Electoral baggage in Peru

This Sunday’s presidential runoff in Peru is shaping up to be a doozie. On the right is Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a notorious former president. She is taking on Ollanta Humala, who has been associated with the Shining Path guerrillas in the past but has lately worked hard to rebrand himself as more of a centrist. Recent polls are giving Fujimori a small lead, but most are too close to call.

Ollanta Humala

Two of the most famous Peruvians in the world, meanwhile, find themselves on opposite – and somewhat surprising – sides of the equation. Mario Vargas Llosa, who won last year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, once supported lefties like Fidel Castro, but has been a supporter of conservative political candidates for quite some time. He ran for president as a free market candidate in 1990. This time, however, he’s supporting the lefty Humala, who he considers the lesser of two evils. He also just pulled his column from Peru’s main newspaper, accusing the paper of being a “propaganda machine” for Fujimori. Whether Vargas Llosa is so passionately opposed to Fujimori primarily because he lost to her dad in the ’90 election is up for debate.

Keiko Fujimori

Hernando de Soto, meanwhile, a widely influential economist most famous for his book The Mystery of Capital (which I just finished reading!) has come out in support of Fujimori, who he says will be likely to implement some of his economic ideas that have worked in combating poverty around the world by ensuring property rights for the poor. De Soto once advised Fujimori’s father as president, but says they haven’t had contact since 1992 and that he has no plan to be part of Keiko’s government were she elected.

This polarizing and fascinating election has given journalists and commentators a lot of material. For instance, BBC says many Peruvians consider it a matter of “choosing between your wallet and your conscience." The Miami Herald has a piece about how both candidates come with “serious baggage." Sabrina Karim writes on the Americas Quarterly blog about the role gender is (or isn’t) playing.

Meanwhile, leaders of the anti-mining protests near the Peru-Bolivia border, which I wrote about earlier this week, have decided to hold off on further demonstrations until after the elections, "with the sole objective of not undermining the electoral process.”

Needless to say, Sunday's election will be well worth watching.

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