Paniagua will remain interim president for the next eight months. A political moderate, Paniagua was elected as head of Congress recently by opposition lawmakers as a consensus candidate after ruling party legislator Martha Hildebrandt was censured by a majority in Congress. Paniagua was a former minister of justice and education, and a one-time president of the now defunct lower house of Congress. He also served as justice minister in the 1960s and as education minister in 1984 during the two administrations of former President Fernando Belaunde. While he is largely unknown among Peruvian voters, Paniagua has gained respect in government and opposition circles as having brokered talks this year between the government and the opposition over constitutional reforms.
Interim government seeks stability and debt restructuring.
Paniagua appointed former United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar as prime minister and cabinet chief. Perez de Cuellar will also serve as foreign minister. The Ministry of Economy went to Javier Silva Ruete, an economist who led the ministry during the late 1970s, when he spearheaded a program that ended a severe economic crisis brought on by mismanagement by the military leaders who ran Peru from 1968-80. The interim government has little time to implement any substantial changes. Its main task is to ensure fair and transparent congressional and presidential elections on 8 April and to maintain economic stability until a new government takes over on 28 July 2001.