Former Colombian President Iván Duque suggested this Tuesday to the Peruvian president, Dina Boluarte, that she think about the Moncloa Pacts that facilitated the transition to democracy in Spain in 1977 to calm the turmoil in his country.
“I believe that there has to be an agreement with the parties, something similar to what Spain did at one point with the Pacts of the Moncloa”, pointed out the Colombian (president between 2018 and 2022) in a talk held in Washington.
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“If we see the challenge that Peru has today, I would humbly recommend to the president that a cabinet of national unity must be built where all political actors feel represented,” he added.
Duque participated in the “Building Peru” talk organized by the Wilson Center in the US capital, in which he was virtually accompanied by the former Peruvian president Francisco Sagasti (November 2020-July 2021).
In Duque’s opinion, “calling elections immediately” under the current conditions “does not guarantee stability”, while “a general agreement, a national unity cabinet and a specific consensus on the expansion of the social safety net in the country will have more say.
“Dina was elected, people may like it or not, but she was elected on the same ballot (as Pedro Castillo). And this is the only constitutional architecture that Peru has today to guarantee that stability, unless the Constitution is changed,” added.
Regarding the recipe for the Moncloa Pacts, Sagasti initially said that he did not think it was “appropriate” for a former president in his condition to give “decent advice”, although he finally showed his disagreement with the Colombian.
“The only thing is that a national cabinet requires very special conditions and comparing the The Moncloa Pact with the current situation in Peru seems a bit crazy to me,” he said.
Boluarte assumed the presidency on December 7 by constitutional succession, after Congress dismissed Castillo after announcing that he was going to dissolve the chamber, rule by decree, and intervene in the Judiciary.
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Duque’s statements come at a sensitive time in the region and after the Peruvian congress declared the current Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, persona non grata last Friday, after his statements against the Peruvian National Police (PNP). All this because of some statements that Petro made on February 10, when he mentioned the extensive deployment of the PNP in the historic center of Lima the day before, in response to an anti-government demonstration.
At a public event held last Saturday, Boluarte said that he regrets “very much that certain presidents” of the region have opinions on the political and social crisis facing Peru, which has left 70 people dead.
After he came to power, the protests demanding the resignation of Boluarte, the closure of Congress, the advancement of elections to 2023 and the calling of a constituent assembly continued. EFE