José Luna

José León Luna Gálvez (born 17 July 1955) is a Peruvian economist and politician originally from the National Solidarity party who later founded the Podemos Perú and was a Congressman representing Lima between 2000 and 2016. He was the Third Vice President of the Congress between 2012 and 2014.

Career José Luna was born in Huancavelica, being the eldest of the five children of Juan Luna Peña and Paula Gálvez, a humble couple who emigrated to Lima and settled in the Cantagallo area, to later settle in San Juan de Lurigancho. He holds a Master in Economics and a PhD in Education, both from the Universidad de San Martín de Porres. He is the owner and general manager of Telesup private distance learning university. In 2004, Telesup became a University.

He also worked in the public sector: he was deputy head of the administration office of the Tablachaca Electroperu Special Project of the Geological Mining and Metallurgical Institute (1982-1983); director at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (1986-1989); Advisor to the Economic Commission of the Senate of the Republic (1990-1992).

Political career

Early political career He started out as a member of the Peruvian Aprista Party. From 1999 to 2002, he was councilor of the Lima Metropolitan Council. But he antagonized the Aprista leaders by wanting to control the party by giving gifts and scholarships to the Apristas, and was forced to withdraw from it.

In 1999, Luna was a founding member of the centre-right National Solidarity party led by Luis Castañeda. Since that time, he has been a member of the political commission of the party, and since January 2011 he also has been Secretary General.

Congressman Luna was first elected to Congress on the National Solidarity list in the 2000 elections and was re-elected in the National Unity alliance list in the 2001 and 2006 elections. In the 2011 election he was re-elected for another five-year term this time on the National Solidarity Alliance ticket. Between 2012 and 2014, Luna was the Third Vice President of the Congress.

2016 elections For the 2016 elections, National Solidarity formed an alliance with the Union for Peru (UPP), a party, that launched the candidacy of Hernando Guerra García, the standard-bearer of entrepreneurs. Luna joined the presidential ticket as a candidate for the first vice presidency and at the same time ran again for the Congress with number 1 on the Lima list. But the candidacy of Nano Guerra was withdrawn due to low support and with this, National Solidarity kept its registration. That same year, Luna resigned from the National Solidarity party.

Post-congressional career In 2018, he formed his own political party, the Podemos Perú (lit. We Can Peru) in which, he serves as the party President, 2 years after splitting from the National Solidarity. On 16 April 2020, Luna announced that he tested positive for COVID-19. On 8 November 2020, Luna was arrested for allegedly bribing authorities to register his Podemos Perú party for the elections, despite not receiving enough signatures to participate in the elections. Sunedu, the state body regulating higher education standards, published a drone photograph of the site and blocked new student enrollment, giving Telesup two years to close.