"Monse" is how we say in Peru foolish or stupid.
But it has a special added tone of an irrelevant action, with no prospect of success.
This has been the announcement of former President Pedro Castillo, this Wednesday, to close Congress.
He did not get any support, his ministers resigned one after another, his lawyer too, we do not know exactly when his prime minister did.
She did not control state television, nor the police, nor the Armed Forces.
He ended up trying to flee and being taken by the same policemen who were driving his vehicle to a detention center.
Castillo's announcement reminded us Peruvians of Fujimori's self-coup on April 5, 1992. Surely for this reason, among other reasons, his isolation was so great: it was very difficult for Peruvians to recover democracy and we had to wait until the year 2000, after Fujimori was re-re-re-elected, to achieve it.
From the beginning of his government, Castillo, elected after a platform of change close to the left, faced frontal and anti-democratic opposition from those who lost the elections from the right.
They claimed fraud and called to vacate him before he was sworn in.
They managed to control Congress and from there they did not stop attacking it while they themselves approved populist laws and negotiated interests.
Only 10% of Peruvians currently support Congress, according to opinion polls.
Opposition from Congress, the mass media, and the white business elite meant that the situation was never easy for Castillo.
But Castillo had a lousy government.
With strong accusations of corruption towards his immediate environment and even against him, he decided to face them seeking to hinder Justice rather than act transparently and support open investigations, which led to widening suspicions about his participation in accusations such as enrichment illicit.
The indications in this regard accumulated between November 2021 and January 2022, and when Castillo chose to replace Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez and Minister Avelino Guillén, a symbol of the fight against corruption, I, who had been serving as Minister of Economy, decided to resign as well. .
Castillo also left behind the great promises of profound changes that he made during the campaign.
The proposal we made for a tax reform similar to the one recently approved in Colombia did not receive his support and was rejected by Congress.
The so-called “Second Agrarian Reform” foundered in the midst of a scarcity and scarcity of fertilizers, against which the government's responses repeatedly failed.
The massification of the natural gas that we have left the government's agenda.
After a very successful vaccination, when it was a great opportunity for a health reform that aimed at universal access based on primary care, that ministry was exchanged for a few congressional votes.
Social conflicts, illegal logging, citizen insecurity, were not faced with a strategy.
In education,
The Castillo government has been characterized by such a high rotation of ministers, negotiating positions by vote and with so little capacity to promote efficiency, that public management has been very bad.
In recent months, however, he had managed to recover his popularity, based on an identity campaign, walking through the regions and towns of Peru with the message that he was like them, the always excluded, and that is why those who had always dominated Peru did not let it govern.
He managed to increase his popularity by six points, surpassing 30 percent, which is not low when compared to previous governments after 15 months in office.
With these bases, he faced a new vacancy motion in Congress.
A new offensive of corruption allegations against him has come to light in recent days, as part of that campaign.
Despite this, there was no certainty that he would be vacated and several analysts indicated that Congress would not obtain the 87 votes (two thirds of the total number of congressmen) to achieve it.
It is in these circumstances, the same day that this vote was to take place, Castillo gave his message to the Nation of what can only be considered an attempted self-coup monse.
Not shot to the feet: he shot himself —politically— to the chest.
Today he is, precisely, vacated and detained.
Coming?
Vice President Dina Boluarte has assumed power, as indicated in the Constitution.
She is the first woman president in the history of Peru, something that in itself is progress despite the circumstances.
The Constitution indicates that she should govern until July 28, 2026. But the situation is not easy;
Castillo, despite the severe questioning against him, had 30 percent citizen support. Recent opinion polls indicate that, in the face of Castillo's departure, less than 5% of citizens favor a Boluarte presidency and more than 85% he wants early elections that also include the election of a new Congress.
The crisis is of such magnitude that in order to achieve a stable government it seems essential that the citizenry be consulted again.
The problem is that this option requires a constitutional reform, which must be approved by Congress itself by 87 votes twice, or be approved by a simple majority in Congress and submitted to a referendum.
It is doubtful that the current Congress wants to leave early, and even less so under the current rule that prevents the re-election of congressmen.
The Castillo government has ended but not the governance crisis that Peru is experiencing.
Pedro Francke
is an economist and was the first Minister of Economy in the Government of Castillo.