PERUVIAN President Pedro Castillo is under pressure from his own party, which has issued a statement saying it will refuse to give a vote of confidence to his new cabinet.

It issued a stern warning to Mr Castillo on Thursday over what it described as “a clear political turn of the government and its cabinet to the centre right” after the recent reshuffle.

The changes came after the self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist sacked fellow Free Peru party member Guido Bello as the country’s prime minister, less than three months after he was appointed.

The move led some party supporters to accuse Mr Castillo of “betrayal,” with parliamentary spokesman Waldemar Cerron insisting that its 37 legislators will not support the new cabinet.

The party’s General Secretary Vladimir Cerron said: “Free Peru hasn’t passed over to the opposition, it remains at the side of the people and is against the US NGOs that have taken over the cabinet.”

Tensions have deepened within the socialist party since Mr Castillo sacked Mr Bello and selected a new cabinet of moderates.

Free Peru rejected the dismissal, warning of the presence of “conservatives, liberals and traitors” in the cabinet, and inisisted it should be represented in the government.

But Mr Castillo said the move was necessary to make Peru “governable,” although did not elaborate further.

Free Peru executive member Silvana Robles accused him of opting for “political suicide” by allowing the right to set the agenda.

“The coup won and Peru lost,” she said in a statement last week.

Mr Castillo will now need the support of other parties in the 130-seat parliament to get the 66 votes needed for his cabinet to be approved.