Carlos Miguel Ramón Basombrío Iglesias (born 31 August 1957) is a Peruvian sociologist, journalist and political scientist. He served as Minister of the Interior in the Pedro Pablo Kuczynski administration from July 2016 to December 2017.
Early life and education
Carlos Basombrío was born in Lima, Peru on 31 August 1957. He is the son of José Carlos Alfonso Basombrío Porras and Rosario Iglesias Castro-Mendívil. His father was a magistrate of the Judiciary and the Court of Constitutional Guarantees, and great-grandson of nineteenth-century president José Rufino Echenique; while his mother, great-granddaughter of Miguel Iglesias, also president during the final stages of the War of the Pacific, and great-granddaughter of Mariano Castro Zaldívar.
His great-uncle, the engineer Enrique Basombrío Echenique, was Minister of Agriculture and Food in 1945, during the government of José Luis Bustamante y Rivero, a position he resigned after a severe questioning in Congress, where he was asked about the price of pallares in Ica.
Basombrío finished his high school education at the Sacred Hearts Recoleta School. Upon graduation, he was admitted to the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Sociology.
Career
Basombrío has been a researcher and consultant on issues involving citizen security and social conflicts in Peru and in other countries. He has been involved with the Woodrow Wilson Center, as a resident fellow from 1994 to 1995, and as coordinator of various projects of the Latin American Program, including that of Citizen Security.
Presidency of Alejandro Toledo
During the presidency of Alejandro Toledo, he was appointed to the Ministry of the Interior of Peru (2001–2004) as head of the Cabinet of Advisers to minister Fernando Rospigliosi, and as Deputy Minister of the Interior. He was also coordinator of the Commission of Restructuring of the National Police of Peru and member of the Police Modernization Commission.
He has also ventured into journalism as Defender of the Reader in the newspaper Perú.21, and as a political analyst.
Presidency of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
On 15 July 2016, President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski announced his appointment as his first Minister of the Interior. He was sworn in on 28 July 2016, on inauguration day.
On 3 November 2016, he presented the achievements made during the first hundred days of his administration in terms of citizen security: 25 police mega-operations in various regions of the country that dismantled 18 criminal organizations, 695 dangerous criminal fugitives from justice included in the program of rewards (Que They Take Care), the initiation of the Barrio Seguro project (Pa 'Barrio yo) in areas of higher crime rates and more than 900 vehicles carrying out integrated patrols, in coordination with the national police and serenazgo.
One of the first severe criticisms he received was as a result of the Larcomar fire, where four people died, an occasion in which the possibility that it was a fact slipped, even going so far as to show a video where a person to whom he was presenting was seen as the alleged perpetrator, which was denied days later.
Faced with questions about his ministerial work and the threat of an interpellation in Congress promoted by the opposition led by Popular Force, president Kuczynski gave his full support to Basombrío, affirming that much progress had been made in matters of citizen security, and that in the National Police there was a new spirit of support. Another question was the authorization of the march of the Movadef militants (Shining Path front organization), who marched on 2017 Labor Day carrying portraits of the leaders whose release they demanded, which for some would make the crime of apology for terrorism, while the police apparently dedicated themselves to giving them security.