Peru's latest PM under fire for domestic abuse

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo’s third cabinet in six months is once again embroiled in scandal after the Andean country’s new prime minister, Hector Valer, was accused of beating his daughter and late wife – shaking the ground beneath Castillo’s already wobbly government.

Facing two police complaints, Valer denied on Thursday that he had ever used violence against his family, Reuters reported.

"I am not an abuser, I am not someone who hits (others), I am not what the complaint at the police station says," Valer told reporters.

But the allegations could complicate the congressional approval process, with some parties saying they would vote against the new PM. Castillo, a member of a Marxist political party, named Valer to the job earlier this week, just a day after his predecessor resigned over alleged corruption and illegal dealings at the highest level of government.  

The allegations, which first surfaced in local media, include a police report from 2016 in which Valer's daughter alleges Valer slapped, punched and kicked her "in the face and other parts of the body." Although there are allegations that he also hurt his late wife, she died three months ago.

Valer, however, was quick to deny the alleged violence toward his wife and retorted that he had only "reprimanded" his daughter.

"I reprimanded my daughter like any parent does inside their own home, not once but many times," Valer said. "Those reprimands I think have helped my daughter today be a surgeon doctor."

A congressional block of Valer would force Castillo to name yet another cabinet. If the next proposed cabinet is rejected, however, Peru’s constitution allows the president to shut down Congress and call for new legislative elections.

Valer said his cabinet's failure in Congress could perhaps strengthen Castillo's position, because it would put the president closer to having a "gold bullet, which is the dissolution of Congress."