Three ministers in two and a half months: the ministerial crisis continues in the government of Dina Boluarte

In just two and a half months, the President Dina Boluarte Three interior ministers have been sworn in: Cesar Cervantes, Victor Rojas and Vicente Romero Fernandez, who currently remains in office.

Cesar Cervantes, who left his post in the early days of the current government after the cabinet he formed, headed by Pedro Angulo, was criticized due to social conflicts, became the Minister of the Interior, who led this portfolio for the shortest time: 11 days. left behind Mariano Gonzalezwho, after the appointment of Pedro Castillo, remained minister for 14 days.

This is not a new story. If we increase the number of interior ministers sworn in by the former president to these three appointments Pedro Castillofrom July 2021 we will reach an impressive 10 interior ministers. In fact, the Peruvians have seen a minister take over every two months.

The crisis in this sector has not only reached the streets, interrupting the development of important security policies; but also work National Intelligence Agency (DINI), which has had 20 bosses since 2001, according to Andrés Gómez de la Torre, an expert in the field. “[En el Ministerio del Interior] There is a big problem, how to maintain the minimum stability required by the very nature of intelligence activities. And another harmful aspect is related to conflicts between [jefes o directores] incoming and outgoing, what characterized the intelligence situation after his fall. As far as I remember, we have never had such a complex and confusing situation in the country, we are in an extremely delicate context in terms of national security.”

More numbers in perspective

Despite the fact that relatively little time has passed since she took office, President Dina Boluarte was criticized as soon as he introduced his first cabinet led by a lawyer Pedro Angulo.

A few weeks after being sworn in and before asking Congress for a vote of confidence, he announced changes to his cabinet. This left us with a different statistic: in the almost two and a half months of his reign, 6 out of 18 ministries in total changed their minds at least once: Protection (Alberto Otarola and Jorge Chavez Cross); Education (Patricia Correa and Oscar Manuel Becerra); Job (Eduardo Garcia and Luis Adriansen); Production (Sandra Belaunde and Raul Perez-Reyes); Women and vulnerable groups (Greece Rojas Ortiz and Nancy Tolentino); And culture (Khair Perez and Leslie Urteaga).

“When Mr. Pedro Castillo He was cornered by allegations of corruption, and all of a sudden he had to change ministers. Someone wondered: where would such a discredited government get ministers from? asks sociologist José Luis Ramos of the National University of San Agustin in Arequipa. demonstrated that there are ministers as courts. This is a country of speculators, so the people will gladly accept the ministry, even if it comes from a politically and legally discredited president,” he added.

“In Peru, we have a bad habit of starting from scratch,” says Gomez de la Torre, pointing to the various intelligence services that are under the auspices of the Interior Ministry. “In particular, in the case of the intelligence headquarters in general, that is, not only DINI, but also the bodies that make up it, every time the head leaves, their bureaucracy usually leaves. There is no career plan, so the staff turnover is very large.”

What needs to be done? “Reconnaissance Commission [del Congreso] it should study regulatory adjustments and reactivate the 2018 bill that declares the existence of a career for intelligence officers as a public necessity; and see if it is possible to provide a minimum of stability to the director of national intelligence so that political ups and downs do not affect intelligence structures,” suggests Gomez de la Torre.

Feeling insecure

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), in cities, 83 percent of the population over the age of 15 believe that they may become the victim of some kind of criminal act in the next 12 months. This perception remains above 80 percent for at least 10 years.

Social conflicts, security, everything is interconnected and is a consequence, according to experts, of the ministerial instability that Peru has been dragging for years.