Sunday, April 10, 2016

Vox Populi

Today marks a special day for Peruvians across the nation. Today Peru elects a president and several congress members. Ironically many Peruvians sentiments regarding their presidential election mirrors American sentiment about their own election: stuck between a rock and a hard place. That is to say, if a rock is the daughter of a manipulative war criminal sitting in prison for mass murder and manipulation of the press and a hard place was the fractured opposition to her (aka the other 9 candidates running against her and against each other.)

To demonstrate what I mean let's take a look at the top figures in this year's election:

The Rogues Gallery of Presidential Candidates
This list is in order from most popular to least popular, Top 5 of 10 candidates running.
*EDIT: The Election is now down to a run-off between Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski voting is on June 5th*

Keiko Fujimori

Facebook: 1 million+ likes
Twitter: 537,000 followers
Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who is serving a prison sentence for corruption and murder.* While her father is seen as a symbol of dictatorship and human rights violations throughout the world, he is widely regarded within Peru as the president who implemented economic reforms which brought the country from hyperinflation and extreme poverty to being a regional star as well as restoring security in the face of Shining Path terrorism. While she reaps the benefit of nostalgia for her father and many Peruvians’ desire to return to a strong leader, there is an active and passionate anti-Fujimori movement among voters that will vote for anybody over her. But despite the obstacles and given crime is voters’ top issue in 2016, Keiko Fujimori is the candidate to beat in a runoff.

*If by murder and corruption they mean "wanton slaughter of innocent pueblo dwellers in attempts to wipe the Maoist terrorists off the map" and by corruption they mean "stole million of dollars from the State which paid for Keiko's education in the States" Let's not forget he also attempted to buy every single newspaper, radio, and television station in Peru to print propaganda about his administration.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski

Facebook: 749,000 likes
Twitter: 422,000 followers
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski served as a Cabinet chief, finance minister and mining and energy minister in the governments of Fernando Belaunde and Alejandro Toledo. He has also worked for the World Bank and in the private sector. Independently wealthy from an investment portfolio, “PPK” is the candidate for orthodox economics. The candidacy of former President Alejandro Toledo may have split the neoliberal vote in 2011 elections, in which Kuczynski did not qualify for a runoff after trailing President Ollanta Humala and second-place candidate Keiko Fujimori. While perceived as the least corrupt among all politicians with significant experience, Kuczynski’s greatest weakness lies in his 77 years of age. He does not deliver powerful speeches, and his ties to the United States can prove to be a liability among some segments of Peru.

Veronika Mendoza

Facebook: 207,000 likes
Twitter: 57,000 followers
After one term in Congress which saw her resign from the Peruvian Nationalist Party over a mining conflict in her native state of Cusco, Veronika Mendoza has emerged as one of the leading figures representing the left in Peru. Her populist message includes a 50% increase in government spending, withdrawing from free trade agreements and asserting Peru’s sovereignty over the interests of multinational businesses. While there is certainly a void in the race for a hard-left message, it may prove challenging in 2016 to win broad support in a country where many voters still remember the state-planned model which led Peru to economic crisis in the 1980s.

Alfredo Barnechea

Facebook: 332,000 likes
Twitter: 23,000 followers
Alfredo Barnechea is a former journalist and congressman who represents a more moderate liberal philosophy in a field dominated by center-right candidates before the disqualification of Julio Guzman and Cesar Acuña. Barnechea first became known as a television interviewer in the 1980s, when he also wrote a column for the magazine, Caretas. Barnechea was elected to Congress with the APRA party, but resigned when President Alan Garcia proposed nationalizing the banks. After his term, Barnechea obtained his master’s degree from Harvard and worked for the Inter-American Development Bank. Barnechea will look to qualify for a runoff in an election which would otherwise see two candidates who differ little in economic policy. As a center-left moderate, Barnechea’s greatest challenge looking forward lies in differentiating himself between the two leading neoliberals in Fujimori and Kuczynski.

Alan Garcia

Facebook: 178,000 likes
Twitter: 366,000 followers
Alan Garcia is a two-time former president with Peru’s oldest political party, APRA. His first term from 1985 to 1990 was marked by hyperinflation and economic isolation due to his refusal to service international debt obligations as well as citizen insecurity given an advancing guerrilla rebellion. For his second term, Garcia abandoned the populist rhetoric to implement business-friendly policies* at a time when Peru saw solid growth during a strong commodity cycle. The world-class orator and head of the country’s strongest political machine faces challenges due to an increasing perception of corruption given his parties ties to drug trafficking. The “narco-pardons” scandal, in which imprisoned drug traffickers paid APRA officials in exchange for presidential pardons, is also an incredible obstacle in a year which crime is voters’ top concern. As he faced the highest anti-vote among all the candidates, Garcia forged an alliance with the Lourdes Flores’ Popular Christian Party, a longtime APRA rival and the country’s second strongest political machine. But the alliance may have done more harm than good among each party’s rank-and-file who refuse to support the other party.
*Policies which came at the direct cost of territories owned by Pueblos here in San Martin as well as all across the country. I would like to note he also publicly said on television that Native Pueblos in Peru are "not even human" and are "dogs" when discussing a public protest-turned massacre in Bagua in 2009.
Source: (literally copy and pasted - http://perureports.com/2016-elections-peru/)
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After reading about each candidate you can see how Peruvians feel jaded about their options. As if that wasn't enough the run-up to this election has been fraught with disqualifications, scandals, and contention enough to give a Republican National Convention cause for concern.
Initially there were 19 candidates running for President (imagine having to choose 1 of 19 candidates!). Many dropped out after their party's support reached less than a single percentage point. The election council for Peru also disqualified two major players for corruption: Julio Guzman and César Acuña. The expulsions of candidates who, in a run-off against frontrunner Keiko Fujimori, Guzman would have won (Acuña less likely so) appeared all too convenient. When Keiko herself went before the council on charges of fraud Easter week the deliberation lasted much longer. The result: Keiko Fujimori was pardoned of all charges at 12:05 a.m. on Good Friday (a move which seems to declare an intent to hide their verdict.) The elimination of opposition and trial-by-fire exhoneration for Keiko Fujimori hammered home the nail in the coffin of Peruvians confidence in their electoral process. The process looks rigged. The Peruvian people don't watch House of Cards because, in their circumstance, life imitates art probably too much.
(Editorial: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21696528-daft-decisions-electoral-authority-subvert-democracy-and-undermine-rule-law)

So where does that leave the populace? Current projections expect Keiko Fujimori to advance to a second run-off in June, but against who is the aching question Peruvians want to find out. Veronika Mendoza? Too young. Too left-leaning for a weaker Peruvian economy. Pedro Pablo Kuscynzki? A man too old to deliver triumphant speeches and who's last name is synonymous with Gringo-ness. Alan Garcia? A former president who not only delivered the Peruvian state into the greatest level of inflation ever seen in the world ever in history (I wish I was exaggerating but I'm not). Does this sound familiar to you Americans?
I sympathize with my Peruvian friends. While their electoral process doesn't winnow down candidates like America does the Peruvian presidential candidates appear just as crazy as their American counterparts. So much so that while American presidential nominees have earned their Game of Thrones comparison the Peruvian candidates earned their Simpson's look alike. Both sets of would-be Presidents earn their comparisons to American-pop culture figures.
I don't normally repost Vice News articles. Their penchant for shock news or hyperbolic reporting doesn't lend them too much credence in the nonbiased category for me personally. This might be one of the only times I'd say Vice News completely nailed it, and that was before Guzman and Acuña got the boot. You can compare Hillary Clinton to Cersei Lannister all you want, but nothing she has ever said or done can come closer to Cersei's actions than Keiko Fujimori. I could have sworn her replacement of her mother helped inspire the Game of Thrones character. 
Seriously though, all defamation aside many Peruvians remember the bloodshed her father Alberto Fujimori caused in the 90's and early 2000's. Tuesday April 4th was a national protest day remembering the crimes of Fujimori and his equally atrocious advisor Vladimir Montesinos specifically his forced sterilizations of over 300,000 indigenous women. When Alberto Fujimori's wife spoke out against her husband's atrocities he had her tortured and declared mentally insane. Keiko Fujimori, complicit and knowing of her father's actions , replaced her mother as First Lady at the age of 19. Years later she would attend U of Columbia in the States to receive her education - paid for by state funds robbed of the State by Alberto. Falling so close to the election day a general protest of the Fujimori in Lima brought in 50,000+ people to the city centers (and that's in the capital. Protests took place in cities all over Peru.)
The things only Ted Cruz could envision in his dreams and Donald Trump would "joke" about - Keiko Fujimori was party to.  At the current rate Peruvians can only hope Keiko faces a "worthy adversary" in her run off in June. I was (semi) joking that if Keiko won presidency she'd follow in her father's footsteps and shutter congress, assume dictatorship and YAV would have to forcibly yank us out of the country (I was assured by my coworkers the situation is currently implausible.) 
I haven't even expressed staunch opinions on Alan Garcia or Alejandro Toledo (Toledo is running for President from a jail cell after being accused of corruption.) Do I seem fired up about it? You betcha. Peruvians even more so. In Peru no Peruvians are allowed to drink alcohol for 48 hours prior to elections (meaning every bar has been closed down since midnight on Friday.) The day of voting people aren't allowed to congregate in large numbers (hence no church service in the morning.) Peruvian people are fined a hefty fee if they don't vote, and if they leave a ballot unmarked (or improperly blank) it counts towards the candidate with the most support. These are all laws left over from the Days of Terror in the State. It hasn't stopped some Peruvians from speaking out in harmful ways:
People will be watching today as we learn who will triumph and who will fail. I will be praying. Please note: the blog will update after the election announcements to show the final results. 


P.S. Here's an interesting article about a current sex worker who is running for member of Congress under Veronika Mendoza's party:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/feb/08/peru-sex-worker-angela-villon-campaign-trail-ill-put-order-in-the-big-brothel-that-is-congress
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