Pedro Castillo, Peru's 'first Poor President'

Rural school teacher Pedro Castillo will on Wednesday become Peru's first president with no ties to the elites that have governed the Andean country for decades

Lima, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Jul, 2021 ) :Rural school teacher Pedro Castillo will on Wednesday become Peru's first president with no ties to the elites that have governed the Andean country for decades.

The 51-year-old far-left trade unionist was largely unknown until he led a national strike four years ago that forced the then government to agree to pay rise demands.

He was born to peasants in the tiny village of Puna in the historic Cajamarca region where he worked as a teacher for 24 years.

He grew up helping his parents with farm work, and as a child, had to walk several kilometers to school.

Today, he is rarely without the trademark white, wide-brimmed hat of his beloved Cajamarca, where the last Inca emperor Atahualpa was assassinated on the main square in 1533 by Spanish conquistadores.

Castillo likes to don a poncho and shoes made of recycled tires and traveled on horseback for much of his presidential campaign as he vocalized the frustration of struggling Peruvians and cast himself as a man of the people.

"No more poor people in a rich country," he said as he campaigned for the Peru Libre (Free Peru) party.

He has said he would renounce his presidential salary and continue living on his teacher earnings, and described himself as "a man of work, a man of faith, a man of hope."Castillo, according to analyst Hugo Otero, is "the first poor president of Peru."