BIOS FOR NEW JUSTICE, LABOR, EDUCATION, HEALTH,

UNCLAS LIMA 003397 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR PE SUBJECT: BIOS FOR NEW JUSTICE, LABOR, EDUCATION, HEALTH, AND WOMEN'S AFFAIRS AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT MINISTRIES REF: A. LIMA 3137 ¶B. LIMA 3102 ¶C. LIMA 3013 ¶1. (U) Biographic information for President Garcia's Ministers of Justice, Labor, Education, Health, and Women's Affairs and Social Development follows below. As noted in reftels the appointments represent a multi-party cabinet with a mix of APRA party loyalists and technical personnel. These ministers were sworn into office on July 28 ¶2006. See reftels for biographic information on the other cabinet members. Justice - Maria Zavala -------------- ¶2. (U) The new Minister of Justice is Maria Amabilia ZAVALA Valladares. She has 25 years experience working in Peru's judicial system, most recently as the Chief Justice of Lima Superior Court since January ¶2005. Prior to that she served as President of the Special Anticorruption Court of the Lima Superior Court. Zavala received her law degree from the prestigious San Marcos National University. She is an associate professor of Criminal Law at the Academy of Magistrates; and an associate professor of Criminal Law at Iquitos University. She was born in Talara, Piura on January 15, 1956. ¶3. (U) Zavala's other judicial appointments (in Lima, Loreto Department, and Maynas District courts) included: President of the Superior Court of Loreto; President of the District Commission for Control of the Magistrature; President of the First and Second Corporat Criminal Courts for Ordinary Processes for Defendants in Jail; Presiden of the Ninth and Tenth Criminal Courts in Lima; Judge for the First Court in Maynas Province (Loreto); and Provisional Judge for Criminal Cases for Maynas Province. Zavala also held several prosecutor positions (in Lima and Amazonas department) before becoming a judge. These included: Provisional Chief Prosecutor for the Superior Court of Loreto; Assistant Provisional Prosecutor for the Maynas Prosecutor's Office and the Upper Amazonas Prosecutor's Office; Assistant Prosecutor for the 21st Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Lima; and Provisional Prosecutor and Assistant Prosecutor for the Upper Amazonas (Yurimaguas) ¶4. (SBU) Zavala was a valuable counterpart to USAID in the successful establishment of commercial courts, a mechanism crucial to PTPA implementation. In the sluggish environment for judicial reform during the last years of the Toledo Administration, she stood out for her integrity and effectiveness. Since her appointment she identified judicial reform as a priority and indicated that she would use her contacts at the Superior Court level to promote judicial modernization, anti-corruption, transparency, and other recommendations from the Special Commission for Integrated Reform of Justice Administration (CERIAJUS). Zavala has also called for the reform of unsafe, corruption-laden prisons and seeks to expedite extraditions. Minister of Labor - Susana Pinilla -------------- ¶5. (U) Susana Isabel PINILLA Cisneros is the new Labor Minister. She is the founder and Executive President of the Institute of Informal Sector Development and the microfinance provider, EPDYME Proempresa, both of which have partnered with USAID. She is an experienced development practitioner, and has written numerous articles on the informal economic sector and development of women's entrepreneurship. ¶6. (U) Pinilla earned a degree in anthropology from the University of San Marcos. Graduate studies included business administration and organization at the Lima Superior School for Business Administration (ESAN),a course in microfinance financial management tools at the Economics Institute of the University of Boulder (1997-98),and a Masters in Governance from Lima's San Martin de Porres University. Pinilla ranked first in her Masters class. Her thesis was entitled: "The Transoceanic Highway and the Generation of New Markets for the Development of Micro and Small Rural and Urban Enterprises of the Southern Departments of Peru." She is currently working on her Doctorate in Government and Public Policy at San Martin de Porres University. From 1995-98 she was active in developing the International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions (INAFI) and the Agency for Finances and Integration of Women (AFIM). She remains on the board of directors of both organizations. She has worked as a consultant for UNICEF, the International Labor Organization, and the Holland Agency for Development. ¶7. (U) Pinilla was connected to the first Garcia Administration, providing assistance to regional informal sector development institutes and coordinating special rural and infrastructur assistance projects through the National System for Popular Cooperation (COOPOP). She is married to Javier Tantalean Arbulu, a high-ranking APRA party official. Pinilla was born in Lima on May 31, 1954. She speaks Spanish, English French, and Italian comfortably and has a basic knowledge of Portuguese and Quechua. Education - Jose Chang -------------- ¶8. (U) Jose Antonio CHANG Escobedo is the new Minister of Education. He was President of the University of San Martin de Porres in Lima from 1996-2006. Chang studied industrial engineering at the Catholic University and the Federico Villarreal National University. He received a Masters in Education from the University of Hartford (Connecticut) and also studied business administration and organization at Lima Superior School for Business Administration (ESAN) and busines process re-engineering at IBM in Peru. ¶9. (U) Chang's non-academic positions have included Central Manager for Computer Technologies for the National Bank, National Secretary for Computer Technologies in the Office of the President of the Republic, Director of the Peruvian Corporation for Airports and Commercial Aviation (CORPAC),and Dean of Computer and Systems Engineering for the University of San Martin de Porres. He was born in Lima October 19, ¶1958. Chang is the son of the late APRA senator Jose Chang Rodriguez. Health - Carlos Vallejos -------------- ¶10. (U) Dr. Carlos Santiago VALLEJOS Sologuren, the new Minister of Health, is a surgeon specializing in oncology. From February 2002 until his appointment, he was Director General of Peru's Specialized Institute of Neoplastic Disease (INEN),the country's major cancer treatment center. He led an effort there to decentralize oncological services by creating Oncology Departments in Lima and provincial hospitals. He has served as the Director of Oncosalud (a private firm specializing in cancer treatment.) Vallejos began his studies at the San Fernando College of Medicine at the University of San Marcos and transferred to the University of Cayetano Heredia (UPCH),where he graduated as a medical surgeon in 1966 and where he returned in 1987 fo his doctorate. He was a resident at the Archbishop Loyaza Hospital and the Children's Hospital (1966-67) and an oncological medical resident a the INEN (1967-69). Vallejos continued his training at the Sinai Hospital in Baltimore and as a project researcher at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. ¶11. (U) Vallejos has been involved in domestic and international cancer research and treatment. From 1974-77 he was a principal investigator with the Southwest Oncological Group (SWOG). From 1977-84 he was a consulting professor on oncological medicine at the Lima Military Hospital. In 1987 he was the principal professor of medicine at the UPCH. He served as Vice President (1990-1991) and President (1992-93) of the Peruvian Society for Cancer Studies. Later he founded and became President of the Peruvian Society for Oncological Medicine. He was named an Associate (1997) and a Member (2005) of the National Academy o Medicine. He is currently the regional representative European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) and is a member of the editorial committee for the journal, Annals of Oncology (2005- present). He is a member of: the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO),the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR),the New York Academy of Sciences, the Bolivian Society for the Study of Cancer, the American Society of Hematology, and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP). During the first Garcia Administration he was Secretary General of the Health Ministry (1988-89) and president of the SIPDIS Hospital Rehabilitation Project (PERDHA). He was born in Lima February 1, 1942. ¶12. (SBU) Some critics have expressed concern that Vallejos experience is biased toward advanced private-sector care and that he lacks experience dealing with Peru's fundamental public health issues, such a quality and accessibility of basic primary care, nutrition, water and sanitation, and control of infectious diseases. Women's Affairs and Social Development - Virgina Borra -------------- -------------- ¶13. (U) Virginia BORRA Toledo de Jimenez is the new Minister of Women's Affairs and Social Development. She is a long-time advocate of social programs for women and children. During the first Garcia Administration she worked as Executive Director for the Direct Assistance Program (PAD) under the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Subsequently she worked as manager of the Makimama civil association, President of the board of the educational Association Nuev Amuta, Executive Director of the "Work and Family" Institute, and leade in the Mothers' Clubs of Lima. She organized four regional events for NDI on governability. Borra is a close friend of Pilar Nores de Garcma the First Lady. They have worked together on various social programs including the Foundation for the Children of Peru during Garcia's first administration. Borra studied both economics and education at the San Marco National University and did postgraduate work there in education, social administration and management. She ran unsuccessfully for Congress on the APRA ticket in 2001. She was born in Lima on January 12 ¶1946. STRUBLE