Race to win Peru election closer than expected

[Judi Lynn]

Race to win Peru election closer than expected
By Hal Weitzman in Lima
Published: June 3 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 3 2006 03:00

Peruvians will vote tomorrow in a presidential election that may be closer than has long been expected.


Recent opinion polls had given Alan García, the populist politician who was president from 1985 to 1990, a comfortable lead of up to 20 percentage points over Ollanta Humala, his radical nationalist rival. But "simulation" surveys, in which respondents participate in a "mock vote", in the past week have suggested that the race may have a much closer finish.

In a meeting with foreign media yesterday, leading pollsters said the race appeared to have narrowed in the past week.

Alfredo Torres, director of Apoyo, the country's top pollster, warned of a "hidden vote" for Mr Humala.A simulation poll by his company on Thursday gave Mr García 53 per cent and Mr Humala 47 per cent, similar to the results of a simulation poll published last Sunday.
(snip/...)

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1095533a-f29e-11da-b78e-0000779e2340.html



Alan Garcia, Ollanta Humala
June 3, 2006, 12:44AM
Peruvians brace for possible unrest ahead of Sunday's election

Associated Press

LIMA, Peru — Peruvians braced for possible unrest two days before a presidential runoff between a polarizing ex-army officer and a former president remembered for a disastrous administration.

Former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, head of the Organization of American States' observer delegation, said the campaign had seen "quite severe confrontation."
(snip)

Garcia has pledged not to repeat the mistakes of his 1985-90 administration, which left Peru in economic ruin. He accused Humala of a "Shining Path-like discourse," referring to the Maoist rebels crushed in the 1990s under former President Alberto Fujimori.

Humala, who pledges to radically redistribute wealth among the country's poor majority, recalled that it was during Garcia's administration that the Shining Path insurgency was most active.
(snip/)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/3924332.html

[Joanne98]

1. Is Peru where the Carlyle Group wants to break up the glacier?

To get the gold underneath. I think I read that on DU.

[Joanne98]

2. Oops, it was Chile sorry.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Not gold, but the stakes are still very high, including a triumvirate of

Leftist governments (i.e., mainstream governments--the kind that are of, by and for the people)--Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru--cooperating to fend off US-based and other global corporate predators after South American oil, gas and other resources, including ag markets to dump on, and slave labor to be rounded up into sweatshops.

An utterly terrifying thought--to Bushites, and in global corporate predator board rooms: democratically elected LEFTISTS who are on to them, who know what's what, and who are acting in their countries' and their peoples' interests. Simon Bolivar's dream of a united front against exploitation seems on the verge of being fulfilled.

"Alfredo Torres...warned of a 'hidden vote' for Mr Humala." This would likely be the indigenous vote--the invisible poor and brown, neglected, abused, oppressed, exploited, given no services, excluded from power, tortured, killed, for decades, for centuries--who came out of the hills to vote for Evo Morales next door in Bolivia, and tens of thousands of whom came out of the Andes mountains to celebrate his inauguration in a special ceremony.

They more than likely don't talk much to pollsters--and don't campaign in the sense that we know it--glad-handing and passing out leaflets and phoning. They don't have phones. And precinct walkers likely avoid their hovels, if they live in the city. But the example of Venezuela and Bolivia--of a democratic uprising of the majority, of empowerment through voting--has likely taken hold, and quiet work is going on, in places that urban political machines generally ignore--AND across boarders. (What do the Andes Indians care for the "divide and conquer" borders of the Colonialists?)

Humala is a little bit closer to the armed resistance mode of the past--the leftist guerrilla movement generated by brutal oppression and consequent hopelessness (of which Che Guevara is the icon)--than Chavez is, and Morales has no such history. Humala is therefore somewhat more divisive. This was a major split in the So. American Left at one time. Chavez overcame it. In fact, he became the popular hero that he is today STARTING when he was in jail for a leftist coup attempt against a brutal regime, early in his career. Chavez and Humala are both former rank and file military. Chavez made the extraordinary leap to supporting democracy and Constitutional government, ran for office and won. The long hard work of the OAS, local civic groups, the Carter Center, and EU election monitoring groups, to achieve fair and transparent elections in South America, is paying off. The desperate now have a chance to participate, to influence policy, and to lead their societies to more equitable governance.

The 53/47 split mentioned in the OP likely does not include some of the "invisible" indigenous vote. It's probably much closer. Humala might even be ahead. If Humala wins, I trust that Chavez, Morales and others will assist Humala in keeping the transition smooth and peaceful. If the urbanites--and I'm guessing that this is something of an urban/rural split--see the benefits of regional cooperation, and if Humala takes the visionary, even-handed approach that Chavez and Morales have, all will likely be well.

No doubt the Bush junta is doing everything it can to stir up division and hatred, and will continue to do so. They DON'T WANT three democratic and representative governments working hand in hand in this region. They don't want democratic and representative governments ANYWHERE--including here. They are dictators and fascists themselves, and that's what they will impose on South America AGAIN, if they can--now that they've realized that stealing Iraq's oil is not such a cakewalk.

But the South Americans seem immune to imperialist designs this time around. They seem to have a lot of civic strength, and great determination to break free from lethal US impositions.

May the Gods of all of our cultures bless Humala and the people of Peru, and all the people of this region, and give them a good outcome, whatever the results of the election!

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"The time of the people has come." --Evo Morales