The President of Peru, Martín Vizcarra, appoints his new cabinet

(CNN Spanish) - After the Congress of the Republic denied on Tuesday the vote of confidence to Pedro Cateriano's cabinet, the president of Peru, Martín Vizcarra, appointed his new cabinet. Walter Martos, who was serving as Defense Minister, assumes the presidency of the new Council of Ministers. Of the 18 accompanying the new premier, 13 remain in their positions while five portfolios were assumed by new officials.

One of the ratified ministers in office was that of Education, Martín Benavides; With this, President Martín Vizcarra reaffirms his support for the reform in university education that his government is carrying out. And it is that, during his presentation to Congress -this Tuesday- Pedro Cateriano said: "I was warned that there was no consensus regarding the ratification of the Minister of Education and, therefore, it was going to be difficult for me extend the vote of confidence ”.

After Parliament's refusal to hand over confidence to Cateriano's cabinet, President Vizcarra —in a message to the Nation— said: “The political calculation that does not seek the welfare of the population will not be accepted; accommodations under private interests will not make us back down. From here we will continue promoting university reform ”.

In local media, Pedro Cateriano gave more details about the statement made in Congress and said that it had been transmitted to him by the president of that institution, Manuel Merino, in a meeting they held days before requesting the vote of confidence.

This Wednesday, the President of Congress, Manuel Merino, confirmed the meeting with Cateriano and rejected "any suggestion of blackmail or negotiation on the vote of confidence." And he said that he contacted Cateriano "in order to express the weaknesses of his new cabinet, which were based on that conversation in three opinions, which were not even a matter of putting the head of any minister on a platter." Merino also said that "the crisis of the cabinet is the sole responsibility of the President of the Republic, because he has known of the failure he has been having on the health issue, on the economic issue."

Education Minister Martín Benavides - whom Pedro Cateriano referred to during his presentation in Parliament on Tuesday before assuming office in the Education portfolio - headed the National Superintendence of Higher Education (Sunedu) and carried out actions that, such as Part of a university reform, 46 of the more than 135 universities in the country were denied licenses.

Benavides in June told the RPP network that university reform collided with interests represented in Congress.

The Minister of Education has an interpellation pending in Congress that will continue its course, having been ratified by Martín Vizcarra in office. Another official ratified and with a pending inquiry, is the Minister of Economy, María Antonieta Alva.

Outside of these interpellations, the new cabinet must appear in a maximum of 30 days to the Congress of the Republic to seek the approval of the vote of confidence that was denied to Cateriano.

Congress could again deny confidence to this cabinet; If this occurs, President Vizcarra must appoint a new one. Faced with two denials of confidence, the Peruvian Constitution allows the President of the Republic to dissolve Congress, as Vizcarra did in October 2019. However, the Magna Carta also prohibits a dissolution from occurring when the acting president is in office. last year of his mandate, as it happens with Vizcarra, who must hand over power on July 28 of next year.

Martín Vizcarra