Pedro Castillo
Peruvian rural schoolteacher and union leader, President of Peru from 2021 until he tried to dissolve Congress and was removed and arrested in 2022.
Biography
Pedro Castillo was born in 1969 to a poor peasant family in Puña, Cajamarca. He worked seasonal jobs to pay for his teacher training, later earned a master's degree in educational psychology at César Vallejo University, and from 1995 taught at the primary school in Puña. In his youth he served in the rondas campesinas, peasant patrols formed against the Shining Path.
He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Anguía in 2002 for Possible Peru and was a party leader in Cajamarca until it dissolved in 2017. That year he gained national prominence as a leader of a long teachers' strike.
Standing for the socialist party Free Peru, he narrowly won the 2021 presidential election in a run-off. His government lacked a majority in Congress, went through several cabinets and faced protests and two failed impeachment attempts. On 7 December 2022, facing a third, he tried to dissolve Congress and rule by decree; Congress removed him the same day and he was detained on charges of sedition and high treason.
Offices held
Affiliations
Party membership
- Jan 1, 2005 – Jan 1, 2017 Possible Peru
- Jan 1, 2020 – Jan 1, 2022 Free Peru
Education
- César Vallejo University Master's in educational psychology (no dates)
