Prime Minister of Peru presents his resignation to President Castillo

Peruvian Prime Minister Aníbal Torres announced Wednesday his resignation “for personal reasons” and placed his position at the disposal of President Pedro Castillo, which has increased political uncertainty in the South American country.

In a letter to the president published on his Twitter account, Torres said that he was retiring from office after having served alongside Castillo “especially the most neglected and forgotten people.”

Castillo, who under the law can accept or reject the resignation, has not commented.

Torres is Castillo’s fourth prime minister and took office in February. Before he was Minister of Justice from the beginning of the president’s administration, which began on July 28, 2021.

Shortly after, Torres entered the presidential palace to meet with the head of state, but did not make a statement to the press. Wednesdays are the weekly meetings of all the ministers.

The resignation increases political uncertainty in Peru, whose president has five tax investigations against him, including some for alleged corruption and even for the alleged plagiarism of his master’s thesis. The day before, the government ratified an experienced police officer to lead a team looking for fugitives from the presidential circle.

The 19 ministries of the Executive have been occupied 59 times, a sign of the instability that has characterized the government of Castillo, who twice survived calls for impeachment by Congress, as unpopular as the president. If Castillo accepts Torres’s resignation he will have to appoint a fifth prime minister.

Attorney General Patricia Benavides is investigating Castillo as the alleged leader of a criminal group that collected money for public works tenders made up of his former secretary Bruno Pacheco, who recently turned himself in after being in hiding. A nephew of the president and a former minister, who are fugitives, would also be part of the group.

Torres indicated that he will return to university classrooms to resume “what he missed the most: legal research.”

In his six-month administration, the resigned prime minister criticized the press, especially the capital, and indicated that “he belongs to the upper class, the right and the extreme right.”

He also said that those who accuse the president are “the real thieves who have stolen billions of soles from Peru,” pointing to local construction businessmen investigated by the prosecution for paying bribes for several years.

The prime minister had to apologize to Israel after praising Nazi Germany’s road construction program when he compared Peru’s road disconnection to Germany and Italy during the early decades of the 20th century.

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