Pedro Castillo: The Revolutionary that Peru needs? – Foreign Policy Youth Collaborative

Pedro Castillo, an elementary school teacher turned socialist politician from Peru, secured a win in the recent Peruvian presidential election over Keiko Fujimori, the eldest daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, in a historic election with the potential to shape Peru and Latin America for decades to come. Castillo was able to unify worker unions, the indigenous populations, and the working class together in a testament to the Peruvian struggle of economic inequality. His win comes as a shock to the world with polling numbers only 2 months before the election only putting him at 3-5%. Castillo was born into a family of farmers, which resonates with many of his fellow Peruvians under his main goal: “No more poor people in a rich country.” Peru’s socialist struggle has often been ignored by the world, falling under the shadow of larger revolutions like Cuba and Venezuela, and differing in their base political ideology – which is why this election is an even greater deal.

Although Castillo’s win is a victory for socialists and Marxist ideology in Latin America, it is unlikely that we will see a dramatic change, if any, in Peru’s political, social, and economic makeup. There is no doubt that Castillo will make a change within his country, but not the way that a traditional Marxist or socialist would like to see; it is more likely that Castillo will follow that path of former leaders in encouraging a democratic revolution rather than socialist change.

Marxist ideology has been attempted in the past with Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado, who overthrew the government in 1968. However, there is still debate whether or not Velasco’s attempts could even be considered a socialist revolution – it’s instead looked at as a reach for more democracy that set the stage for modern Peru. Velasco nationalized transportation, communications, and electric power, as well as converted millions of acres of privately owned farms into worker-managed cooperatives. Velasco was heavily influenced by the U.S., or the want for less U.S. involvement in their affairs, and was successful in his attempts to limit their involvement within Peru. Because Velasco ran a military regime, we can see that his main means of change was “revolution from above”, which allowed him to make systematic changes to the government itself without much pushback from others. While many genuine attempts at radical change were made, Velasco was ousted merely 7 years later by factions within his own inner circle. The biggest change that he was able to make came in the form of how the people and government saw themselves.

When Velasco took over, he ended the decades-long cycle of military coups to determine a new leader (ironically, he took power by military coup) and set the stage for dramatic social upheaval into democratic rule, leading to someone like Pedro Castillo being elected president. Ultimately, what led to Velasco’s downfall was large disunity within his Communist party, which was split into 4 factions that some viewed as fascist. Castillo did a great job of unifying the people under a common goal of economic liberation, but the Free Peru party is still split in the way that they follow Marxism and the ways that they implement it. This can prove to be a challenge to Free Peru and Castillo in the future when trying to push forward reform and even certify the election. Currently, Fujimori and the opposing party are shouting election fraud, which can lead to destabilization in the area. Ironically, the only fraud that has been found in the recent election was against Fujimori. In the next coming months during court cases regarding Castillo’s legitimacy and beyond, there will be roadblocks within his government on passing reform and his authority to govern.

Castillo is in an interesting position in Peru Libre (Free Peru), his political party. He joined only this past year in an effort to receive more votes. Peru’s Marxism is significantly different from that in Europe, largely due to a man named Jose Carlos Maritagui. Maritaguis’ political philosophy was rooted in indigenous culture and based on the idea that Peruvian people would rise courageously from colonialism. His main works came from the idea that everything is influenced by culture and to bring the ideas of liberalism and Marxism together, and culture needs to act as a bridge. These ideas are a foothold in the Free Peru party that Castillo’s technically part of. However, he is an Evangelical Catholic, which could stop him from fully accepting Peruvian Marxism as it is now. His views also differ from that of the Free Peru Party in the sense that Castillo’s main goal is mostly economic inequality while the Free Peru Party wants to make changes reflecting their “values [of] democracy, decentralization, internationalism, sovereignty, humanism, and anti-imperialism”. Because Castillo doesn’t have a solid position on other issues outside of economic inequality and the nationalization of Peru’s resources, it is unlikely that he will push for radical changes regarding social class, humanitarianism, and other policies that the Free Peru Party wants to pass. Most of those changes will come through Congress and the party leaders, but because they only hold less than 30% of the seats in Congress, if any of these changes are going to be passed with the needed votes from the rest of the center/far-right legislators, there will be a major compromise. We have already seen Castillo make compromises on policy within his run on both sides of the aisle. During debates with Fujimori, Castillo backed off some of his harder-hitting issues when questioned and has strayed from party lines to receive more moderate votes.

There are some changes that Castillo wants to make that fall under the umbrella of what many people think of as socialist, such as nationalizing gas fields and instituting agrarian reforms. But, during his campaign, Castillo limited and compromised some of his proposals while in debate with Fujimori, showing how willing he is to give up on some of his goals to maintain power. The Free Peru Party currently holds 37 out of 130 seats in their legislative branch, making it even harder for these plans to be approved, whether they are compromised or not.

While the chances of Castillo making revolutionary socialist changes in Peru are slim, the way that he was able to unify people around his country and win the election is a sign of what the future of Latin America could look like. Peru was one of the hardest-hit countries in the world because of the pandemic, with many other Latin American countries not too far behind. In Peru, the only people who were truly affected by the pandemic were the working class, and that is a trend we are seeing all across Latin America. There is no doubt that Castillo was able to win because the pandemic lit a fire under working-class Peruvians who were upset about the elite few reaping all the benefits of their rich mining (and other) industries.

It is highly unlikely that we will be seeing major changes in Peru for the time being, although Pedro Castillo was a promising candidate, Peru has their cards stacked against them. Castillo is not as firm in his Marxist beliefs as other members of his party and does not have the power in Congress to push through the changes that he wants to make. Castillo’s victory is a success nonetheless, as it shows unity within the people of Peru that is foreshadowing the feelings and demands of other working-class citizens around Latin America after the pandemic and years of struggle under colonialism and the few powerful elites.

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Written by Hannah W.