Political Overview and Analysis of the Current Situation in Peru

Peru is a country whose form government is constitutional democratic and it has a multi-party system. The Head of State and government is the president who serves for a five-year term. According to the current constitution, the president has no possibility to run for immediate re-election after serving for a term. The Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretaries are designated by the president. Peruvians elect 130-member unicameral Congress to serve for a five-year term.

The Executives or the legislative branches are responsible for proposing bills which are passed through the Congress for enacted by the president to be law that governs the country. Peruvian Judiciary and the National Electoral Board operate as independent institutions. Voting is compulsory for citizens who have attained the age of 18 and above, this the population that directly elect the government.

The current Peruvian president is Martin Vizcarra who took power on March 2018 after Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned following the corruption allegations related to Odebrecht Scandal. The Peruvian provisions require Vizcara, the elected vice president alongside Kuczynski during the 2016 general election to complete the original term which should end in 2021. New cabinet has been appointed by Vizcarra and made Cesar Villanueva, a congressman from the opposition party Alliance for Progress, his Prime Minister (Leon, 2012). Most of the appointed cabinet ministers once served in vice-ministerial or directorial office during Kuczynski’s term or Ollanta Humala’s government.

President Vizcarra has set five development agendas to pursue during his term in office: he want to fight corruption and citizen insecurity, boost economic growth through improvement of infrastructure, create jobs for the unemployed and improve education and health sector. However, president is faced by two major challenges: infrastructural damages which resulted from the Costal El Nino in February 2017, and the corruption scandal surrounding Odebrecht. The Costal El Nino appeared in February 2017 causing heavy rainfall that flooded Northern coast of Peru and the calamity affected about 1 million people (Schady, 2010). The National Aauthorities found it difficult to address this catastrophe and the needs of the affected people. The government has received criticism for not being efficient in managing reconstruction process.

Peru’s public and private sectors have been shaken by Odebrecht corruption scandal. Five business executives linked to Odebrecht were detained in December 2017 for pre-trial (Navarro, 2009). Three former Peru presidents: Alejadro Toledo, Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala alleged to have been paid by Odebrecht to get infrastructure contracts. Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine were detained from June 2017 to April 2018 for pre-trial. Alejandro Toledo has a pending extradition from United States (Stepan, 2015). Kuczynski narrowly escaped impeachment when news was disseminated that he allegedly received payments from giant odebrecht Brazilian Construction Company for the purpose of influence when he was serving as Prime Minister and Minister of Economy.

Peru has seen remarkable economic growth rates and inflation has decreased significantly but challenges remain to hard press Peru from exponential economic development. Corruption in all government levels remains endemic. Transnational criminal organizations have expanded their trade to illegally mine gold, counterfeit currency and wildlife and the Ethics and corruption regulatory body is quiet as this takes place in Peru. To restore sanity in Peruvian political system, corruption loop holes should be sealed at all costs.