Congressman-elect, Edgar Tello: «Peru Libre postulates a change in the economic model with a new Constitution»

In an interview with Voces sin Fronteras, Tello said that the objective is to «put quality of life at the service of the entire population, industrialize the country and give the State greater participation».

The second electoral round in Peru is scheduled for next June 6, the day in which the Peruvians will vote for one of these candidates: Pedro Castillo, from Peru Libre or Keiko Fujimori, from Fuerza Popular .

In an interview in Voces sin Fronteras, led by Bruno Sommer and Denis Rogatyuk, the congressman elected by Peru Libre, Edgar Tello, highlighted that his party calls for a change in the economic model with a new Constitution “to put quality of life at the service of the entire population, industrialize the country, give greater participation to the State, so that it is not only a promoter or a regulator State, but also an entrepreneurial State».

By Bruno Sommer and Denis Rogatyuk

ET: Greetings from Peru to the sister Republic of Chile, to the Chilean people, for this invitation so as to share the experience that Peru is going through at this time, to make that great change and write the new history that the Peruvian people hope to have with a teacher in the presidency of the Republic, and also with more teachers in the Congress that has already been practically elected, and give it a change, and thus end the neoliberal economic model.

The only thing that model is generating are large inequality social ‘gaps’, looting of natural resources, abandonment of the State and, above all, the institutionalization of corruption at all levels of the State that delays and, in some way, generates the abandonment generated by the State and practically eliminates the development that our country must have so as to generate quality of life for all Peruvians.

BS: How was Peru Libre born? What is your history, your purposes and how have you been conquering the hearts of the people in Peru?

ET: Peru Libre is a political party that was born approximately five years ago in the central region of our country, which is the Junín region, where it has its founder and current secretary general, Dr. Vladimir Cerrón Rojas. Perú Libre postulates a change in the economic model with a new Constitution at the service of the entire population. Let’s say quality of life, industrialize the country, give the State greater participation, so it’s not only a State that promotes and regulates, but also an entrepreneur State.

Currently, the 1993 Peruvian Constitution establishes that private investment is free, but it must not only be private investment but also public investment, and this undoubtedly did not have the public reception it has now because it lacked more divulgation and promotion, more information about the government plan

The teachers, when they carried out the strike of 2017, generated a whole expectation at a national and international level, unmasking an economic model that was in social, economic, and political crisis, and it also generated hope for change. And the teachers, seeing this and also seeing the postponement and abandonment of the educational sector, the health sector, the agriculture sector and other sectors, the teachers organized in the Fenate Perú (National Federation of Education Workers of Perú), lived a first a moment of analysis, debate, and a whole contradiction within, but in the end reason prevailed and it was determined that the teachers must take an important step in the political struggle. 

That is when a ‘license’ is approved so comrade Pedro Castillo can postulate himself for the presidency, and the delegates of each region should elect their candidates to represent them in the Congress of the Republic, and that is how the teachers decide to participate, through Peru Libre, where an alliance is made between the national teachers union and the political party Peru Libre, based on points that the teachers union had as agreements, the change of the Constitution, for a popular Constitution, with the existence of the markets, and this undoubtedly means that the teachers union can also embody the ideology and plan of the Government of Peru Libre.

This has generated that the teachers, at a national level, can be part of this Peru Libre political party and lead Professor Pedro Castillo to the presidency, and this alliance is the one that still exists as a ‘single fist’, and it is the national teachers union that has mobilized throughout the country the austere, ‘Franciscan’ campaign, and we continue on that path to obtain our objective, that this June 6, Professor Pedro Castillo can be the next president of Peru. A teacher like the common people, who lives reality and knows (that the needs of the common people) are the same like in other countries like Chile and in all of Latin America.

One precision, the party was founded by Mr. Vladimir Cerrón Rojas, a doctor. Cerrón Rojas founded it five years ago in the Junín region, central Peru, and given the conditions, the abandonment, the teachers decided to participate in this political process and there is an alliance between the national teachers union and Peru Libre, and that alliance is the one that is currently working, gathering the feeling and trust and hope that the country has to be able to generate the change that all Peruvians want, as the people have been doing in all of Latin America, such as in Chile, Bolivia, and other countries that are generating these changes through the organization, and that alliance is the one that is currently advancing the candidacy of comrade Pedro Castillo.

BS: Are many of the candidates teachers?

ET: That’s right, the first time in the history of Peru that we organically present candidates in the 26 regions of the country, and now we have representatives of the national teachers union in Congress, such as me. I am a congressman elected by Peru Libre, representing the teachers union from Metropolitan Lima, the capital, and that is what is going on in the different regions of the country.

BS: How many professors, teachers, will the Congress be made up of?

ET: In total, we are a group of 37 congressmen from Peru Libre, of which, on average, there are 20 professors.

BS: How is the path of a constituent process going to be possible? And why is it so important?

ET: Every path is not easy, it is part of a process of struggle, and at the national teaching level, and at the union level, we have been analyzing the need for this constitutional change. The only thing that the current Constitution has been generating is the abandonment of the State of the sectors education, health, agriculture sector, and we saw that the only way that a larger budget could be assigned to education, health, and other important sectors, was with the change of the economic model and also with the change of the Constitution, and this starts from this need which was not only of the teachers but of all the people, so we all have to commit so that we have quality of life.

For this reason, we have raised that ‘flag of struggle’, which we know is not going to be easy because on the right wing sector, the groups linked to Confiep (National Confederation of Private Business Institutions), corruption and the capital’s media already have begun to respond to anyone who attacks the economic model. They say that we are terrorists, that we are radicals, that we are from Movadef, from Sendero Luminoso, that is, deep down they are worried and desperate that we do not touch the model, but that is part of what the population wants, as in Chile and in other countries, the people are doing the political fight to change this savage economic model that does not benefit the great majority.

The other day I was in the city of Iquitos and they took me to visit the human settlement Santa María, Alejandro Toledo, in which they told me that the population – in the middle of a health emergency because of the pandemic – live with open drains (sewage water) in the streets and that visit has been quite hard, cold. To see children and adults, citizens, living in subhuman conditions and not only in Iquitos but throughout the country. Here, in Metropolitan Lima we also see these inhuman conditions. 

The press here, in the capital, and the power groups say that if Professor Pedro Castillo wins we will become a Venezuela, but undoubtedly in Peru those conditions that we see, are worse than Venezuela and even at levels equivalent to the country of Haiti, where there is a deep crisis. We see that this economic model, Neoliberalism, is bringing the population to that standard of living (inhuman conditions), and I believe that the population and all of us who want a change, we are going to fight for it, no matter what they tell us, we move forward .

BS: In Peru, this neoliberal wave throughout Latin America, how much did the minimum wage go to? How much does a Peruvian family worker earn on average?

DR: What is Professor Castillo’s plan, his proposal, to change this?

ET: Here in Peru, let’s say it is not far from the reality of Chile, the minimum wage in Peru is approximately 270 dollars, which is something like 930 soles. The basic food family basket, nothing more, according to the State institutions, is bordering on 4,000 soles, which is roughly 1,100 dollars, so that, let’s say, a family, can support themselves for a month.

So, the economic boom here in our country has not come for the great majority but simply for the business sectors of large companies and the power groups that exist here in Peru. The successful model that Chile has exported to Peru is not successful at all. There is more and more job insecurity, there is abandonment in the sectors of education, health, and agriculture. There are massive layoffs, elimination of social and workers rights, and all this to justify the policy, ‘salvation’ in quotes, that the only ‘salvation’ is to privatize State institutions, public companies and also public services.
Obviously, if someone here wants to study, that person has to pay. Whoever wants to take care of their health, has to pay. Undoubtedly, everything is charged to the citizen, the worker, and while the power groups take the money collected from the State in trucks, as we have seen Here in Peru, the corruption, which has been carried by commissions such as in the Odebrecht case, and other cases that we have had in Peru such as the ‘white collars’, the construction club, institutions, among other criminal ‘gangs’, as the prosecutors have described it when they have denounced these situations, in order to loot the resources of the State in Peru.

DR: What explains Professor Castillo’s popularity in rural areas and how is his campaign trying to organize itself in urban areas?

ET: What is characterizing Professor Pedro Castillo’s campaign is that the humility of a teacher, peasant, ‘patrolman’ (rondero), is running for the Presidency of the Republic, and this is seen by the population like a legitimate representative of the people is contesting power for the people, to be the one who, through them, governs our country, because enough of the rotation of positions of people who defend the same neoliberal economic model.

Today, Castillo is seen as a counterpart to the candidate of the neoliberal economic model, and the only thing that represents, is continuity, because she (Keiko) is not a new candidate, she has already been a government with her father in the 90s. She has been a majority in the Congress of the Republic, and far from enacting laws in favor of the people, on the contrary, she has passed laws in favor of large companies, eliminating workers’ rights. What we have seen is the institutionalization of corruption. She (Keiko) has pending investigations, the prosecutor is asking for 30 years for corruption. The Fujimori family has been involved in corruption with the donation of clothes, forced sterilizations. We have seen that they run their ‘headquarters’ through  chats, the pharmacy, the motorcycle taxi, thus, they generated their orders to their elected congressmen

Therefore, the surveys also do not reflect the true intention of the citizen’s vote. While Professor Castillo fills plazas, cities, any region he visits, spontaneously, the population comes out to receive him, to participate. We see that far from to be able to counteract in the same way, the candidate of the continuity, of corruption, of the neoliberal economic model, by not being able to counteract with popular support, what they intend to do is manipulate the polls, generate a campaign of the ‘politics of fear’. And now they take him (Castillo) to their ‘field’ of debate, so that through these debates, their press team, which are the open communication media in our country, despite the fact that the transmission and the first debate was practically the clarification given by Professor Pedro Castillo, however, the media, that have become Ms. Fujimori’s press have said the opposite, with all their analysts and specialists.

They have said that Ms. Fujimori is the best candidate and has the best proposals, but they have not explained why many human settlements in Peru have not had water for more than 25 years, why no work is generated, why the minimum wage is practically below what a citizen must earn, below the basic food family basket, below the Tax Unit, the UITI, which regulates the financial system, which is equivalent here to 4,200 soles on average, and in this way the only thing it is doing it is to offer that it is going to deliver 40% of the canon to Peruvians.  

Peruvians do not want welfare, they want decent work to be able to generate quality of life for their families, and that is being understood by the population.

In the capital, obviously due to the well-established media, it is a bit harsh, but already the population is also understanding and becoming aware of reality, and we see every day that before, those bases that supported Ms. Fujimori, are moving into the ranks of the people, because they see a natural candidate from the people, and that is the best letter of introduction added to the government plan that offers a real change, which the population expects and needs.

BS: How important do you see it for the left to recover the figure of the historical Christ, respecting all people who have a secularist thought, who are not believers?

ET: Christ was also a social fighter, undoubtedly that is an example. He (Jesus) also sought social peace, social justice, and democracy is that, respecting the opinions, creeds, and part of the State’s policy that he is going to apply. Peru Libre with Professor Pedro Castillo respects the beliefs that each citizen has.

Not like those who are using religion, like the candidate López Aliaga who called himself a representative of the Church, and says he respects the values, but nevertheless has publicly come out to say that he is going to support the lady of corruption, of neoliberalism, and he has come out in a demonstration to demand the death of the secretary general of the Peru Libre party, Mr. Vladimir Cerrón, the death of Professor Pedro Castillo, our presidential candidate, and that is not natural for a citizen who claims to be a believer. 

The only thing Aliaga is generating is violence, and terrorism, seeking an attack on the lives of the comrades who are leading this fight, and that is totally questionable and these complaints, these threats made openly, cannot allowed in a democratic society. They are inducing the population and there we see the character of racism, a bit of hatred, which is not the struggle of ideas in which this campaign should stand out, and not this type of threats into which the representatives of the neoliberal economic model, those who defend corruption and the continuity of this model are falling into, so as to maintain all those businesses that the population is tired and outraged about.

DR: Do you see it possible that some of the reforms and changes that Evo Morales implemented in Bolivia could be implemented in Peru by Professor Pedro Castillo? I am talking specifically about the reform of the renationalization of hydrocarbons, or of other industries privatized during the neoliberal era, the recognition of Mother Earth and the indigenous character pf Peru.

ET: In this regard, the only way to generate quality of life for the population is by renegotiating the contracts, and that necessarily involves a change in the constitutional framework to change the neoliberal economic model, and it is not that we are against private investment, It is necessary, we want private investment for our country to progress, but it is necessary to renegotiate the contracts.

It is not possible that of the one hundred percent of profits that it may have, seventy percent will be taken by national and international concessions and only thirty percent remains for the Peruvian State, that must be reversed, like the experience of Bolivia, of Ecuador, where it has been reversed and private investment has not left, it has remained. That measure guarantees that citizens can have a better quality of life, decent work for all inhabitants, because that will generate the industrialization of the country and also the need to have specialized professionals in each branch, engineers, architects, the need for all types of professionals, and for this, our young people will have opportunities to develop their profession.

For this reason, Peru Libre and Professor Pedro Castillo propose free admission to the university, which is the desire of every parent, that their children reach university. We also propose to strengthen technical education as part of the need for that great change that is going to be made, and thus seeking the change that the entire population expects and needs in order to have a better future for our children in this country called Peru, which is why there’s hope for the people’s candidate, the Professor Pedro Castillo.

BS: Do you think that during the eventual government of Professor Castillo the possibility of forming a Constituent Assembly and drafting a new Constitution beyond the space of Congress will open up?

ET: If this economic boom has led us – as the geniuses of neoliberalism say – to ‘prosperity’, but the prosperity only of a power group, the Confiep businessmen, not the population, and this economic model does say that it is very good, it should, in any case, compare us with the reality of Japan, of Germany, something that we are totally remote from. So, with Professor Pedro Castillo it is intended to change this economic model and it is totally false that with the change we become a Venezuela, because here, in Peru, without the triumph of Professor Pedro Castillo there are already problems here, very acute, which are not cared for, like the one I mentioned that cities and urban settlements in Peru live with open drains in the streets, a total abandonment. It is incredible that the Loreto region, which is surrounded by water, does not have drinking water for its population, and that undoubtedly affects a lot and is part of the abandonment of the neoliberal economic model.

Now, about the Constituent Assembly, here we are going to fight, and there are several ways, but the one that we have seen as convenient, respecting the constitutional framework according to article 206 of the Political Constitution of Peru, a total or partial reform of the Constitution, would be through a legislative initiative in Congress, and by consensus will be able to achieve this constitutional change by agreement of the plenary session of the Congress of the Republic, and the other way is by collecting at least fifty thousand signatures so as to be able to raise the initiative before the respective entity and a referendum can be held and the population is the one that determines if we change the Constitution or not.