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Pedro Castillo says he is Catholic, while his wife and children are evangelical.
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Pedro Castillo is a teetotaler, practicing abstinence from consuming alcohol.
82.
Pedro Castillo often wears a straw hat called a chotano, a poncho, and sandals constructed from old tires.