The ongoing political crisis in Peru has resulted in an unprecedented rate of turnover in the country's executive power. The country has been experiencing a persistent governance crisis, with six presidents having assumed office in the last six years. Following the ousting of former president Pedro Castillo, protests have erupted across the country, calling for the resignation of the current president, Dina Boluarte. Uncertainty looms over when the next general elections will be held, as policymakers have delayed the voting procedure in parliament.
Hernando De Soto, founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy and former Peruvian presidential candidate, and Georgetown adjunct professor Michael Shifter discussed the political and economic implications of the current crisis. The discussion addressed possible ways to unlock the political gridlock as well as Peru’s potential as a key player for the transition to clean energies.
This was a student-led event, co-hosted by the Georgetown Americas Institute.
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Hernando de Soto is the president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy. He has served as president of the Executive Committee of the Copper Exporting Countries Organization, as CEO of Universal Engineering Corporation, as a principal of the Swiss Bank Corporation Consultant Group, and also as a governor of Peru's Central Reserve Bank. Mr. de Soto has published several articles and papers on economic policy. He is the author of The Other Path: the Economic Answer to Terrorism (1986), and his seminal work The Mystery of Capital (2000).
Michael Shifter (moderator) is an adjunct professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue. Shifter held senior positions at the Dialogue for nearly three decades and served 12 years as president; he currently serves as senior fellow at the organization. Prior to joining the Inter-American Dialogue, Shifter directed the Latin American and Caribbean program at the National Endowment for Democracy and, before that, the Ford Foundation’s governance and human rights program in the Andean region and Southern Cone. In the 1980s, he was a representative in Brazil with the Inter-American Foundation and worked at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin American Program. Shifter graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Oberlin College and holds a M.A. in sociology from Harvard University, where he taught Latin American development and politics for four years.