Rafael Rey

Early life and education

Rafael Rey was born to engineering professor Ricardo Rey Polis and Elsa Rey Elmore. He started his education at the Jesuit college of Maristas San Isidro. From 1971 to 1979 Rey studied Industrial Engineering at the University of Piura, where his father was first Rector, and the Catholic University of Peru. From 1982 to 1990 he was CEO of Crowley Peru S.A.

Since 1991 Rey has been Executive President of the NPO Pro-Educación.

First political experience

In 1987 he joined the pro-market Liberty Movement of Nobel laureate writer Mario Vargas Llosa which became part of the 1988 established broad liberal-conservative Democratic Front FREDEMO. Rey represented his party as Deputy National Secretary for Ideology and Culture in 1989 and Departmental Secretary for Lima from October 1989 to August 1992. In the polarised general elections of 1990 he was elected Member of the Chamber of Deputies for FREDEMO whereas the leader of the alliance, Vargas Llosa, was defeated in the presidential race by Alberto Fujimori. After Fujimori's de facto coup d'état during the constitutional crisis in 1992 and the decline of FREDEMO, Rey left the Liberty Movement and formed his own party, the National Renewal in August 1992, which he has chaired ever since.

Congressman

Rafael Rey was elected Member of the so-called Democratic Constitutional Congress under the new unicameral constitution in 1992. He was re-elected Congressman for the National Renewal in 1995 and in 2000 as part of the alliance Avancemos led by Federico Salas who was afterwards appointed Prime Minister by President Fujimori. In the 2001 early elections caused by the corruption crisis leading to Fujimori's resignation, Rey contested as part of the Christian Democrats-led National Unity alliance of presidential candidate Lourdes Flores and was re-elected to the Congress. In 2006 he was voted one of five Peruvian representatives to the Andean Parliament, again on the ballot of Flores' National Unity.

Minister

As President Alan García of the social democratic APRA party did not have a stable majority, he and his changing Prime Ministers tried to win multi-partisan support. Thus they appointed Rey twice to their governments, as Minister of Production from 2006 to 2008, and as Minister of Defense for a short period from 2009 to 2010. In between he served as Ambassador to Italy for only one month. His participation in Garcia's government led to the break with Flores and her oppositional National Unity.

Presidential election 2011

In the general election 2011 Rafael Rey changed sides and allied with Fujimori's daughter Keiko. He was candidate for her Vicepresident on the Force 2011 ticket. Keiko Fujimori lost to left-wing Ollanta Humala in the second round on June 5. Nevertheless, Rey was re-elected to the Andean Parliament as the Force 2011 representative with more than 470,000 votes, the best result for any candidate nationwide.

Personal life

Rey is a numerary member of Opus Dei.