US embassy cable - 05LIMA3593

UNCLAS LIMA 003593 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/AND 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, ECON, PE 
SUBJECT: NEW HOUSING MINISTER RUDECINDO VEGA 
 
REF: A) LIMA 3489 (B) LIMA 3476 (C) LIMA 3549 (D) LIMA 3518 
 
1.  Summary.  New Housing Minister Rudecindo Vega has served 
the last three years as Chief of Staff to outgoing Housing 
Minister Carlos Bruce.  Since 2003, he also served as 
Technical Secretary to the GOP Interministerial Commission 
on Social Issues.  Vega is a respected technocrat.  He has 
had successful posts in various GOP offices dealing with 
decentralization, the Human Rights Ombudsman and anti- 
corruption.  Vega has also worked with prominent Peruvian 
and international NGOs on election reform and human rights. 
End Summary. 
 
2.  President Toledo swore in Rudecindo Vega Carreazo as his 
new Minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation on 
8/16.  He had been Chief of Staff to outgoing Minister 
Carlos Bruce since 2002.  Since 2003 he has also served as 
the Technical Secretary for the GOP's Interministerial 
Commission on Social Issues. Through mid 2002, Vega was the 
Chief of Staff for the Prime Minister. 
 
3.  Vega has a long history of professional work on national 
government reform issues, particularly decentralization, 
anti-corruption and electoral reform.  From 2001 to 2002 he 
worked extensively on decentralization issues, serving as 
Executive Secretary of the Technical Secretariat for 
Decentralization and President of the Executive Commission 
for Regional and Local Connectivity.  As President of the 
Commission for Building Regional and Local Capacity, he 
helped formulate the national plan for training regional 
authorities.  For several years he has produced and anchored 
a television program focused on decentralization for the 
state television station. 
 
4.  Vega contributed to government reform as Director of the 
Office of Institutional Development in the national Human 
Rights Ombudsman's Office from 1997 to 1998.  He worked in 
2002 as a consultant to the World Bank on anti-corruption 
and justice reform, as well as Technical Secretary for the 
GOP Ministry of Justice Anti-corruption Program. 
 
5.  Vega was Technical Secretary and Director of Citizen 
Education at the respected Peruvian election watchdog NGO 
Transparencia from 1995 to 2000.  He served as an election 
observer in Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala and the 
Dominican Republic.  During the same time he worked as a 
consultant to the InterAmerican Institute of Human Rights 
and for the National Democratic Institute, a U.S. NGO. 
 
6.  Vega earned a law degree in 1988 from the Pontifical 
Catholic University of Peru in Lima, where he has also 
taught courses through the present.  He was born in 1963 in 
a small town in the northern Amazonas Department. 
 
7.  COMMENT: Outgoing Housing Minister Carlos Bruce will be 
a hard act to follow, as he was one of Toledo's longest- 
serving and popular ministers (Refs A and B).  The media 
have reacted favorably to Vega's appointment, and NGOs that 
worked with Vega speak favorably of him.  With his solid 
record of government service, Vega can be expected to 
continue Bruce's popular and successful efforts to improve 
access to housing for middle- and lower-income Peruvians. 
 
STRUBLE