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Members of the ruling left-wing Free Peru party and its allies, along with numerous labour movement and civil society figures, have fiercely condemned the shelving of the reform Bill and vowed to fight on for an inclusive constitution
Peru's then-President-elect Pedro Castillo and his wife Lilia Paredes wave as they leave the Foreign Ministry to go to Congress for his swearing-in ceremony on his Inauguration Day in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, July 28, 2021.
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THE Constitution and Regulation Commission of the Congress of Peru, on May 6, shelved a Bill presented by President Pedro Castillo that proposed to call a referendum to change the current constitution and establish a constituent assembly to redraft it. The commission, which was made up of a majority of opposition legislators, rejected the measure with 11 votes against and six votes in favor.
In a statement, the commission said that the Bill was “incompatible with the (current) constitution,” adopted in 1993 during Alberto Fujimori’s dictatorship. “We declare it to be shelved outright, as it runs counter to the constitutional values and principles established by the will of the constituent power,” said the statement.
During his election campaign, Castillo vowed to change the country’s pro free-market constitution, with the aim of giving the state more control and a leading role in the economy to compete with the private companies.
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