Peru is once again entering an electoral process: the regional and municipal elections for the 2027–2030 term will be held next October 4, when governors, councilors, mayors, and provincial and district municipal council members will be elected. The electoral contest raises the following question: What are the main demands of the population that the future governors and mayors will have to address?
The Constitutional Province of Callao, with more than one million inhabitants, despite being a key region for the country because it has Jorge Chavez International Airport and the seaport, today faces persistent challenges such as informal employment, lack of jobs, insecurity, monetary poverty, childhood anemia, among other social problems.
Pressenza interviewed Victor Huaranca Medina, candidate for the Regional Government of Callao for the Buen Gobierno party. His experience as an anti-corruption social activist, backed by a party that is in opposition, positions him as the probable outsider who, in his own words, seeks to turn Callao into “the first port logistics hub.”
Anti-corruption struggle
Pressenza: Victor, can you tell us about your experience in the fight against corruption?
Victor Huaranca: The candidates of the past 20 years have done nothing but continue along the path of a channel that is full of sewage, because they end up in corruption and even in acts of bloodshed. Some of them are even currently competing, mainly running for the regional government.
Well, the fight against corruption has been difficult. Many citizens have been threatened and assaulted. Unfortunately, here you cannot say who kills whom or why. A few months ago, over a land-trafficking matter, our friend Germán Congona, a person with a disability, was shot six or seven times, and he survived by sheer luck.
And they have no qualms; they shoot anyone. The problem with what is happening here in Callao is that everyone knows what is going on, but they keep quiet. I say things openly. I have been fighting against the former Chimpum Callao, later transformed into “Contigo” and then transformed into “Podemos.” If you look, all the walls of Callao are painted with money whose origin is unknown. Nobody can say anything because we are afraid of being injured or attacked.
What have been the results of that anti-corruption struggle?
V.H.: The first conviction Félix Moreno received was because of my complaint. It was not because the prosecutor filed a complaint against him, no, it was because of my complaint. And I was, so to speak, fortunate to have many citizens who were also fighting. And with that, we were able to come together. This individual, Oscar Peña Aparicio, an accomplice of Félix Moreno, colluded with him to take possession, at a ridiculously low price, of the Pachacute zonal park, which covers 240,000 square meters; and the Oquendo market, which covers 70,000 square meters. Well, that is the first thing that stands out. And afterward, I was the possessor of 3,000 square meters of this Oquendo market, and I was the only one who filed a complaint. But because I filed the complaint, they persecuted me, filed complaints against me, and slandered me. I do not know whether it was them or others who threatened to kill me, because that is not known, when all is said and done. And all of this was done by the operator Pedro Espadaro; there have been public complaints against him.
Well, guards from the Municipality of Ventanilla, who later stated that they no longer worked for the municipality, broke my arm and shoulder, and when the prosecutor asked those same managers who had been reported by Panorama, they said they had no footage. But the footage recorded by the municipality itself was anonymously delivered to me by a blessed hand, and all those elements were used to convict one of Félix Moreno’s and Espadaro’s armed enforcers, and he was convicted of serious bodily injuries.
What are the main pillars of your campaign?
V.H.: We are going to conduct a coherent but courageous campaign. We are going to call things by their name. There will be no more extortion. There will be no more contract killings. How are we going to control it? There is a program, but with a different remedy, because it has to be done through the coercive force of the State. And the State is not exercising the coercive force of the National Police of Peru. If contract killings and extortion have increased today, that has been promoted by the laws that have been enacted. And because many police officers—I cannot say all of them, but many police officers—are accomplices and even leaders of these individuals. We are going to use technology that will capture images from the cameras of all the merchants. Drones will be incorporated into that. And the faces of those committing crimes will be tracked.
And there will be an immediate, rapid-response police base to catch criminals in the act, right? And at that base, the regional government, the municipality, the police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the police authorities will all work in coordination. And that is what we have to do. We have to demand that the police perform their duties, right? Well, we will fight for it. If the Ministry of the Interior does not want to do it, we will even go and speak with Mrs. Keiko Fujimori. But we cannot allow people to be killed with impunity.
At this moment, the population has yielded, citizens have yielded the streets to hitmen. That cannot be. Values no longer exist. Now only anti-values are promoted. So we have to do something about it. That is the priority issue.
Education: rescuing the kids
Then, immediately, education. How do we rescue these kids who, being born with God’s blessing, with their parents’ blessing, are born into the environment we are describing? How can these children escape this environment? Through education.
Education is vital. The kids are trapped; they do not have employment opportunities either. And they end up in drugs, they end up in… Before, in the polytechnic schools or our intermediate-level schools, people graduated as welders, loaders, forklift operators. And now they do not. And we were thinking… This can be done through workshops. So that the kids can escape their environment, because many do not want to return to their environment and are forced to return because they have nowhere to eat, nowhere to live, nowhere to sleep.
We are thinking of creating a kind of lodging facility for five thousand kids. Right? Students in the third, fourth, and fifth years of secondary school. Perhaps even up to age twenty. Where they can be welcomed. Where they are given all the facilities: their computer, their tables, kitchen, washing machine, all their things. So that they have, say, twenty or twenty-five square meters in which to study, live, and develop themselves. So, if a kid does not have that possibility in Callao, simply because they have a negative environment, they are transferred there.
Callao: port logistics hub
Callao is the country’s nerve center. Callao is where the seaport that handles approximately 60% of commercial activity is located. We have an airport. So it is the country’s economic nerve center. But it is treated as if it were the last wheel on the cart.
Well, what we are going to do is make use of those strategic elements and, for example, within the port logistics hub that is being developed, Callao–Hong Kong–Chancay, I intend to form a partnership with businesspeople and everyone else so that we can support and aim to generate greater wealth in the area. Because if there is greater wealth, there are more jobs, obviously, so that it generates income for Callao.
Additionally, there is a project that has been discussed for many years, which is San Lorenzo Island. A huge project, as a mega-port. That has to be developed. We have to establish a working group on that, because it means incorporating at least 24 square kilometers. Whether for business activity, port activity, or simply urban development. Imagine what that would mean in terms of revenue for the municipality.
Political decision
So, what we intend to do is: no corruption, no contract killings. Agreed? Education and health. We have to make the political decision to do it, and also the political decision to have tax-funded public works, to finish the projects, of which there are many.
For example, San José Hospital—the project is already finished and is now moving on to the execution and bidding stage, agreed? Then there is Ventanilla Hospital. But we have to seek to recategorize them so that they can provide greater and better care to the population.
Pressenza: Will there be oversight?
V.H.: The oversight I intend to carry out is an international audit of the region covering at least the last 20 years. It does not matter if the crimes have become time-barred. It is only to have a historical record of who committed such atrocities. And if I could do the same by talking with whoever is elected mayor, the same thing in the municipalities.
The original message to public officials is that we have to restore dignity to the work of public servants, because they are subjected to extortion in which their salaries are cut. So that public servants receive a decent salary, and also have the obligation to serve citizens efficiently. And not seek other “alternatives.”
On the other hand, whatever the cost, as long as I have to coordinate with the municipality and the appropriate authorities and operate under the rule of law, I will insist with political determination that all the land that is currently vacant be recovered, provided it does not create conflicts, and that ornamental trees and seasonal fruit trees native to the area be planted. That generates empathy. Unity as well. So, in some places where there is not much immediate population, planting can also be done, throughout Callao—that is, Ventanilla, Pachacútec, in all the areas. But at the same time, this will also provide immediate employment.
So it is clear: the fight against corruption, education, health, employment, and, above all, generating synergy among many businesspeople, not only in Callao. Well, I know the port logistics hub already exists, but we have to take part in it, because otherwise it will simply pass before our eyes and we will do nothing. We have to be active as a society.
