'My Hands Are Clean', Peru's Leftist Candidate Castillo Says

Peruvians are called to head to the polls on June 6 to elect a new president for the 2021-2016 term. Representing the leftist Free Peru (PL) party, the rural teacher Pedro Castillo has maintained a lead in voters' intention against his opponent Keiko Fujimori from the Together for Peru party.

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Castillo was born in Puña town in the Chota province where he has been a primary school teacher for 24 years. He studied at the Octavio Contreras Institute and attended pedagogical management postgraduate studies at the Cesar Vallejo University, from which he graduated in 2012. 

In 2017 and 2018, the leftist candidate led two major strikes in Peru to demand better working conditions and wages for the education sector. His activism led him to chair the National Federation of Education Workers (Fenateperu).

Before joining the Free Peru party, he served as a member of the "Possible Peru" (PP) party in Cajamarca.

Castillo's political plan seeks to reform the 1993 Constitution to promote social inclusion and a strong role of the State in the management of the country's resources.  

Among his main proposals are the prohibition on the privatization of public education, the nationalization of strategic sectors such as mining, gas, and oil, an increase in agriculture and education budgets, and reforms to Pension Fund Administrators (AFP).

"I am a teacher from the Andes and from schools that have been forgotten... I present myself before Peruvians with my hands all clean," Castillo stressed, referring to politicians' corruption.