Bagua: Peru's government eats crow..YAY

Yehude Simon at today's meeting

Peru's PM Yehude Simon met today with representatives of the Amazon indigenous peoples and, not to put too fine a point on it, told them what they wanted to hear:

• Regarding the infamous Presidential decrees 1064 and 1090 (the so-called 'law of the jungle' that would have allowed the gov't to sell Amazonian land to private companies without consulting locals). Simon said the government would present to Congress a project to overturn and annul the laws.

• The government would lift the State of Emergency decree in the Amazon region.

• A working consultancy group including all people affected would be set up immediately.

• Simon apologized to the indigenous "if they had felt threatened by any action taken by the government."

• At the end of the four hour meeting, the indigenous representatives applauded Simon after his closing remarks.

Look, so far it's word and not deeds, and simply because the executive presents a plan to annul a law it doesn't mean that Congress will go through with the plan, but let's give Simon and the Peru gov't the benefit of the doubt for the moment and regard today as a big step towards a resolution and an enormous climbdown on the part of the Twobreakfasts government. As Churchill said, jaw jaw is better than war war.....a thousand times better, in fact. Here's how Peru state news agency Andina reported the meeting (first couple of paragraphs translated, find the rest here):

The executive subscribed this afternoon to a 12-point act of understanding with native communities of the central jungle, in which it committed to present before Congress before June 18th a proposal to overturn the legaslative decress 1090 and 1064.

After a four hour meeting between Simon and the "Apus" of 390 indigenous communities in the town of San Ramón, they also agreed that the other questioned decrees should be discussed in the National Coordination Group for the Development of Amazonian Peoples that will begin tomorrow.

To begin this Group, representatives will travel to Lima from the central jungle region to join a multisectoral working commission, guaranteeing the participation of AIDESEP and other native groups.

Continues here

Susana Villarán on Peru's New PM, Yehude Simon

Susana Villarán and Yehude Simon

Susana Villarán is an IKN blogfriend (check out the interview we did here) and an all round good egg. So it's good to see her interviewed tonight by El Comercio, Peru's newspaper of record, on the appointment of Yehude Simon as Cabinet Chief and new Prime Minister.

The interview is linked here for you Spanish speakers, and below is the full text in OttoTranslation. Well worth reading to see how things might change in the Peruvian scene (though I have to say I'm more pessimistic than Villarán after watching 10 of the "resigned" ministers get their jobs back yesterday, even though Simon today said that two or three of them won't make it to Christmas).

Here's the translation of the Villarán interview. Enjoy.

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Simon Is One of the New Leaders of the Democratic and Modern Left

The ex-Minister of Women and Social Development, Susana Villarán, today said that the new Head of Ministers, Yehude Simon, will ad more weight to the fight against poverty, and was confident that this politician has become one of the new leaders of the new, modern left-wing of Peru.

"We greet Simon as new Prime Minister. He is a decentralizer and we believe that with him (in charge) this issue will be important in the government agenda. Simon will also add great weight in the issue of the fight against poverty and exclusion", Villarán told elcomercio.com.pe.

She laso said that other issues that must be tackled by debates in this government are the eradication of extreme poverty, the absence of political manipulation in social programs as well as the unrestricted respect for human rights.

She emphasized that before the resignation of ex-premier Jorge Del Castillo, the government had not looked for multi-sector agreement to fight poverty, but had rather looked to politicize social programs. "This is very dangerous", she commented.

Villarán said that inside the new democratic left Simon had taken a role of leader, alongside other figures such as Vladimiro Huaroc (president of the Junín region) or Jesús Coronel (president of the Cajamarca region). "It's good that the democratic left is not lacking leadership", she said.

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Related Post
An interview with Susana Villarán

Other Sites
Link to Susana Villarán's blog

Only in Peru can 16 ministers get sacked.......

.........and then 10 of them get called back to their posts a week later (well, their "resignations were accepted", but under the circumstances there's little difference). Right now in the Presidential Palace the


swearing in ceremony is under way, and here's the list that now makes up Peru's ministerial cabinet. First, the new faces:

• Interior: Remigio Hernani Meloni (ex-head of the criminal investigations department)

• Energy and Mines: Pedro Sánchez Gamarra (ex Prez of ElectroPeru amongt other posts, definite free market advocate)

• Women and Social Development: Carmen Vildoso Chirinos (ex-Vice minister of promotion and employment in the Toledo gov't)

• Health: Óscar Ugarte Ubillús (ex Vice-minister of health in the Toledo gov't and close ally of Yehude Simon)

• Production: Elena Conterno Martinelli (economist, master degree at Harvard, has been working in various government bodies such as MiVivienda and Foncodes)

• Agriculture: Carlos Leyton Muñoz (actual Vice President of the Arequipa region, sociologist, long background in rural matters, Peruvian old-school landed gentry family background)

Now the faces that have been given their jobs back:

• Exterior Relations (Chancellor): José García Belaunde
• Exterior Commence: Mercedes Aráoz Fernández
• Economy: Luis Valdivieso
• Justice: Rosario Fernández
• Environment: Antonio Brack
• Transport and Communications: Verónica Zavala
• Defence: Ántero Flores Aráoz
• Education: Antonio Chang
• Employment: Jorge Villasante
• Housing: Enrique Cornejo

Or in other words, one week ago a band of untrusted ministers were forced to hand in their resignations and their President was forced by popular demand to accept them. Now he ignores his public yet again and gives 10 of the 16 their jobs back. Of the other six, perhaps three are what can be truly called new faces.

Or in other words to the other words; just another round of Peruvian bullshit politics that will change precisely nothing until Yehude Simon gets some real power (and that's if he lasts that long with so few allies around the table).

Related Posts
Perou, et la plus ca change........
Peru: Yehude Simon new cabinet chief
Peru: The Petroperu corruption scandal gives Yehude Simon his chance

Things still very tight-lipped about the new Peru Cabinet

Twobreakfasts unveils his new honesty image,
complete with bespoke uniform

I was in two minds to write this post, as we're all going to find out this evening anyway at the swearing in ceremony, but here we go:

So far nine of the 16 ministers have been pencilled in. Along with the names given yesterday, two more current ministers are likely to retain their posts (the mediocre Chang at education has been ratified). The only "new" name is a dude named Ugarte in the Health Ministry. He's Yehude Simon's political pal and an ex Veep Health Minister in the Toledo gov't. The striking doctors have welcomed the choice, so all is well there. The others jobs are still being kept very quiet, with total lockdown on my inside info sources. So be it.

As for blogfriend Susana Villarán, jungle drums say she kinda refused the Ministry of Women job (though not out of hand) saying that she's been there and done that already and a new face might be a better choice. I'd like to see her accept the position, personally. She knows what is needed, and she's as honest as they come. She's also an outspoken Twobreakfasts critic. Vamos a ver........

The other thing to report is that word says Alan has chosen 8 people and Simon the other 8.....signs of compromise gov't or splitting things down the middle already? You be the judge!

Perou, et la plus ça change..........

Word from Lima's halls of power is that the new cabinet of ministers will be sworn in tomorrow, and up to six of the old ministers are likely to keep their jobs....so much for all that new-broom-massive-swing-to-the-left talk, eh? Let's have a look at who's staying:

Economy: Luis Valdivieso. There was a chance that PPK took over here, but as Valdivieso 1) is fairly new in the post, 2) ex-IMF, following policies directly handed down to him by PPK via Carranza, and 3) Simon surely doesn't have a better alternative, then Luis stays. This one has been confirmed, by the way....neolib econ policies continue business as usual etc etc

Foreign Commerce: Mercedes Aráoz. She's done a fairly good job, has to be said. Also with the FTA about to be fully implemented there aren't that many people in Peru who have read the whole document more than once, so keeping Mercedes here is probably a time-saver. This one is confirmed

Foreign Relations: José García Belaunde. Belaunde is one of those old-school criollo Lima establishment family members that gets respect from place like Chile. Not a bad guy....Otto has no problem about him staying. This one is confirmed.

Now for three other that are likely (though not yet confirmed) to keep their jobs:

Employment: Jorge Villasante. It's a figurehead job anyway (all job creation comes from the FinMin policies, and the ministry of production overlaps on this portfolio, too) and the guy is no charisma-bearer, either. If confirmed, this one shows that Yehude Simon isn't getting a free hand over ministerial picks.

Environment: Antonio Brack Egg. This dude must stay because 1) he's respected by all sides of the issue 2) he's actually been doing some work since getting his job and 3) there's nobody else in Peru with a resume to match.

Justice: Rosario Fernández. This is probably because President Twobreakfasts doesn't want to be indicted at the end of his mandate. Either that or he's jealous about the number of Fernández's in ministerial jobs over in Argentina and wants one for himself.

So at the moment of the 16 ministerial positions there are three jobs confirmed, three jobs likely filled and ten unknowns. As for those 10 spots, things are very tight-lipped right now (the vacancies include the key interior ministry, education, too). However be assured that your snoopy Otto will dig out the juice as soon as possible......or if not we all find out together at the swearing-in ceremony tomorrow.

Good news from Peru: Ollanta Humala has just lost the 2011 election...YAY!

Humala: "Don't taze me dude!"

The reaction of opposition parties to the appointment of Yehude Simon has been funny. The Fujimoristas have tried to dig up Simon's past by accusing him of having a terrorist background....err that's because he was in opposition to the Fujimori quasi-dictatorship in the 1990s and El Chino decided to trump up charges and throw Simon in jail rather than listen to him any longer....Fujimori was like that. Meanwhile the reaction of Ollanta Humala (the main opposition leader in the highly fractured world of Peruvian party politics) to the appointment of Yehude Simon as new cabinet chief was telling. Humala has had his legs swept from under him by this Twobreakfasts move, and he knows it. There's nothing bad he could say about Simon without it reflecting on his own background, so he was reduced to snarking that it was obviously due to some kind of political pact between APRA and the Humanist Party (that of Simon).

Well DUH, eejit! What else would you call it if the President calls someone from a different party to their own to become the 2nd most powerful politico in the country? Fact is that Humala knows he's just lost a lot of the left-leaning protest vote to Simon in 2011, and now Yehude (why do I always see violins with that name?) must be a serious contender for the toppy top job next time around. I'm very glad that Humala's nose is out of joint on this appointment, as the guy is a total dickhead. Imagine an insincere Hugo Chávez without the charisma or crowd-pleasing charm and a dose of xenophobia on top and you're kinda half way there. I call him "the wrong man at the right time." I hope that Simon steals his thunder once and for all.

Back to Yehude, and if you were wondering why you haven't heard of him before, don't fret. Rank and file had never registered his name in Lima, either. Here's a September 21/22 2008 poll conducted in Lima that asked for names of politicos the people liked or approved of:

Luis Castañeda 80.5% approval (Mayor of Lima; always says he doesn't want the top job)
Keiko Fujimori 12.9% (El Chino's daughter, and just as shifty)
Lourdes Flores 10.9% (right wing leader, fading star)
Alejandro Toledo 9.9% (ex Prez, enjoying a swan song)
Ollanta Humala 8% (more popular in the provinces, esp in South Peru.... still a dickhead)
Alberto Andrade 6.8% (stuffed suit)
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski 3.3% (smart economist, ex-PM)
Jorge del Castillo 3% (bye bye Mini-Me, you won't be missed)
Susana Villarán 2.6% (you go girl...Otto hopes she gets a job under Simon)
Mario Huamán 0.1% (Union leader, troublemaker)

You'll note that Yehude Simon doesn't even make a 0.1% showing on that list which is less than a month old. That's the way the Limeños are; if it doesn't happen in the capital city they are totally ignorant of it. However, now that Simon has big job in big city he'll get big boost to his ratings going into the 2011 election race, take that to the bank. I'd go as far as to say that President Twobreakfasts has just made the best decision of his Presidency so far, but now it's up to Simon to run with the ball he's been tossed. If he makes a good job of it, consider him President-in-Waiting.

Peru: Yehude Simon is new cabinet chief

Nice tie, Yehude

Yep, you did hear it here first, folks. As reported by Otto last night at 10:30pm, Yehude Simon has just confirmed at a press conference that he is the new Cabinet Chief in the Twobreakfasts administration.

Wanna know how Otto knew 12 hours before the rest of the English-speaking world? Not telling yas!

Peru: The Petroperu corruption scandal gives Yehude Simon his chance

Yehude Simon (for it is he)

Last night the whole of the Peru ministerial cabinet offered their resignations to President Twobreakfasts. While this is not as unusual as it sounds (there's often a symbolic resignation offering), this time Alan will be forced to act. Likely losses include the Prime Minister Jorge MiniMe del Castillo along with other long-time Alan cronies and APRA stalwarts such as Alva Castro (MinInterior). This follows on from the scandal Del Castillo caused in Peru's Congress yesterday when he and his cabinet tried and failed to barge in on normal proceedings. The result was one of those scenes from foreign parliaments you get to see on the TV in your own country sometimes

Rumours are swirling about the replacements. One name mentioned for the role of PM is Pedro Pablo Kuczynsky, better know to the world as PPK. A respected figure and smart economist, PPK was PM in the Toledo gov't. Today he said that even though he wasn't considering a return to public office, he'd be willing to help etc etc yada yada.

But another name on the lips of those who know is more interesting. Yehude Simon has already been mentioned at this blog and is a rising star who was already tipped for the top before this Petroperu mess started. Now the centre-left governor of Lambayeque region (and ex prisoner under the Fujimori regime) is almost certainly going to land a ministerial role, and might even get to play number two to Twobreakfasts. Your optimistic Otto hopes Simon gets his chance; he's run his region well so far and has excellent social credentials...and by all accounts he's a nice guy. And while we're at it, how about a post for blogfriend Susana Villarán, as a steadier hand on the social tiller is difficult to imagine.

Times are indeed a-changing, and they certainly needed to change in Peru. The APRA government of Alan has been mediocre at best and downright bad most of the time. Alan's 19% approval rating isn't some fluke, and this corruption scandal was the proverbial straw for the proverbial camel. Peruvians want change at the top and a change in direction for the country. Hopefully this week's corruption scandal will provide the catalyst.