Vicente Antonio Zeballos Salinas (born 10 May 1963) is a Peruvian politician who served as Prime Minister of Peru from September 2019 to July 2020, under President Martín Vizcarra's administration.
He left the parliamentary caucus in December 2017, in protest to the pardon granted to former president Alberto Fujimori by the leader of the party and then-President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
Zeballos started his political career by running for a seat in the Peruvian Congress in the 2001 elections with the Union for Peru party representing the Moquegua constituency.
[5] Serving in the cabinet as Minister of Justice and Human Rights, his term would be shortened due to the dissolution of Congress issued by president Vizcarra on September 30, 2019.
On March 14, 2019, with 8 votes in favor, 24 against, and one abstention, Congress approved the admission of a motion for appeal against Zeballos for him to report on the terms of the collaboration agreement with the Brazilian company Odebrecht, which was signed with the Public Ministry and the Attorney General.
"Goro"), hitman from former Governor of Ancash, César Álvarez's criminal network, and implicated in the death of former regional councilman, Ezequiel Nolasco and Hilda Saldarriaga.
[18] On September 23, a few days before the election of the magistrates of the Constitutional Court, which was scheduled to take place on the 30th of that month, Zeballos indicated that it should be suspended after the broadcast of an audio in which parliamentarians Popular Force and APRA talked about the issue.
[20] On September 30, 2019, Zeballos was sworn as the new Prime Minister of Peru, succeeding Salvador del Solar, following the disputed attempt by Congress passing a no-confidence motion against the latter and his cabinet as a whole.
[24][25] On October 30, 2019, Zeballos presented, together with president Vizcarra, the main policies that his administration would advance in the following months: universal access to health services, an increase in the national minimum wage, fighting against violence against women, promoting public safety and education, and constructing two large airports.
The first article establishes that within 30 days of taking office, the Cabinet must attend Congress, expose the government's general policy and the main measures that its management requires.
[33][34] On July 1, the Union for Peru bench presented a motion to interpellate Zeballos and the Minister of Justice, Fernando Castañeda, stating that urgent responses were required to the problems of public health, economic reactivation and corruption.45 As In response, the prime minister argued that although he respected the autonomy of Congress and both he and his ministers would continue to attend the summons issued by the different commissions, he considered that these motions (six in total, together with those previously presented against the heads of Economy, Health, Education and Development and Social Inclusion) did not add efforts to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic; but on the contrary, they sought to hinder the work of the Executive or to gain prominence.
The appointment was questioned in a public statement by former ministers Luis Solari de la Fuente, Jorge del Castillo Gálvez, Ántero Flores-Aráoz, Ismael Benavides Ferreyros, Hernán Garrido Lecca, Luis Gonzales Posada, Rafael Rey Rey, Aurelio Pastor Valdivieso; the former presidents of the Constitutional Court, Víctor García Toma, Oscar Urviola Hani; former parliamentarians Lourdes Flores Nano, Luis Galarreta Velarde, Rolando Sousa Huanambal, Lourdes Alcorta, Fabiola Morales Castillo, Martín Belaúnde Moreyra, Raúl Castro Stagnaro, Lourdes Mendoza del Solar, Rafael Yamashiro Oré and the ambassadors Eduardo Ponce Vivanco, Alfonso Rivero Monsalve, José Luis Pérez Sánchez-Cerro; among others.
The signatories considered Zeballos' appointment as "inconvenient" due to the results of his management in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and his participation in the dissolution of Congress, which they described as "unconstitutional."