 Sticks mapping fort lines after over a month since the official count got over Peru's new president has been finally sworn in. Pedro Castillo the left wing candidate from the free Peru party is now the president of the country and to talk more about this to talk about what this victory means we are joined by Prabhu Prakash. So Prabhu can you tell us about this what does this victory signify especially considering that Castillo has announced that he will be essentially and he will be bringing in a new constitution and essentially changing the very nature of the structures of governance in the country. You know if we look at what Peru is today and that really goes back to what we will see is the first Pujimori presidency. But even before that you had military coups you had dictatorial regimes over there and Peru became a part of the what is called the Operation Condor which brought right wing regimes in Latin America together against different shades of the left. So that was the history on which Pujimori arose in the 90s and of course the death squads large-scale sterilization of women all of this was carried sterilization of indigenous women were carried out by Pujimori. So there is that whole bloody history which is there in fact Argentinian group in Lima were picked up in Operation Condor which was said death squads funded run by the CIA which were operating in Latin America at the time who came to Lima picked up three Argentinians from there and brought them back. So to Argentina so all of this history is there with Peru. So when you talk about what is happening now we cannot really do that without referring back to that period. Keko Pujimori represents that for those forces which at that time ruled over parts of Latin America large parts of Latin America and which is currently changing and she represents it because of her father's legacy and the parties and party and party she represents and what her personal political philosophy is. Of course as we know Pujimori was also convicted of corruption in fact his political stock fell drastically after he was caught in major corruption scandals where the money was siphoned off from the state coffers. So that was really what brought him down. But if we take the larger picture of Latin America what we see in Peru is of course a change of two kinds. One is a kind of left forces we are seeing and this is also based on the indigenous people mixed population. If we look at Pedro Castillo he is a mixed part indigenous part Spanish mixed origin mestizo and he of course is harked back to the indigenous people of Peru. If you also look at where Peru is you will see it's on the Andes and this is where a large part of the indigenous population still is. So you have Bolivia you have Peru you have also Ecuador you have also parts of Chile. So all of this is where a lot of the indigenous population are concentrated and they are like in Bolivia if a moralist represented that. So you also have with Castillo that kind of political forces coming into play not just also the left ideology but also this. So I think that is very much what we are seeing and what is important here is that the first announcement Castillo has made is the possibility of changing the constitution and that is the constitution that Pujibori had brought in. So that constitution if it is changed then a lot of the dictatorial powers that have been gathered by the president and the state would perhaps be then open to change and review and I think that would be very interesting and there's a very important thing that would happen in Peru if that comes through. We have also seen a similar process in Chile which has started but I think all of this is not simply a victory of a candidate over another candidate but it is really a much bigger victory of and it could it could represent the seismic shift in Latin America. So this I should not I do not think this is just simply a small change in one relatively not very big country but it is really a very significant part of the change which is going on in this region. Tell us more about the sort of policy changes that Castillo is you know thinking of bringing in when we look at the previous constitution the sort of privatization that was carried out during Fujimori's time the sort of neoliberal provisions that was brought in. So that sort of changes that Castillo is is what we think he would be planning to bring and what that would mean for the indigenous populations for the people of deep Peru as they say you know who have supported him and brought him into power. You know I don't think an immediate change of the policies is going to be so easy because he has a support base in the parliament which is not very big. So there are various other parties over there and all of them put together what is the what is the weight of the left as opposed to the weight of the center in the right that's something that we'll have to see. So it's not very clear that a sharp shift in policies is immediately possible. What you're talking about is trying to change the deeper structures of the state which were changed under Fujimori and even before and the fact that you have neoliberal provisions in various parts of the constitution. So instead of talking about only change of policies if the process of constitutional change is initiated I think we are going to get a much a very different kind of forces than released and most probably if it can be done it will have to be done through a referendum and then electing a constitutional body which will then frame the new constitution the path that Chile has taken in which it has really is now in the process overhauling Pinochet's constitution. So it's a similar process over here that we are talking about and I think if there if he's able to do that so that would be very very significant for the future. The question is the at the moment the body the congress that is not very conducive to really sharp changes of policy. So given that we'll have to see who the finance minister is is chosen a fairly strong left-wing prime minister and from the same party party Libre or Freedom Free Peru party. So that is that is there but who is the finance minister is something that we'll have to see and once we see that we'll also know what's the direction he wants to take but as I said the equation in the congress which is necessary for changing policies is not that clear as of now and we'll have to see how it pans out so maybe for the time being he might be forced to take a more reformist position instead of a more radical position with respect to immediate policies but I think the fact that he's put the first thing on the agenda as the constitution change of constitution I think that indicates the longer term of plans that he has. Let's also put it party is new this party that has won the election it's also relatively difficult situation because of the correlation of forces that is there his victory was razor thin so we'll have to see what is the level of support that people you know will give him for the policies he's proper he's going to propagate or is propagating so I think it's a difficult situation for him not that simple situation for him to negotiate but I think the right focus is what he has chosen the issue of constitutional change change of constitution and finally can you tell us what Castillo's victory means for the continent for the for the Latin for Latin America as a whole I think that's a very interesting question because if you see the changes that have now taken place you had Argentina earlier you had Chile the referendum on the question of having a constitution you have now Peru you have Bolivia where Ivo Morales party again won victory so you've already had four left victories in the region Ecuador yes the left did not succeed partly because of the divisions on the left itself Brazil Bolsonaro is not in a good position he's handled Covid very badly there's rising discontent about him there are charges of corruption of his and his family so Brazil seems to be some something which will probably go to the left in the next year's election particularly if Lula is able to stand for elections and the Americans are not able to stop him so I think that would be a huge cispic shift in Latin America if Brazil goes to the left so I think Latin America again we are seeing a rise of left what was talked about 20 25 years back the left is rising in Latin America if there was a reverse there was a reversal clearly that you got a set of right-wing forces coming in over here coups that were manufactured preventing Lula from running coup against Ivo Morales all that has happened but I think what we are seeing is probably a beating back the forces of the right and this if we see what's happening in Latin America Peru is going to be an important step though it doesn't have the way to Brazil Argentina has but nevertheless Peru is important and being another country which is going this way I think does indicate a larger shift to the left left again in Latin America and a weakening of the American backed regimes that had taken power and I think both of these are going to be important I think Trump has helped in that context as did George Bush because they all focused George Bush focused on West Asia Trump focused on everybody so he was really his allies everybody who's he was basically damning though he was a great friend of Bolsonaro and I don't think Bolsonaro has been particularly helped by that but if you look at all of this the U.S. policies have not been particularly successful in Latin America and the Trumpian aggressive policy of America first backing various right-wing forces I think is rebounding on the United States in terms of a lack of legitimacy so I think what we are seeing in Latin America is a larger resurgence of left and if that happens in Brazil again I think we are going to see a return to a kind of left I would call it the red tide but definitely a big tide rising in Latin America again we already have Mexico also taking a certain path even if it is not a clear shift for left politics it's a clear shift away from U.S. hegemony and I think that's that's important for the continent so thank you for joining us for this discussion and that's all the time we have keep watching