Leftist Castillo Faces Divided Nation as Next President of Peru
- Castillo is a rural teacher who defeated mighty political clan
- Peru had the world’s worst death toll from Covid-19 pandemic
This article is for subscribers only.
Peru’s Pedro Castillo, a rural union activist from a Marxist party, will take the reins of a deeply divided country after being declared president-elect following weeks of vote recounts, lawsuits and fraud allegations.
The result, proclaimed Monday night by Peruvian electoral authorities, will help to dispel the uncertainty that has gripped the Andean nation since the June 6 runoff. But it leaves Castillo, a teacher from the highlands with no previous experience of national politics, with the daunting challenge of trying to bridge an array of political, economic and geographical divisions laid bare by the election.