Peru's new president sworn in surrounded by Ivy League aides

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Peru's new president sworn in surrounded by Ivy League aides

Franklin Briceno, Associated Press

Updated 11:07 pm, Wednesday, July 27, 2016

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Pedro Pablo Kuczynski assumes Peru's presidency Thursday with a Cabinet that shares his Ivy League, pro-business pedigree — a reliance on technocrats that could become a liability as he deals with an unfriendly congress and a resurgent left.

The conservative Kuczynski has economics degrees from Oxford and Princeton and worked for decades on Wall Street and at the World Bank. His Cabinet reflects his preference for brains and the boardroom: It's full of PhDs from foreign universities and former captains of Peruvian industry.

"I can't remember in the country's history such a pro-business Cabinet," said Francisco Durand, who teaches political science at Lima's Catholic University.

But with Peru being a big, hard-to-govern country with deep social divisions, analysts say the lack of political operators could become a problem for Kuczynski as he struggles to reverse an economic slowdown and build support beyond the capital's elite. It doesn't help that Peruvians call him the "gringo," a reference to the U.S. passport and accent he acquired while living abroad.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Peru-s-new-president-sworn-in-surrounded-by-Ivy-8481345.php

[MrScorpio]

1. Not good nt

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. Indeed, clearly Peru should be ruled by an unemployed semi-literate bus driver instead

That is the road to prosperity.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Fortunately, after so many candidates were thrown in prison, and only this one was left,

along with the daughter, Keiko Fujimori, whose father is in prison for war crimes, and corruption, they had a very unpleasant task of choosing, and they chose the one who was NOT related to a death squad-wielding monster, and this one only won by a very slight majority, at that.

It's not as if he's wildly popular with the people. It's just that the mass murdering maniac's daughter is just a little less popular.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

9. I take it you're unfamiliar with run-off elections

There were originally ten candidates.

[Rex]

15. Right over your head.

[AngryAmish]

7. A lot of people do not like American hegemony.

When a small group of foreign trained people take over a government the local people may suspect that the foreign trained people may not have local interests at heart. They may have learned and cling to a foreign culture that is alien to the normal people of Peru. Would you like if the US was ruled by people who went to a Turkish university?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. A lot of people also don't like wiping their ass with the phone book

and eating whatever rodent they can hit with a shovel for dinner with a side of weeds.

[Judi Lynn]

12. It would be a sour, dark world where comments like this would be seen as clever, or humorous.

You insult readers by trying to imply that's all that's likely available to people who put their own country first, their people over corporate U.S. interests.

Having fun at the expense of Peru's indigenous?

It's not really funny to anyone unlucky enough to read it.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

14. blindly lashing out at "corporate interests" doesn't keep people fed

It is dishonest for the Western left to celebrate third world socialist crackpots when if they were forced to live under those regimes themselves they would be rowing a laundry tub to Florida.

[Rex]

16. It is very obvious.

Just pity them and move on, there is no hope for someone that lost.

[Judi Lynn]

4. It's a very ugly situation, isn't it?

However, it's rolling right along just the way Wall Street wants it, with a new president who intends to open the doors even wider to exploitation of Peru's natural resources any and everywhere, while the people are wildly protesting it, and being persecuted for their trouble.

Those in the Peruvian Amazon, a few years ago, demanded that Pres. Alan Garcia not sell the forest their ancestors, and parents had lived within, to open the land to oilers, and Garcia claimed they were being greedy, wanting to use Peru's precious land for themselves, and he sent his police, military, helicopters, everything but the kitchen sink there to create the Bagua massacre, and turn the protesters who were begging for their land into public enemies, instead.

It's enough to make anyone sane sick, but it makes the greedy giddy.

[MrScorpio]

5. Bingo! nt

[msanthrope]

6. Let's hope his education and good sense prevails and he can bring decent things

to the people of Peru. He could surprise us.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. No, the road to prosperity in Latin America is amateurish communism

capital flight and the brain drain of your own professional class at gunpoint.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. JFK had his "whiz kids" cabinet.

They did mostly ok, except for Robert McNamara and Dean Rusk, with that whole Vietnam thing.

[Judi Lynn]

13. New Peruvian president's pro-business cabinet could clash with resurgent left

New Peruvian president's pro-business cabinet could clash with resurgent left

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski aspires to turn Peru into a ‘beacon of civilization’ in South America but he faces people’s distrust and an unfriendly congress

Associated Press in Lima

Thursday 28 July 2016 16.02 EDT

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was sworn in as Peru’s president on Thursday with a cabinet that shares his Ivy League, pro-business pedigree – a reliance on technocrats that could become a liability as he deals with an unfriendly congress and a resurgent left.

The conservative Kuczynski has economics degrees from Oxford and Princeton and worked for decades on Wall Street and at the World Bank. His cabinet reflects his preference for brains and the boardroom: it’s full of PhDs from foreign universities and former captains of Peruvian industry.

“I can’t remember in the country’s history such a pro-business cabinet,” said Francisco Durand, who teaches political science at Lima’s Catholic University.

In his inaugural address, Kuczynski said his biggest goal, in addition to fighting drug trafficking and crime, will be delivering drinking water to the roughly 40% of Peruvians he said lack such basic services. He also vowed to make Peru a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based group of mostly rich nations.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/28/peru-president-pedro-pablo-kucynski-cabinet-congress