MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Castillo to seek referendum regarding Constitutional reform in Peru

Such a reform was a part of Castillo's promises while campaigning for office last year

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo Terrones Friday announced he would be launching a public consultation so that the citizenry may decide on whether a new Constitution is wanted or not.

Such a reform was a part of Castillo's promises while campaigning for office last year.

“We are going to send a bill to Congress of the Republic, following the constitutional course, so that in these next municipal and regional elections [...] the Peruvian people are consulted on whether or not they agree with a new Constitution,” the president said during a public session of the Council of Ministers in the Andean city of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire.

The ruling party blames the current Constitution, adopted in 1993, under then-President Alberto Fujimori, for the economic inequalities stemming from the free market model it enshrines.

Earlier this month, the National Jury of Elections (JNE) had clarified that the call for a referendum to approve a constitutional change required prior Congressional approval by an absolute majority.

Castillo also admitted to having already worked on the draft of a new Fundamental Law. Congressman Alex Flores Ramírez, who reportedly penned the proposed text, insisted the current Constitution outlined an “extractivist” model of a neo-liberal conception which denies many basic rights to people.

The President's Peru Libre party has already submitted a bill in September to advance toward a new Magna Carta.

Castillo is a 52-year-old rural teacher of Marxist-Leninist views, who won the presidency in 2021 after a close runoff against the right-wing Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the former president.