The hat and the pencil: who is Peru’s president in waiting?

Leftist poised for victory in knife-edge Peruvian vote
07 Jun 2021
Impoverished hometown is key to Pedro Castillo’s politics
24 Jun 2021

Pedro Castillo has rallied the poor and terrified the rich with his rhetoric of leftwing economic reform

Gideon Long in Chota, Peru

With his huge straw hat and giant yellow pencil, Pedro Castillo has emerged from nowhere to become one of the most recognisable figures in Latin American politics in recent weeks, and appears poised to become Peru’s next president.

But beyond the eye-catching photographs of him ploughing fields in the Andes with oxen, stoking the wood fire in his modest mountain dwelling and riding to his local polling station on horseback, Castillo remains a largely unknown quantity.

He gives few interviews, and has declined to speak to the Financial Times. He has never worked in government and until now was best known for leading a teachers’ strike in 2017.

And yet, results from this month’s presidential election suggest he has secured an epic victory. With just a handful of disputed votes left to count, he leads his rival Keiko Fujimori by 50,000 votes — 50.1 per cent to 49.9. If her claims of electoral fraud are dismissed and the result is confirmed, he will be sworn in on July 28 as one of the most unlikely leaders in Peru’s rich history.