By Marcelo Rochabrun and Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) -Peruvian President Pedro Castillo named Hector Valer as his new prime minister on Tuesday, a surprise appointment of a moderate lawmaker who belongs to a bloc whose main agenda is to push for the redrafting of the country’s market-friendly constitution.
Valer will replace Mirtha Vasquez, a moderate left politician who resigned https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-president-castillo-replace-cabinet-moderate-pm-2022-01-31 due to disagreements with Castillo on Monday.
Castillo also named Oscar Graham, an economist with extensive experience in the public sector, to the key finance ministry.
Valer will be Castillo’s third prime minister in just six months in office. His appointment suggests that Castillo, a member of a Marxist-Leninist party, will move to push an initiative to redraft Peru’s market-friendly constitution, a campaign promise he had been reluctant to move on.
Investors have been weary of a constitutional change, but redrafting the constitution it has long been a goal of the Peruvian left.
“Our mission is to promote a new Constitution,” Valer told local media earlier this year when he joined the Democratic Peru Congressional bloc.
Castillo has said he wants to redraft the Constitution to prioritize public investments in health and education, as well as to ensure multionationals pay higher taxes. But Valer has said little in the way of what changes he would like to make.
Valer won his Congressional seat when he was a member of the far-right party Popular Renovation, then left for another bloc before joining ranks with lawmakers pushing for a new Constitution.
Still, Graham may provide some stability to volatile Peruvian markets.
Graham worked at Peru’s finance ministry between 2011 and 2016 and for over a decade at the central bank. He also served as vice minister in charge of small businesses during a center-right administration in 2019.
Castillo’s first two Cabinets had different political leanings.
When he was sworn in in July, Castillo named a far-left Cabinet that sent the country’s sol currency to record lows amid investor concerns.
But in October he named Vasquez, a moderate prime minister, who helped him fend off an impeachment attempt and win back some confidence from weary investors.
Peru’s currency has strengthened so far this year, but on Tuesday it fell 1%, its worst performance since late July in the early days of the Castillo administration.
Castillo also named Alessandra Herrera as minister of energy and mines. Herrera previously worked at the ministry as head of the division that encourages the formalization of small-scale miners.
The post is critical as Peru is the world’s No. 2 copper producer.
(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; editing by Richard Pullin and Sandra Maler)
