Alberto Otárola

Following Pedro Castillo's removal from the Peruvian presidency, Dina Boluarte appointed Otárola to the cabinet as Minister of Defense, on 10 December 2022.

Less than two weeks into Boluarte's presidency, on 21 December 2022, she appointed Otárola as prime minister, succeeding Pedro Angulo Arana. Following the Juliaca massacre where 18 civilians were killed and over 100 were injured by the Peruvian National Police, Otárola responded to the deaths stating those killed "express a direct responsibility of those who want to carry out a coup d'état in the country" and blamed imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo for the deaths.

Otárola attempted a political comeback as Ollanta Humala's second running mate and a Nationalist Party congressional candidate at the 2021 general election, although he ticket placed tenth in the election and was not successful in his run for the Peruvian Congress.

In April 2016, Otárola was elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as one of the 13 members of the International Narcotics Control Board, an independent treaty body attached to the United Nations. His five-year term mandate begun on 2 March 2017 and expired on 1 March 2022.

Between 2014 and 2016, Otárola was the director of DEVIDA, the Peruvian government's drug control administration.

One of the most critical problems that the Humala government must face is the activity of a terrorist gang that operates in the VRAE zone in complicity with drug trafficking. On 9 April 2012, a terrorist column kidnapped 36 TGP (Transportadora de Gas del Perú) workers in the town of Kepashiato, in the Echarate district of the La Convencion province of the Cusco department. In response, the government launched the so-called "Operation Freedom", which deployed combined military and police forces to the area.

On 3 May 2012, the motion of censure against Otárola and Lozada was presented in plenary session of Congress for "incapacity, lack of leadership and strategy." On 10 May, both ministers submitted their resignations, in order to avoid censorship in Congress. Their resignations were accepted by president Humala on 14 May 2012.

On 10 December 2011, when the first cabinet of President Ollanta Humala was recomposed, he was appointed Minister of Defense.

Luis Alberto Otárola Peñaranda (born 12 February 1967) is a Peruvian attorney and politician who currently serves as Prime Minister of Peru. He previously served as Minister of Defense twice, under Ollanta Humala and Dina Boluarte. During the Boluarte government, two massacres occurred under his leadership; the Ayacucho massacre while he was defense minister and the Juliaca massacre after he was promoted to the prime minister position.