President Alejandro Toledo made some sweeping cabinet changes in the run up to Peru's Independence Day on 28 July - when the head of state is traditionally taxed with presenting congress with his annual plan of governance. The new faces are unlikely to pursue a radically different policy direction, but they have been charged with being more responsive to and open with the public as Toledo seeks to inject some life into his ailing government.
He started the reshuffle on 30 June by bringing in Beatriz Merino Lucero, the head of the feared tax inspectorate, Sunat, to head his cabinet as prime minister. Several prominent opposition leaders spurned Toledo's overtures for fear of being tainted by association with such an unpopular administration (Toledo's miserable poll ratings fell to a nadir of 11% in June). He held (unproductive) talks with the leader of the Partido Popular Cristiano (PPC), Luis Bedoya Reyes; another prominent PPC member, Antero Flores Aráoz; Francisco Morales Bermúdez, who headed a military government in the 1970s; Lourdes Flores, the leader of the rightwing alliance Unidad Nacional, and Alberto Andrade, the leader of Somos Perú and former mayor of Lima.
Despite winning the position by default, Merino has proved popular in her first month in control, with 73% of Peruvians approving of her appointment, according to recent polls.
Economy. Toledo's major cabinet changes came on 25 July when he announced that economy and finance minister Javier Silva Ruete would make way for former energy and mines minister Jaime Quijandría, 60, who has previously served as deputy economy minister between 1978 and 1980. Silva Ruete fills the vacancy at the head of the central bank after the acrimonious departure of Richard Webb on 7 July. Webb said that differences with the central bank's directorate made his position untenable.
The new appointments have been applauded by the international financial community, as it confirms that continuity in Peru's pro-market policy will be preserved. Quijandría is committed to the same fiscal reform and privatisation policies of his predecessor.
The new broom in the energy and mines ministry is Hans Flury, 52, the second vice-president of the influential business confederation Confiep, which has been sharply critical of the Toledo administration's 'short-term vision'.
Sendero threat. The man charged with countering the revived threat of the leftist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso (see postscript, below) at the interior ministry is Fernando Rospigliosi. He takes over the reins from Alberto Sanabria. Rospigliosi is a somewhat bizarre appointment. A former journalist and one of the most outspoken critics of the Fujimori régime, he is now charged with finishing off the job that Fujimori started. He served as interior minister in Toledo's first cabinet until June 2002 when he resigned after falling out with the government over the bungled attempt at privatising the electric companies Egasa and Egesur, which incited violent protests in the southeastern department of Arequipa.
Rospigliosi was catapulted straight into the action, travelling to the towns of Cora Cora and Puquio in the department of Ayacucho (the birthplace of senderismo) where guerrillas had pinned up pamphlets calling an old-style 'paro armado', armed work stoppage, between 25 and 30 July. When Sendero was at its zenith, in the 1980s, this form of intimidation, where the populace is threatened with severe punishment if they go to work, was highly successful. It is doubtful that Sendero has the wherewithal to enforce it now.
Other changes. Other newcomers are in the comparatively minor jobs of education (Carlos Malpica Fausto); women and social development (Ana Elena Townsend Diez Canseco); health (Alvaro Vidal Rivadeneyra); agriculture (Francisco Gonzales García) and labour and job creation (Jesús Alvarado). The most interesting appointment here is of Ana Elena Townsend, who, although a PP member, was threatened with expulsion earlier this year for criticising the government's anti-corruption policy. She is now sitting around the cabinet table with Alvarado, the party secretary who issued the disciplinary threats. Another two ministers remain in the cabinet but swap jobs: Javier Reátegui moves to production from transport and communication; Eduardo Iriarte moves the other way.
Toledo is yet to announce who will be drafted in to replace Allan Wagner as foreign minister. He offered the position to Raúl Ferrero Costa, a former dean of Lima's law school, but it was declined. One surprise is that Aurelio Loret de Mola, who was heavily criticised for his handling of the one-day kidnapping of 71 oil workers by Sendero on 9 June, keeps the defence portfolio.
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