[News] Who is Guido Bellido, the controversial new Prime Minister of Peru investigated for "apology of terrorism"

[Warlock-]

"BBC"

 

 

 

 

Surprising, unexpected and undoubtedly controversial. This was the appointment of the new Prime Minister of Peru, Guido Bellido, who belongs to the most radical wing of the Peru Libre party. The 41-year-old electronic engineer was presented this Thursday by President Pedro Castillo, provoking mixed reactions and wide rejection from a large part of the parliamentary benches, including leftist and liberal groups. Exponents of the Po[CENSORED]r Action bloc have said that his nomination is a "provocation to Congress", while from the Purple Party of which former president Francisco Sagasti is a part, they indicated that Bellido will generate "instability and misrule."

 

Even this coalition demanded that the Peruvian Congress "not give confidence to the cabinet", a key support for the president of the Council of Ministers to exercise his functions. "As congressmen we firmly reject his position on the Shining Path, defense of the Cuban dictatorship, its homophobia and misogyny," they said. But who really is this controversial Peruvian political figure?

 

Who is it?

 

Born in the town of Livitaca, in the department of Cusco, Bellido has a bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering and a master's degree in Economics with a mention in Public Management and Regional Development.

 

The new Peruvian prime minister has worked both in the private sector and in the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI). He joined Peru Libre in 2017 and currently serves as regional secretary of this coalition in his native Cusco. After having lost in the complementary elections for Congress in 2020, he ran again in the general elections on April 11, where he was elected with 20,164 votes as a congressman for the department of Cusco. But so far, the prime minister had no prior experience in a po[CENSORED]r representative office. Among his recurring slogans are the fight against corruption and returning power to the people. When swearing in as president of the Council of Ministers, in fact, Bellido said: "For the more than 30 million brothers, for the fight against corruption, for the work for our Peruvian people (...) yes, I swear." Then, through his Facebook account, he indicated: "The Peruvian people rest assured that the changes they expect from this government will be a reality." Bellido has also been one of the main promoters of a change to the current Peruvian Constitution, which was created in 1993 under the government of Alberto Fujimori.

 

No one should be nervous about a new Constitution," he said in an interview with Canal N. "Because a new Constitution, according to these times, according to our needs and that can improve the national economy, improve the participation of the same po[CENSORED]tion (...), that benefits everyone," he added. According to the Peruvian political scientist and researcher, Carlos Meléndez, to understand who Bellido is, one must go back to his training and to his provincial origins. "He was trained at the San Antonio Abad National University of Cusco, where there is a left ideological matrix that is very strong," he says. "They are antilimeños, anticentralists, anti-Hispanic legacy, they are articulated under Marxism and Leninism (...). Bellido is one more exponent of the conservative radicalism of the Andean regions of Peru," he adds.

 

Close to Cerrón

 

Bellido is part of the circle closest to Vladimir Cerrón, founder of the Peru Libre party and to whom radical views of the left are attributed. For this reason, his nomination has been interpreted as a "triumph" of the most orthodox sector of the left bloc. Bellido has defended Cerrón on countless occasions, after he was disqualified and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, suspended for incompatible negotiation and taking advantage of the position when he was governor of Junín.

 

During the electoral campaign, in fact, he did not hide his support for the leader of Peru Libre. "Cerrón has been sentenced without having any proof," he told Peruvian media La República. "(The sentence) has a lot of political content," he added. Meléndez assures that with the nomination of Bellido as prime minister "the doubts of how autonomous Castillo de Cerrón is are disappearing."