Jorge del Castillo

Jorge Alfonso Alejandro del Castillo Gálvez (Lima, July 2, 1950) is a Peruvian lawyer and politician. He is a leader of the Peruvian Aprista Party and was a congressman of the republic for 5 terms, as well as president of the Council of Ministers in the second government of Alan García. He was also a deputy in the brief period 1990-1992, mayor of Lima in 1987 and mayor of the Barranco district in 1984.

Biography

He was born in the city of Lima, on July 2, 1950.

He completed his primary and secondary studies at the San Luis school in the Barranco district. He entered the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in 1968, where he studied Law and graduated in 1974 as a lawyer. It is at this university where he becomes a member of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (Peruvian Aprista Party).

Between 1993 and 1994, he studied a master's degree in Constitutional Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. She also has a diploma in the Senior Management Program of the University of Piura.

He specializes in governance issues and consensus and consultation processes.

Political career

He is a member of the Peruvian Aprista Party and his first political position was as councilor of the Barranco district in 1981.

In the municipal elections of 1983, Del Castillo ran as a candidate for municipal mayor of the Barranco district for the Peruvian Aprista Party and was later elected as mayor for the period 1984-1986.

From 1985 to 1986 he served as prefect of the department of Lima.

Mayor of Lima

For the municipal elections of 1986, the Aprista Party decided to launch Del Castillo as its candidate for mayor of the Municipality of Lima, competing with the historic Alfonso Barrantes of Izquierda Unida. During the electoral campaign, he had the support of former President Alan García in his first government, and recognition for his work as mayor of the Barranco district. Del Castillo managed to be elected as the new mayor of Lima for the municipal period 1987-1989 with 37,562% of the votes.

During his administration as mayor, the road corridor on Avenida Brasil and also on Av. Alfonso Ugarte was created. He also highlights the construction of the Ramiro Prialé cart, which linked the districts of San Juan de Lurigancho and Ate, in addition to Tomás Marsano Avenue.

Deputy for Lima

For the 1990 parliamentary elections, he ran for the Chamber of Deputies representing Metropolitan Lima and was elected with 36,104 votes for the parliamentary period 1990-1995. However, his position in parliament was interrupted on April 5 1992 after the coup d'état decreed by former president Alberto Fujimori. During the coup, Del Castillo was in the house of former president Alan García, where both refused to leave. He was attacked by the military and kidnapped along with other APRA members in the Alfonso Ugarte Barracks of the Airborne Division, in Las Palmas, where he was confined for a week.

After the coup, Del Castillo withdrew from politics for a time and was against the Fujimori government.

Congressman of the Republic

In the 1995 parliamentary elections, Del Castillo returned to politics and ran again for the Congress of the Republic for the Peruvian Aprista Party. He was elected with 36,024 votes for the 1995-2000 parliamentary period.

During his work in the legislature, he was one of the strongest opponents of Alberto Fujimori's regime, where he was against his re-election and the dismissal of the judges of the Constitutional Court. He also pleaded the torture case of Leonor La Rosa.

For the general elections of 2000, he was a candidate for the first vice presidency in the presidential ticket of former minister Abel Salinas Izaguirre for APRA and also for re-election in parliament, however, the presidential candidacy was not successful and he remained in the 4th place in preferences after the electoral fraud in favor of Alberto Fujimori.

Del Castillo only managed to be re-elected with 41,834 votes for the period 2000-2005. He protested during Fujimori's third swearing-in and then withdrew along with the other opposition congressmen to participate in the "March of the Four of His" headed by Alejandro Toledo.

In November of the same year, due to the publication of the Vladivideos and the resignation of Alberto Fujimori from the presidency of the republic by fax, his parliamentary position was reduced until July 2001 where he They called new general elections. Del Castillo voted in favor of Alberto Fujimori's presidential vacancy and supported the transition government headed by the historic Valentín Paniagua.

He was included as a candidate for the second vice presidency in Alan García's presidential slate for the Aprista Party. However, the candidacy came in 2nd place in the preferences after the victory of Alejandro Toledo in those elections. Del Castillo managed to be re-elected for the second time for the period 2001-2006.

During his work in Congress, he was elected second vice president of the Board of Directors chaired by Carlos Ferrero Costa from July 2001 to July 2002. He also served as president of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Reform of the Economic Regime (2001-2002).), president of the Working Group of the Law of Political Parties (2002-2003) and president of the Special Pro-Investment Commission of the Congress of the Republic in the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 legislatures. He was re-elected in the 2006 parliamentary elections with 81,196 votes.

President of the Council of Ministers

On July 27, 2006, Del Castillo was already announced by former president Alan García as his prime minister. The next day, Del Castillo was sworn in as the first president of the Council of Ministers, with his entire ministerial cabinet, of the second APRA government.

In his first official act as prime minister, he met with the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP) on July 31 of the same year.

On August 24, Del Castillo appeared before the Congress of the Republic to request a vote of confidence and present the proposals of the ministerial cabinet. Finally, the trust was approved by 75 votes in favor, 18 against and 23 abstentions.

Crisis and resignation

On October 5, 2008, the Sunday program Cuarto Poder broadcast nationally the audio recordings where Alberto Quimper, member of the PetroPerú board of directors, and former minister Rómulo León Alegría, can be heard. secretly discussing monthly payments of $10,000. In one of the Petroaudios, Del Castillo is mentioned and nicknamed Uncle George. After the scandal, Del Castillo He denied any link with the case and from parliament, opposition congressmen proposed a censure against him.

On October 9, Del Castillo and the ministerial cabinet went to the Congress of the Republic and entered the session chamber to explain to the plenary session the acts of corruption regarding the awarding of five oil lots. After his entry, the opposition left the chamber and the president of Congress suspended the session. Then, another audio appeared implicating Del Castillo and former Minister Juan Valdivia Romero. After this, all the members of the ministerial cabinet put their positions at the disposal of President Alan García and then accepted the resignation of the entire ministerial cabinet headed by Del Castillo.

He was later replaced by Yehude Simon on October 10, 2008.

For the 2011 general elections, Del Castillo announced his fourth reelection to the Congress of the Republic for the Peruvian Aprista Party and during the presidential campaign he had questions about his confrontation with the then presidential candidate, Mercedes Aráoz. Finally, Aráoz He ended up declining his candidacy and Del Castillo was unsuccessful in his re-election.

Return to politics

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, Del Castillo returned to politics and ran again for the Congress of the Republic for the Popular Alliance (coalition between the Peruvian Aprista Party, the Popular Christian Party and Vamos Perú). He managed to be elected, with 57,933 votes, for the 2016-2021 parliamentary period.

In parliament he served as president of the Defense Commission. He was questioned after the irregular copper of his parliamentary advisor was discovered.

On September 30, 2019, his legislative position was interrupted again after the dissolution of Congress decreed by former president Martín Vizcarra. After this, Del Castillo declared himself against the Vizcarra government.

He later worked as host of the program “Diálogo & Solutions” broadcast by UCI Noticias, a digital medium whose manager is his son Miguel del Castillo.

During the 2021 general elections, Del Castillo showed his support for the candidacy of Keiko Fujimori of Fuerza Popular against the candidacy of Pedro Castillo of Perú Libre. This was controversial because Del Castillo was one of the strong opponents of the dictatorial regime of Alberto Fujimori.

APRA leader

Del Castillo is a leader of the Peruvian Aprista Party. In 1999 he was appointed as secretary general, a position in which he was ratified in 2004, having to resign in 2006, when he became president of the ministerial cabinet of the second government of Alan García. It was Del Castillo who represented APRA in the National Agreement and in the Organization of American States. Furthermore, he was in charge of coordinating the 2006 presidential debate between its leader Alan García and the candidate Ollanta Humala.

Between 2010 and 2014 he again served as the General Secretary of his party.

Party positions

• Secretary General of the District Executive Committee 13 of the Peruvian Aprist Party of Barranco (1982)
• Personero Nacional Legal del Partido Aprista Peruano (1985)
• President of the National Policy Commission of the Peruvian Aprist Party (1993-1995)
• Political Secretary General of the Peruvian Aprist Party (1999-2004)
• Political Secretary General of the Peruvian Aprist Party (2004-2006)
• Vice-President of the Permanent Conference of Political Parties for Latin America and the Caribbean (1999-)
• Representative of the Peruvian Aprist Party to the Dialogue Bureau of the Organization of American States (2000-2001)
• Candidate to the First Constitutional Vice-President of the Republic of Peru by the Peruvian Aprist Party (2000)
• Candidate to the Second Constitutional Vice-President of the Republic of Peru by the Peruvian Aprist Party (2001)
• Political Secretary General of the Peruvian Aprist Party (2010-2014)

Public positions held

• Regidor del Concejo Distrital de Barranco (1981-1984)
• District Mayor of Barranco (1984-1987)
• Departmental Prefect of Lima (1985-1986)
• Metropolitan Mayor of Lima (1987-1989)
• President of the Association of Municipalities of Peru (1987-1989)
• President of the Union of Ibero-American Capital Cities (UCCI)
• Member of the Republic of Peru (1990-1992)
• Congressman of the Republic of Peru (1995-2000)
• Congressman of the Republic of Peru (2000-2001)
• Congressman of the Republic of Peru (2001-2006)
• Second Vice-President of the Congress of the Republic of Peru (2001-2002)
• Congressman of the Republic of Peru (2006-2011)
• President of the Council of Ministers of Peru (2006-2008)
• Congressman of the Republic of Peru (2016-2019)