José Ramón Mariátegui: "Businessmen fear the emergence of a radical Castillo"

José Ramón Mariátegui, president of the Peruvian company Administradora Prime S.A., was on Capital Radio's Atalayar last night to analyse the results of the elections held in Peru. The owner of Administradora Prime S.A., talks about the fear that exists among Peruvian businessmen that the most radical version of the possible future president of the country, Pedro Castillo, will emerge. On the other hand, Mariátegui talks about how the radicalisation towards the extreme left is taking place throughout the Latin American continent, something that for the president of Prime S.A. seems to be "orchestrated".

How do Peruvian businessmen view the possibility of Castillo becoming President?

With a great deal of concern. Castillo is a self-declared leftist and the owner of his party, though there are really two of them: Castillo is the candidate, but Vladimir Cerrón is the owner of the party. Cerrón is a declared Marxist, Leninist, Maoist and they have had no qualms about saying so. If Castillo were elected, it would be an impressive step backwards.

Many things have been heard from politicians in Ibero-America and there have been sublime moments in television interviews. Pedro Castillo was asked in an interview the other day what a monopoly was, and he replied: "A monopoly brings together its economy to make personal and corporate profit, without regard for the state or the people". Could the attack on private enterprise be significant on the part of the candidate, if he finally prevails in the recount that is being carried out?

Yes, indeed. His ignorance is impressive, and there are many other things he has said. He was about to say that a monopoly is a monkey suffering from polio. At the moment the election result is very close, Castillo holds 50.14% and Keiko Fujimori 49.86%. There are some 235,000 votes still in play at the moment, the situation could be reversed and in the end Castillo may not come out, let's hope that this is what happens. Businessmen fear that a radical Castillo could emerge. The country's businessmen are currently considering two scenarios: the first is that a moderate Castillo emerges, who obeys the logic of Congress and respects the law and the Constitution, a Bolivian-style government. The second scenario being considered is a radical government that prevents change and does not respect the Constitution or the law, something more in the style of Venezuela.

Which option has the best chance? In the event that Castillo becomes president, he would be a president of possibilities, within his radical ideology, but one who realises what the country needs and does not apply this radicalism in economic policy. Or, on the other hand, a president like the one in Venezuela.

Honestly, as a good businessman, I think optimistically, I think that things will be more moderate because if he were to do the opposite, it would happen to him like Maduro, who is a prisoner in his own country, he cannot leave the country because he knows that from Government House he goes straight to jail. I truly believe that he will take a more moderate position, but I can't guarantee it.

The problem here is Mrs Fujimori's surname. From this point on, I think it is unfair that an option such as Keiko Fujimori's should be weighed down by a series of stereotypes.

Exactly. She is Keiko Fujimori, not her father. Besides, her father did many good things for the country. For example, eliminating Shining Path was fundamental, he also put an end to hyperinflation. It is incredible that this man is still in prison and, on the other hand, that there are four former Shining Path terrorists who have been elected to Congress when the opposite should have been the case.

We are witnessing a major radicalisation of the Latin American continent. Right now the extreme left is in power in Nicaragua, Bolivia, Mexico, and also to some extent in Argentina, which has fallen into the hands of left-wing populism, and of course Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, which is reminiscent of Putin's Russia by arresting its opponents. Finally, only Ecuador, with Guillermo Lasso, has broken this trend. How do you see this trend in Peru?

We saw ourselves as the countries of the Pacific. We felt that Colombia, Chile, Peru and Mexico were different from the rest. However, we view this with great concern. It seems that there is an orchestrated plan to take over Latin America and specifically in the Peruvian case we should not forget that Peru is the second largest copper producer. The first is Chile and the second Peru, copper has taken on tremendous importance today with the change in automotive technology. With the electric car the price of copper is skyrocketing, it has gone up almost double what it was a year ago. The trend continues upwards and that makes the country very attractive to the world, with the fact that it can control copper.

Maybe names have to be mentioned. Of course, it is the Chavista dictatorship that is trying to influence in order to strengthen this Bolivarian axis. They also want to destabilise Chile and Colombia. But behind them, on the copper issue, as you very opportunely mentioned, may be Russia, China and Iran, which are undoubtedly entering Latin America in a worrying way.

Indeed those three countries, China, Russia and Iran.

What is going on in Colombia? There are many sources saying that the protests that are taking place against the government are sponsored and financed by Venezuela. What is going to happen in Colombia, a country very close to Peru?

Well, the truth is that I'm not following the issue very closely, we have enough to deal with in Peru, but I have heard that there have been many rallies and similar issues to those taking place in Chile. In Chile there has been an election result in which the left has won, though I believe that the right imposed itself 51-49 this Sunday; however, it is a very tight race. It definitely seems that this is orchestrated from all sides.

As a businessman who talks to Spanish businessmen with interests in Peru, are they worried about the situation?

Yes, of course they are. Spain is the leading foreign investor, followed by China, although I am not sure if China is ahead of Spain now. To understand Peru you have to understand Shining Path and its history. It's like in Argentina, to understand its history you have to know who Perón was, or to understand Spain you have to know what happened during the Civil War and who Franco was, otherwise you can't really understand the country. In Peru, you have to know about Shining Path, which is the way to understand the plot we went through, which sustained Shining Path when it came out in 1980 and during the 1990s, which was terrible.

And now, with the coronavirus pandemic, the situation is even worse. How is Peru now with the vaccination issue?

Well, the situation regarding the pandemic has improved a lot in recent months. Peru was among the countries with the highest number of incidences. In the last three, four months, it has improved enormously. On the other hand, I understand that 500,000 vaccines are going to start arriving every fortnight from now on and there should already be about 5 million doses.

What are you asking the Peruvian community to do in Peru?

In Peru, what are you asking of the international community or of the Spanish government, whose companies have so many common interests? Even of the European Union...

What we are asking of Spain and the European Community is that they should be clear about what they perceive. Shining Path is really a bloodthirsty group, a terrorist group of the worst kind. They are worse than those in North Korea and those in Nicaragua. Shining Path is worse than Venezuela, they are the worst kind of people. They murdered more than 40,000 people during their peak. And those they killed were peasants and children. These people should not be regarded as social fighters.

Sometimes young people in Europe think that they are social fighters, that the FARC or Shining Path are fighting for freedom, but what they are fighting for is to come to power and have the poor people as slaves and govern in the Maduro style, filling their pockets, having absolute power and implanting fear. This cannot be allowed.

Moreover, especially in the case of Venezuela, the relationship with drug trafficking and cartels is one of the dangers that can also extend to a country like Peru, which can be used by the cartels.

Peru is the second largest producer of cocaine, so drug trafficking in Peru stands to reason. We are asking for understanding, and for clarity of understanding. They are not social fighters, they are terrorists.

In Spain we also know something about this because of the multiple denominations that ETA terrorism has had abroad, which in the end was terrorism, but there was talk of guerrilla warfare, of a separatist liberation group.

No. They are terrorists and criminals. Abimael Guzmán is one of the greatest criminals in the history of the world.