Prime Ministers and Premiers of Peru Since 1945

Peru is a country found in the western half of South America. Lima is the capital and largest city. The president is the head of state, and the government is elected for a term of five years. The constitution does not allow one to be a president for two consecutive terms. The President appoints a Prime Minister with whom they appoint the other members of the cabinet. 

Prime Ministers of Peru

Rafael Belaunde Diez Canseco

Rafael was born in 1885 and died in 1972 at the age of 87 years. He was the son of Mariano Andres de la Torre. He was appointed the prime minister on July 28th, 1945, and served for only six months until January of 1946.

Fernando Zavala Lombardi

Canseco is a Bachelor’s Degree holder who attended the University of the Pacific, having studied economics at the university. He also obtained two masters degrees from the University of Piura and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Before joining politics, he held several positions in the corporate sector including acting as the assistant manager of Samtronics, and the Chief of IPSOS Peru which is a consulting and pollster firm. In 1995, he was appointed to the post of the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOP) until late 2000. He has also served as the vice president of a big beer production firm, and later as the president of the national brewery. In 2005, he was appointed as the Minister of Economy and Finance, a position he held until 2006. He was appointed as the prime minister in June of 2016.

Pedro Cateriano

He was born in 1958 in Lima, and is a professional constitutional lawyer. He joined politics in 1990 when he was elected as a member of parliament until 1992. He rejoined politics in 2001 where he was made the Organization of American States election observer in Guatemala. He became the minister of defense in 2012 and was later appointed the prime minister in April of 2015. He resigned as the premier on the 28th of July in 2016.

Oscar Eduardo Valdes Dancuart

He was born in Lima in the year 1949, and was educated at the Chorrillos Military school. He later joined the Peruvian Army. Thereafter, he became an instructor at the Chorrillos Military Academy himself after taking on a course teaching command and staff. Oscar resigned from the army in 1991 and started working in the private sector. He was appointed the prime minister in 2011 but was sacked after he took a very tough stance against protesters in the controversial Conga mining project. He was accused of militarizing of the government which caused an uproar among human rights activists.

​Role of the Prime Minister of Peru

The prime minister is the president of the Peruvian Cabinet and presides over the meetings of the Cabinet. Together with the cabinet, they have three significant roles in the country. They approve the laws submitted by the President to the Congress, approve legislative decrees and also deliberate on any subject that is of public interest.