SNP recognizes Pedro Castillo as Peru's president-elect

Peru’s National Fisheries Society (SNP), which represents the country's commercial fishing industry, has recognized Pedro Castillo's victory in recent federal elections on 6 June.

Castillo, of the left-wing Free Peru party, won a five-year term as president that will last through 2026. He will be sworn in on 28 July.

“The National Fisheries Society salutes Mr. Pedro Castillo Terrones for his proclamation as president of Peru, and we wish him success,” the SNP said in a statement. “Peru needs stability and legal security to ensure the much-needed economic reactivation where dialogue and joint work between the public and private sectors prevail, which allow us to continue building a more prosperous, united and fair country.”

The organization said it will continue working for Peru to contribute to the food security, income, and jobs “so necessary to face the health and economic crisis that thousands of families in our country are going through.”

Castillo is a schoolteacher and union organizer from Cajamarca who has called for the nationalization of companies in industrial sectors deemed key to the national strategic interest. While he has spoken specifically about mining but not the fishing industry, some in the industry have concerns about Castillo's interest in government involvement in the sector. In the 6 June run-off election, Castillo faced Keiko Fujimori, a congresswoman, leader of the right-wing Popular Force, and daughter of Alberto Fujimori – the president of Peru from 1990 until he resigned in 2000 after being accused of corruption and human rights abuses. He is currently serving a jail sentence in Peru.

With Castillo winning the election with an extremely slim margin of just 44,000 votes, Fujimori and her supporters claimed voter fraud and asked for a ballot recount and an international audit of the election. However, observers including organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS) have ruled out fraud playing a role in the election's outcome.

The SNP’s latest statement comes just days after SNP President Cayetana Aljovín published an opinion piece entitled “Without stability, there is no aquaculture.” In the article, Aljovín noted Peru's aquaculture sector generates some 30,000 direct jobs and is a significant source of income for thousands of entrepreneurs, 40 percent of whom are women.

“As we have said several times, Peru has all the conditions to become a world aquaculture power: its geography; its species, and being the main producer of fishmeal and fish oil indicate this. It only takes stability to also become number one in aquaculture,” she said. 

Aquaculture exports reached USD 174 million (EUR 147 million) for the period between January and May of this year, according to the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (Sunat). 

Photo courtesy of Joel Salvador/Shutterstock