Peru’s president replaces key ministers as popularity wanes

World Today

As the popularity of Peru’s president dips he reshuffled his most ineffectual and controversial ministers this week in an effort to soothe an increasingly powerful opposition. CCTV’s Dan Collyns filed this report from Lima.

Amid scandals and dropping popularity, Ollanta Humala replaced key posts in the mining and interior ministries of Peru. It was farewell to the controversial, but popular, interior minister Daniel Urresti, after a demonstrator was shot dead last week in protests against energy company Pluspetrol.

Urresti gained fame for insulting key opposition figures on the social network Twitter and it is doubtful he’ll be a 2016 presidential candidate. Urresti’s successor, Peru’s Interior Minister Jose Luis Perez Guadalupe, pledged to play a less political role amid rising crime figures.

“We must close ranks, not fight amongst ourselves, because this isn’t about politics. We have a common enemy which is crime and insecurity,” Guadalupe said.

As president Humala struggles to counter an economic slowdown, he also faces a number of scandals, including a recently reopened investigation into his wife’s finances.

It wouldn’t matter so much if defections from his party hadn’t weakened his ability to push through legislation. The question remains whether changing ministers will ease pressure from the opposition as the government loses power in Congress.

CCTV’s Dan Collyns compiled information for this report in Lima, Peru.