Peru's Castillo shuns palatial 'House of Pizarro' in break from colonial past

A general view of the Congress after Peru's President Pedro Castillo's swearing-in ceremony, in Lima, Peru July 28, 2021. REUTERS/Angela Ponce

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's new President Pedro Castillo, a champion of the rural poor, will not live in the government palace in Lima known as the 'House of Pizarro' - a symbolic break from some 500 years of tradition and the Andean country's colonial past.

Castillo, who comes from a family of peasant farmers in rural Peru, said in his first address https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/perus-castillo-assumes-presidency-amid-political-storms-divided-nation-2021-07-28 to the nation after his inauguration on Wednesday that the palace would instead be used to house the Ministry of Cultures under his government.