Peru votes Sunday with reformer Humala favored

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Friday, April 8, 2011
Peru votes Sunday with reformer Humala favored
By Jim Wyss | Miami Herald

Peru has one of the fastest-growing economies in the Americas, healthy international reserves and record high exports. Conventional wisdom would suggest that voters in the South American nation would be reluctant to rock the boat.

Yet, if pollsters are right, the nation of 29 million will overwhelmingly vote for a presidential candidate on Sunday who has vowed to shake-up the economy and embark on ambitious reforms.

Ollanta Humala, 48, a former soldier whose ties to Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez sank his presidential aspirations in 2006, is expected to win almost 30 percent of the vote and coast into the second round, according to recent polls.

It’s less clear who he will face in the June run-off. Just a few weeks ago, former President Alejandro Toledo seemed to have an unassailable lead. But now, he’s in a dead heat with two other candidates for second place.

More:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/08/111897/peru-votes-sunday-with-reformer.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. Reads like a State Department to CIA Director memo.

That it's the Miami Hairball doesn't surprise. But the McClatcthy url does, a bit. (They used to be somewhat respectable, at least on Iraq.)

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Just to clear up one point of disinformation, that gets repeated time and again in the corpo-fascist press. Hugo Chavez's endorsement of Ollanta Humala--and even more important, Evo Morales' endorsement--almost WON Humala the election in the last presidential contest, NOT the other way around (--that Chavez lost him votes--the lie repeated in this article).

Humala won 30% of the vote in the primary election, that time around, knocking the rightwing candidate out of the race, and going up against Alan (U.S. "free trade for the rich") Garcia in the runoff. Chavez--but, more important, Morales (first Indigenous president of Bolivia right next door)--endorsed Humala. Humala then GAINED more than 15% ADDITIONAL votes, pushing him up to 45%+ of the electorate, in the runoff. Where did those votes come from? They most certainly did NOT come from rightwing voters (the candidate he defeated in the primary). That 15%+ bump represented poor Indigenous voters who made a special effort to get to the polls for Humala.

This corpo-fascist 'news' 'meme' that "Chavez hurt Humala" is bullshit. And to grasp just how bullshitty it is, not only do corpo-fascist 'news' 'reporters' never ask where Humala's 15% bump came from, they never mention Morales. Chavez's endorsement was secondary. Morales' simultaneous endorsement (they did it together, in a radio broadcast) is what largely produced that 15%+ bump for Humala. The poor, and most especially the Indigenous poor--such as Indigenous tribes living in mountainous areas and in border areas with Bolivia (who don't much respect "gringo" borderlines anyway) came out for Humala BECAUSE OF Morales' and Chavez's endorsement, and probably in recognition of the powerful leftist (and Indigenous) alliances that are occurring and benefiting the poor regionwide. (Chavez working in close alliance with Morales has been greatly beneficial to the poor and to the Indigenous in Bolivia, for instance.)

"Ollanta Humala, 48, a former soldier whose ties to Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez sank his presidential aspirations in 2006, is expected to win almost 30 percent of the vote and coast into the second round, according to recent polls." --Miami Hairball/McClatchy

This is quite simply a lie. The corpo-fascist world rulers and their newsrags want it to be the case that THEIR LYING PROPAGANDA against Chavez produces the hatred of Chavez that THEY feel. This is patently NOT TRUE throughout Latin America, where leftists closely allied with Chavez now run MOST governments, including Brazil's (which they often try to pit against Venezuela, as they do in this article). What they are doing is injecting their desired effect INTO reality--and creating a self-fulfilling narrative.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Leftist may win Peru vote, but runoff likely

Leftist may win Peru vote, but runoff likely
1 hour 51 mins ago

Lower-income voters are expected to hand left-wing nationalist Ollanta Humala victory in the first round of Peru's presidential election on Sunday, but he could struggle to win a runoff against a rival backed by the business community. Skip related content

Humala, a former army officer who has moderated his tone since narrowly losing the 2006 race, leads by as much as 10 points over three more market-friendly candidates who are in a tight race for second place, the latest polls show.

Vying for a spot in the June 5 runoff in one of the world's fastest-growing economies are former President Alejandro Toledo, former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and lawmaker Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori. Polls show her with a narrow grip on second place.

They have sought to dampen Humala's chances by saying he would step up state control over the economy, rolling back reforms and jeopardizing some $40 billion (24 billion pounds) of foreign investment lined up for the next decade in mining and energy exploration.

More:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110410/tpl-uk-peru-election-20b2d2f.html

[bemildred]

3. Leftist Humala woos ethnic vote, widens lead in Peru

Humala accused his rivals of fear-mongering: "Those who want to build a democracy based on fear in reality are the ones who fear democracy."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/09/us-peru-election-idUSTRE7381WF20110409?pageNumber=1