People profile - Javier Velásquez Quesquen, Peru
Who is he? Velásquez Quesquen is Peru's new prime minister.
Why watch him? Velásquez Quesquen comes from the ruling Partido Aprista Peruano (PAP) and represents the end of President Alan García's attempt to broaden his government's base by bringing in independents. The prime example of this was Velásquez Quesquen's predecessor as prime minister, Yehude Simon.
Date of Birth: 12 March 1960.
Education: Law graduate from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Ruis Gallo de Lambayeque. He holds a master's degree in constitutional law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Lima. He taught constitutional law at the Universidad San Martín de Porres in Lima.
Public life: He comes from a strong Aprista family. His father distributed the Aprista newspaper, La Tribuna. His mother, Olga Quesquen, was a Mochica Indian and Velásquez Quesquen claims to be purely indigenous. In Mochica, Quesquen means “strong". The Mochica Indians live north of Lima around Chiclayo and Lambayeque. They are one of the few indigenous groups not to have protested much against the government.
Time Line:
1980: Joins the PAP.
1986: Number two in the Lambayeque university's PAP.
1992: Secretary general of the Lambayeque departmental executive.
1994: Mysterious incident in which he claims to have been attacked by terrorists.
1995: Elected to federal congress as a representative from Lambayeque.
2001: Re-elected to congress.
2002-2004: President of the audit and investigation committee in congress.
2006: Re-elected to congress and spokesman for the Apra bloc.
2008/09: President of congress.
11 July 2009: Sworn in as prime minister.
Strengths: Velásquez Quesquén's only qualifications for the premiership are that he comes from the Apra and follows García's orders.
Weaknesses: He is something of a party hack. During his presidency of congress he has been accused of increasing the legislature's payroll by 292. The majority of those hired have Apra membership cards. The other big problem he has is over his credibility. He turned an incident in 1994 (a police checkpoint opened fire on him when his car failed to stop) into a terrorist attack.
Prospects: Uncertain. Velásquez Quesquen is less popular than President García. Velásquez Quesquen's opinion polls rating is 16% while García is on 21%. The social and political unrest in the country shows little sign of diminishing and there must be some doubt over whether the new government, with its more party political hue, can negotiate an end to it.
The only non-Aprista politicians in the new cabinet are Martín Pérez, a congressman from the right-of-centre Unidad Nacional (UN), and Rafael Rey Rey, the new defence minister, who is also from the UN but served in the first García cabinet. The only senior non-Aprista in the cabinet is the new interior minister, Octavio Salazar. Salazar is a controversial former national police chief forced to resign by Remigio Hernani Meloni, who came in with Simon as an independent interior minister in October 2008 but only lasted until February 2009. Salazar's appointment was immediately condemned by Fernando Rospigliosi, an interior minister under the former president Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) and now a leading political commentator. Rospigliosi said that Salazar's appointment would lead to more political persecution. He also noted that when he was police chief, Salazar veered from “heavy-handedness to paralysis".