Anibal Torres, Peru’s Prime Minister has tendered in his resignation on Wednesday thereby becoming the fourth Prime Minster to step down in a year under embattled President Pedro Castillo.
In a letter which he had sent to Castillo, who has survived two impeachment votes in 12 months and is the target of five criminal investigations, Torres said he was stepping down “for personal reasons.”
Torres posted a copy of the letter, in which he wished Castillo success, on Twitter. His resignation will trigger an automatic cabinet reshuffle.
Torres, 79, first served as Castillo’s justice minister, and then took over the prime ministerial portfolio in February after three previous prime ministers had come and gone.
The country has had seven interior ministers since Castillo took over in July 2021 — a high turnover even for a country that is no stranger to political upheaval.
In five days of 2020, Peru had three different presidents.
Leftist Castillo — a rural school teacher who unexpectedly took power from Peru’s traditional political elite in elections last year — has been under nonstop fire from his right-wing rivals.
He also finds himself in the crosshairs of the attorney general’s office, with investigations into alleged public tender corruption and claims that Castillo plagiarized his university thesis.
Opinion polls show that three-quarters of Peruvians disapprove of Castillo’s management of the country.
In another report, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has announced the sack of his Prime Minister barely three days after appointing him, amid outrage over revelations he was once involved in a domestic violence scandal in 2016.
Speaking in a statement on Friday, the president said, ‘I have decided to recompose the cabinet,’ a clear indication that Prime Minister Hector Valer Pinto has been ousted.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the leftist Castillo announced the change in a brief television address which was televised nationwide in which he did not mention Valer Pinto by name.
The opposition and even some cabinet ministers were up in arms about Valer Pinto’s continued presence in the government.
