Page 9 - MONTT LATIN AMERICAN MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2021 (English)

years of age against covid-19 at the end of 2021; continue with minor children for which the Ministry of Foreign A airs must ensure su icient doses for the remainder of this year and the next.
Bellido assured that to face the third wave of the new coronavirus, health centres will expand care to 24 hours and coordinate the opening of free oxygen supply points. More than 198,000 people died in Peru from COVID-19 and one in every 100 Peruvian children lost their father, mother or primary caregiver during the pandemic. The country has the highest rate in the world of minor’s orphans in this period: 10,2 per thousand children, adding a million a ected, according to one of the best medical journals in the world, the British publication The Lancet.
A Con icting Cabinet
“We cannot allow existence to become a privilege,” added the government o icial, recalling that Peruvians went into debt to buy oxygen at high prices between last January and May. On the other hand, the prime minister announced that the government will unify the health system because today here are ve subsystems of services that are disconnected from each other, and will present a bill for a commission to prepare a proposal for a new pension system. In addition, he o ered an increase in the minimum wage and the repeal of the so-called “perfect suspension”, a labour gure for which thousands of companies stopped paying their workers in the pandemic.
Peru Libre has the rst parliamentary minority (37 seats) and three parties are in the toughest opposition: the Fujimori Fuerza Popular (24 seats), the far-right Renovacion Popular (nine seats) and the right-wing Avanza Pais (ten seats). During the debate, opponents reiterated their criticism of “failed or outdated models” such as Bolivia, Cuba or Venezuela, which they believe Castillo will take as a reference. They also questioned Minister Bellido because the Prosecutor’s O ice is investigating him for apology of terrorism, and the Minister of Labour,
Iber Maravi, whose name appears in a police report from the 1980s on sabotage to electrical infrastructure. Additionally, one of the congressmen of Peru Libre closest to Cerrón faces a trial for collaboration with terrorism, for which several opposition congressmen recriminate them that they are in favour of the disappeared terrorist and Maoist group Sendero Luminoso.
Not all legislators were convinced of Bellido’s approach; in fact, the parliamentarian Adriana Tudela, from Avanza Pais, said in the debate that “the Cabinet hat the President has presented is an a ront to the memory of Peruvians generated by Marxism- Leninism, a thought that today those in power happily profess ”.
In the session, the spirits calmed down when the parliamentarians listened to the interventions of the minister of Economy, Pedro Francke; the Minister of Health, Hernando Cevallos and those of Education and Women and Vulnerable Populations, among others.
The economist Francke stressed that for this year the scal de cit target is lower than that set by the outgoing government, which ensures that financial rating agencies keep Peru’s country risk low, “more than Colombia.”
Cevallos, for his part, was applauded when he reported that 13 million vaccines will arrive in September and that funds will be allocated to pay rst-level care personnel to extend the hours at health centres and pay labour debts to personnel.
Economy and Transnationals
On the other hand, it was reported that more than 20 Spanish multinationals have interests in Peru, where the change of government raised a wave of uncertainty due to the possible radical shift in the country’s economic policy towards Marxist conceptions or against the free market. In particular, four groups, American Chemical Society, ACS; FCC Group (builders of the Lima Metro, and Puerto El Callao, among other works), Telefonica and Enagas have a lot at stake
because they have millionaire lawsuits pending arising from contracts signed with previous Administrations.
These four large companies trust that the les opened in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the World Bank’s international arbitration body, will mediate on their behalf and avoid a con ict with the new Castillo Executive; during the campaign he was very belligerent with foreign investors in the Andean country.
The Peruvian State is being sued in a score of processes for violating the rights of foreign investors in which USD $5,000 million is claimed. At the moment, the State has received sentences for about USD $110 million and in total sentenced to pay only USD $ 43 million, but analysts point out that this balance will soon change due to processes in which it is shown that the Peruvian Administration committed abuses, something that will have to settle the ICSID.
In fact, ACS and FCC, together with their Italian partners Impregilo and Ansaldo and the Peruvian company Cosapi, have just won the lawsuit they led before ICSID in 2017 for the works of line 2 of the Lima Metro. The agency considered last July that it was the Peruvian government that breached its contractual obligations in relation to the construction project. The conclusion was that the delivery of the land where the infrastructure had to be developed did not present the conditions agreed in the contract, which caused more than a year of delay in the works. Following this resolution, the consortium in which ACS and FCC are present led another arbitration claim with ICSID on August 20. It is estimated that it seeks to finalize the compensation of 700 million dollars. The contract was signed in 2014 to build a line that will cross 27 kilometres of track in a total of 27 stations, and it is estimated that it will be completed in 2024.
Montt Latin American Magazine p9
Peru Protests After Congress Approves Cabinet